Bullying, in all its forms, is both a parenting and a societal problem. Whereas the victims of bullying may suffer from physical and psychosocial effects of bullying, the bullies also display the psychological need for extra attention and unmet psychological and emotional needs. Parents who can meet every scope of their children's needs may be able, to a large extent, to help mitigate the instances of bullying in society. Responsible parents both raise children who don't bully others and can take care of themselves in the face of a bully.
Classical Conditioning against Bullying
Parents may not be able to control other people’s children, but one way to equip one’s child against bullying is to teach them how to fight. The psychological effect this has on the child projects itself out into their posture and behaviour, making them less of a target. The process of teaching a victim how to fight also toughens them up and thickens their skin against any psychological or physical abuse. From the courage that comes from learning how to fight, the victims may also become able to ignore a lot of the verbal abuse that the bullies may throw their way. The strength projected by the child who is learning to fight deters the bullying from abusing them in any way (Evans, Cotter & Smokowski, 2017).
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Bullying occasionally manifests itself amongst on-going displays of other errant behaviours. This may be as a result of the bully not knowing how to handle strong emotions such as hurt, anger, disappointment or frustration. A quick solution, if this is the case, is to spend time with the bully and teach them more mature ways to rein in their overflowing emotions (Asfaw, 2019). Extreme cases may require the enlisting of professional counselling services to improve the child's social skills. Other instances of bullying would usually occur because children copy what they see their peers doing. It is upon the parent in such cases to help their children recognise the values that are worth emulating and those that are not worth repeating.
Classical conditioning is applied in mitigating the effects of bullying, where the learning procedure of fighting is applied against the biological stimulus of violence or pain. The bully takes the bullied child through embarrassment, abuse and pain. These stimuli would, therefore, act as positive reinforcers for the need to learn how to fight (Thompson, 2019). The negative reinforcement would be an event where the victim is hurt either emotionally or physically, while the punisher would be the event where the bully can be stood up to by the victim, which would likely result in the stoppage of the bullying. This classical conditioning approach has been commonly applied in modern times to teach and equip children against instances of bullying, both in and out of school.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder, typically stylised as PTSD, is the mental disorder that happens when a person or a group of people go through a traumatic event in their lifetime. Such events may include but are not limited to; warfare, child abuse or a traffic accident. Ways in which PTSD manifests itself include hallucinations, disturbing thoughts and feelings, physical and emotional distress, all related to the particular traumatic event that the victim experienced. The long term risk for patients suffering through PTSD lies around the fact that they are highly predisposed to actions and habits of suicide and self-harm (Barr & Castro, 2018). Various theories have been put forth to explain the mental and psychological processes behind the prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Nijdam & Wittman, 2015).
Psychological Theories of PTSD
Amongst the most popular theories that have tried to explain the occurrence of PTSD among patients are the psychological theories and the social theories of the disorder. Psychological theories generally work to explain how it is that sections of the population are more susceptible to suffering from PTSD, yet some segments of the population remain relatively resistant to the disorder. This approach has primarily focused on the victim's traumatic experiences from a personal standpoint, is that the experiences that the victims go through are unique. The theories, therefore, attempt to explain the resulting thoughts, behaviour, memory and emotions that the victim goes through, whether they are aware or not.
Social Theories of PTSD
The social theories of PTSD, on the other hand, are heavily dependent on how much control over the situation the victim may have had, or continues to have. Expectancies also continue to play a role in how the victim appraises the traumatic event. Experiencing extreme stresses would often trigger biological, emotional and behavioural effects on the part of the victims. Social theories aimed at the explanation of PTSD, therefore, dictate that the victims would continue to experience a sense of impending tension, with the fear that the traumatic event would recur, or occur more frequently.
Comparison of both Theories and Cultural Considerations
Both these theories are similar in the sense that they appreciate the fact that a lot of these processes and behaviours are principally emotional and mental, happening more in the patients’ mindsets than in their physical circumstances. This appreciation, therefore, demands that any interventions designed for these patients be aimed at manipulating and repairing their mental and psychological mindsets before anything else. From a cultural viewpoint, this involves recognizing that every patient or victim went through a unique traumatic event (Woodward et al., 2015). Even in the cases where a group of victims went through similar events, it would be accurate to assume that they each would process the various circumstances entirely different from each other.
References
Asfaw, A. (2019). Prevalence, Manifestations and Ways of Combating Bullying: A Comparative Study on Selected Private and Government High Schools in Addis Ababa (Doctoral dissertation, Addis Ababa University).
Barr, N., Kintzle, S., Sullivan, K., & Castro, C. (2018). Suicidality and nonsuicidal high-risk behaviour in military veterans: How does PTSD symptom presentation relate to behavioural risk?. Traumatology , 24 (1), 55.
Evans, C. B., Cotter, K. L., & Smokowski, P. R. (2017). Giving victims of bullying a voice: a qualitative study of post bullying reactions and coping strategies. Child and adolescent social work journal , 34 (6), 543-555.
Nijdam, M. J., & Wittmann, L. (2015). Psychological and social theories of PTSD. In Evidence-based treatments for trauma-related psychological disorders (pp. 41-61). Springer, Cham.
Thompson, E. M. (2019). Understanding Bullying and the Necessity for Prevention and Intervention in Schools.
Woodward, M. J., Eddinger, J., Henschel, A. V., Dodson, T. S., Tran, H. N., & Beck, J. G. (2015). Social support, posttraumatic cognitions, and PTSD: The influence of family, friends, and a close other in an interpersonal and non-interpersonal trauma group. Journal of anxiety disorders , 35 , 60-67.
