School is one of the foundational institutions where individuals spend most of their time during child and adolescent years. Most classrooms tend to have diverse students due to Globalization. Bullying is an issue that is very prevalent in the schooling system.(Thakkar et al., 2020). This essay examines the Behavioral and Humanistic schools of thought on how individuals bully and are affected by bullying and how the same schools of thought can be applied to arrive at a solution to prevent and reduce bullying.
Humanism and Behaviorism have been rooted in the concept of free will vs determinism. While behaviorism is more deterministic in nature Humanism adopts a free will perspective. According to determinism, the result of our actions have a cause as to why it happened. Whereas free will talks about how it is the individual who is in control of their actions and is thus responsible for consequences. Hence these schools of thought have been chosen to understand bullying.
Behaviorism
The Behaviorist school of thought was believed to arise around the late 19th century which viewed individuals to behave in a certain way based on their environment and focused on measurable types of overt behavior. It criticized structuralism which discussed the mind and consciousness. In other words it focused on the observable behavior of an individual when they interact with the environment. The proponents of this school of thought were BF Skinner, Pavlov and Thorndike and Watson. John Watson built on the principles of Classical Conditioning by Pavlov and conducted the Little Albert experiment where he conditioned a small boy to be scared of rats and eventually white furry things called stimulus generalization. Thorndike gave the law of effect which helped BF Skinner put forth operant conditioning and gave the concepts punishments and reinforcements which he believed would help in learning and modifying behavior.(Feldman,2018).
The field of Educational Psychology and School Psychology uses the principles of learning under behaviorism and discusses how bullying can be explained by using the concepts of punishment and reinforcement. Hasekiu(2013) discusses how bullying creates unpleasant situations for the victim, hence they would take steps to avoid those unpleasant situations. On part of the bully, if they are encouraged by their peers,this might reinforce them to engage more in bullying. Under classical conditioning McLeod (2021) talks about how students may avoid schools altogether and would not like to go school , because they associate school with fear. This might lead to a lot of anxiety in children. Prejudice towards groups might also develop through classical conditioning. They might have been hurt by a person belonging to a certain group so they develop hatred towards the group which makes them bully individuals of a particular group. By using reinforcement and punishment, bullying can be reduced. If the student who bullies another individual is reinforced for their good behavior and punished for their bad behaviour., it would be helpful for them to learn good behavior.In Clinical Psychology, Aversion therapy and Systematic Desensitization are built on classical conditioning to address the anxiety and fear arising due to bullying. (Feldman,2018)
Humanism
The Humanist school of thought that arose in the 1960s and 1970s proposed that humans are inherently good and that they strive towards reaching their full potential. It focuses on the individual as a whole. The major proponents of this school of thought were Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. Carl Rogers gave concepts such as unconditional positive regard, congruence and client-centered therapy. Maslow is also credited for giving the hierarchy of needs that includes self-actualization. They also developed self-concept as well (Feldman,2018).
Christie-Mizell(2003) found that self-concept mediates the effect of parental discord on bullying behavior. When someone has a poor self-concept it might end up in them engaging in destructive behavior. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs explains the fact that if children do not feel safe in school it will make them not want to go to school. They also might not feel loved or belonged in school.(Ismaili, 2014). The American Psychological Association (2011) discussed how Positive Psychology, Positive Schooling and Positive Parenting would help in preventing bullying and provide a safe space for children ,reduce bullying and have peaceful educational experience.
Conclusion
Thus both the schools of thought explain the reasons one engages in bullying and being bullied and also provides solutions on tackling the issues as well. Behaviorism attributes bullying to external stimuli and measures only observable behavior. The Behavior perspective just focuses on the overt behavior and reduces humans as a victim of their surroundings making their actions predetermined. But Humanism focuses on individuals as a whole and takes into consideration their thoughts and feelings of both the bully and victim. Humanism gives a holistic perspective of understanding the bully and the victim and helping both address the various emotions and feelings and working towards realizing their full potential.
Reference
American Psychological Association. (2011, January 1). How parents, teachers and kids can
take action to prevent bullying. http://www.apa.org/topics/bullying/prevent
Christie-Mizell, C. A. (2003). Bullying: The Consequences of Interparental Discord and
Child’s Self-Concept. Family Process, 42(2), 237–251. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1545-5300.2003.42204.x
Feldman, R. S. (2018). Understanding Psychology (10th ed.). Mcgraw Hill.
Hasekiu, F. (2013). Learning of Bullying’s Acts Through Operant Conditioning.
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 4(9). https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n9p519
Ismaili, E. (2014). Consequences of Bullying on Students Affected by this Phenomenon.
Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 3(6). https://doi.org/10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n6p41
Mcleod, S. (2021, August 22). Classical Conditioning: How It Works With Examples. Simply
Psychology. Retrieved February 12, 2022, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html
Thakkar, N., van Geel, M., & Vedder, P. (2020). A Systematic Review of Bullying and
Victimization Among Adolescents in India. International Journal of Bullying Prevention, 3(4), 253–269. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42380-020-00081-4
(Author of the above article is Ms Mrnalini Ranganathan. She works as Research Consultant at IFMR LEAD at Krea University. She has a BA in Psychology, Sociology and English and MSc in Educational Psychology from CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore.)
