Topic Selection
Education is built on the transfer of knowledge and social principles within the framework of power relations “student-teacher.” In it, the student is traditionally perceived as a passive recipient, and the teacher as an active provider of “good.” Children use the same methods as teachers to organize their statuses and reduce anxiety about their position in the social hierarchy, for example, in the classroom, building relationships based on power and control.
With the development of information technology, significant changes have taken place in the life of a modern teenager: virtual reality has appeared, in which communication and interpersonal relations move to a new level. Bullying becomes more dangerous for an individual, as it can be carried out using Internet technologies. The phenomenon of cyberbullying occurs on various social media, but the vast majority of bullying cases on the global network happen in adolescents.
At first glance, it seems that the form of such bullying is harmless. However, the differences between cyberbullying and its traditional real form are due to the peculiarities of the Internet: anonymity, the presence of a wide audience, and the ability to attack 24 hours a day. This has a strong psychological effect on the teenager. There is also anonymity on the Internet, due to which an individual may not even suspect what kind of person is persecuting him, which can cause even more fear in them.
Unlike physical abuse, the effects of emotional one affect mental health in the long term. Thus, cyberbullying poses a serious threat to the psychological health of a teenager, which determines the necessity to develop effective programs of cyberbullying prevention based on a deep understanding of its latent causes in the psyche of adolescents.
Research Question and Hypothesis
The “invisible” bullying factors are the most difficult to study. Although there are components of violence and abuse of power in the family and in everyday life, in education, it is difficult for a researcher to discern violence and the conditions that support it in a habitually organized situation. Meanwhile, knowledge of the psychological characteristics of adolescents who participate in cyberbullying is necessary, with the aim to improve approaches to the implementation of measures to level the manifestations of bullying in social networks. Thus, the research question can be formulated as follows:
What psychological characteristics of adolescent’s personalities define readiness and practicing cyberbullying?
The aim of the work is to study the psychological characteristics of high school students – participants in cyberbullying. The aim also implies developing practical recommendations for preventing the situation of cyberbullying and optimizing the relationship of adolescents in the digital environment. The hypothesis of the study is as follows: the role of adolescents in a cyberbullying situation is interconnected with their psychological characteristics.
Acceptance of the role of “victim” or “offender” in a cyberbullying situation is interconnected with the individual psychological characteristics of high school students: affective, temperamental, characterological, self-attitude and interpersonal relationships, and adaptive abilities. Accordingly, the dependent variable is adolescents’ behavior in the digital environment in relation to cyberbullying. The Independent variable is a matrix or array of psychological characteristics of adolescent’s personality.
Literature Review
Arehart-Treichel (2013) claims that, before the advent of the Internet, bullying ended as soon as the teenager left the uncomfortable educational environment, and he could feel safe at home. However, in a digital environment where cyberbullying is a frequent phenomenon, bullying has become more difficult to contain, stop, and it is completely impossible to ignore this phenomenon.
Hamby and McDonald (2014) note that cyberbullying is especially attractive to teens because the attacker does not see their victim and their direct reaction, which means that it is much easier for them to suppress possible feelings of pity. The principle of reducing social reactions characterizes communication on the Web as less emotional due to the lack of real communication.
At the same time, Cook et al. (2010) state that victims tend to be sensitive, anxious, prone to crying, physically weak, have low self-esteem, few friends, and prefer to spend time with adults. The typical victim of bullying is an introverted child with behavioral disorders, negative self-beliefs, and social difficulties (Cook et al., 2010).
Mehari et al. (2014), based on theory and literature review, discussing correlations between cyberbullying and general forms of aggression and cyberbullying psychosocial predictors, made a conclusion that cyberbullying can be defined as a distinct form of aggression. The authors suggest considering the phenomenon of cyberbullying based on empirical knowledge in the field of aggression inclination and manifestation in adolescence.
Farrell et al. (2019), in their empirical study with the use of the Problem Behavior Frequency Scale (PBFS), make an attempt to assess the frequency of aggression, victimization, and other problems or deviant behaviors in adolescents. In particular, it was found that there is a quite strong correlation between physical and relational aggression.
It is significant that as Wigderson and Lynch (2013) argue, the oppressors and their victims can interchange their roles – the latter can initiate violence against other adolescents. According to the authors, longitudinal studies have shown that there is a category of people who, being victimized by nature, become the initiators of bullying in some cases and victims in others. Sometimes the efforts of the offender are directed at several victims at once, which also causes a kind of “chain reaction.”
Summary Table
References
Arehart-Treichel, J. (2013). Effects of bullying don’t end when school does.American Journal of Psychiatry, 48(7), 12-17. Web.
Cook, C. R., Williams, K. R., Guerra, N. G., Kim, T. E., & Sadek, S. (2010). Predictors of bullying and victimization in childhood and adolescence: A meta-analytic investigation. School Psychology Quarterly, 25, 65-83. Web.
Farrell, A. D., Sullivan, T., Goncy, E., & Le, A. (2019). Assessment of adolescents’ victimization, aggression, and problem behaviors: Evaluation of the problem behavior frequency scale. Psychological Assessment, 28(6), 702-714. Web.
Hamby, S., & McDonald, R. (2014). Trends in violence research. Psychology of Violence, 4(1), 1-7. Web.
Mehari, K. R., Farrell, A. D., & Le, A. (2014). Cyberbullying among adolescents: Measures in search of a construct. Psychology of Violence, 4(4), 399-415. Web.
Wigderson, S., & Lynch, M. (2013). Cyber- and traditional peer victimization: Unique relationships with adolescent well-being. Psychology of Violence, 3(4), 297-309. Web.