When Joe joint collage he faced some awkward behaviour, where older boys exerted force on him to undertake various self-conscious activities. This was obviously possible due to imbalance of supremacy caused by difference on their learning levels.
The older boys had engagements that exerted some superior external forces on him since he was younger, to unwillingly participation in various activities including sexually related performances.
His naïve state or innocence did not assist him to understand the state of affairs and he often persevered decisively on a thought that it was the norm at college level. The option of forcing resist was not logical since the possibility of a win was probably nil.
Joe’s college lifestyles mainly involved work-related strains, unattended depression, anxiety and frequent physical injuries inflicted by college mates who were older. He would persevere quietly perhaps due to the fact that majority of the freshmen like him underwent similar circumstances or probably worse. This weakened his self-esteem and he felt an inferior party in the institution. The bulling and unsafe states of affairs were mainly in existence due to drug related abuses.
Joe often suffered from some obvious physical signs of bullying and physical molestation such as walking difficulties, sitting and playing difficulties due to incurred injuries. He showed the impression of strain during such common activities for instance during games. He also had constant and common long-term pains or physical irritation. Different bruises and scars marks on his body were equally an indication that he was a victim of physical bullying.
Joe underwent physical abuse such as corporal punishment, slapping and kicking particularly by those who had been accorded managerial authority to teach and maintain good institutional values among new students. The physically abusive students would therefore illegally justify their actions by insisting on the need to teach and emphasize discipline.
They forcefully and unlawfully implemented the ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ rule, that supported physical abuses instead of physical-corrective punishments. The senior student therefore abuses the authority accorded to them to instil disciplining by teaching the right from wrong and instead instilled fear and other severe emotional effects through dictatorship and bulling.
Joe lacked the courage to express obvious bullying related depression, since the situation had become a familiar situation. His lowered self-esteem would make him to observe the common behaviours of the older boys quietly and accept the situation as a cultural practice.
According to Albert Bundura’s Social Learning Theory, like Joe, most people learn through observation of state of affairs and often later imitate the happening, considering them as the norm. Eventually, physical or emotional abuses such as bullying are thus replicated and have diverse effects especially during adulthood.
Joe underwent bodily harm that included emotional, physical and sexual acts. The social learning theory indicates that the biggest effect of abusive acts such as bulling causes huge emotional effects on the victim because the acts are captured by their attention. The victim therefore has the ability to commit the observations to memory. The observations and recording of such acts function as motivational factors to committing similar acts on others.
Joe’s college lifestyle was an unpredictable state full of emotional confusions. There was evident lack of care, love and safety. Most of his time was spent alone and the loneliness was clearly a huge emotional effect that brutally damaged his mental status and lowered his social developments.
The effects of bullying are currently evident on Joe’s lifestyle although he tried to conceal the memory during his freshman period. Being silence over the bulling acts was his style of healing and he had discomforts of discussing the subject matter, besides revealing the cruelty. He would try to conceal the exploitation or negligence but it emphasized guiltiness, shame and other anomalous problems especially during his later years of college.
One of the major elements of childhood abuse evident in Joe’s life was his unpredictability behaviour. He would agonize in anger, and often aimed at asserting control instead of reacting lovingly in the aim of enhancing his social lifestyle. Currently, Joe is eager and focused on the need to instilling good behaviours in others too through action that would implant fear on them.
Some of the signs inhibited by Joe include unwarranted withdrawal reactions. He is in constant fear of an attack or nervous about the possibility of being responsible of a wrong act. He is excessively aggressive during reaction.
After a certain abusive period, Joe confirms the Bandura’s social learning theory through his actions. He had quietly formed the idea of college bullying behaviours by observing how they emerged and occurred. He replicates some of the bullying act on fellow students especially those in his level of study.
He therefore started to practice the acts of bullying by referencing the coded information he recorded when he was also bullied. The coded information therefore acted as a guide for his actions.
Some of the bullying acts that Joe underwent as a freshman in college such as sexual abuse were subtle. The emotional effects therefore involved constant personal humiliations, and he consequently suffers from continuous shame, or disparage. Today, he continuously demeans his colleagues during so that they could suffer similar humiliation like the one he experienced quietly.
The common bullying that Joe suffered involved calling of names and comparison to negative aspects that would rupture his ego. A was often called worthless names, yelled at, threatened or bullied.
As the social learning theory indicate, through observation, a victim of abuse such as bullying often suffers from suppressed feelings of holding back traumatizing memories and idealizing guiltiness.
Joe suffered from this reaction, to counter-attack abusive memories. He would distinctively disassociate from any known original causes or effects of bullying during a discussion. He practiced the acts of bullying as a unique ways of forgetting sources of his anger, helplessness, anxiety, despair and pain.
Bullying is the cause of Joe’s higher propensity to engaging risky behaviours today, such as drugs abuse or unprotected sexual engagements, violence or criminal responses.
The bullying made him form a cohesive dissociation from his family and friends. He is currently repellent against potential bullies and would engage criminal behaviours or contrary prefer acts that are in line with bullying traits such as drug abuse, psychic activities, and prostitution. Regardless of the low self-esteem that he suffers from, Joe often wants to be manager among colleagues.
Management provides a chance to react back and revenge earlier mistreatments. Authority provides him a scapegoat to release earlier emotional tensions that he held back.
Joe has poor trust and difficulties in maintaining strong relationships. His self –esteem is lost and he has fear within, which causes difficulty in maintaining relationships. He feels dehumanized, worthlessness and suffers from a damaged personality, and therefore lacks advocacy to strive for excellence due to poor self-image.
His emotions are troubled and he lacks the ability to express emotions safely. Bulling is therefore a main source of violence, anxiousness, depression and angered personalities. The overall effect of such personalities is involvement in misbehaviours such as drug abuse.
Possible solutions to address bullying
Bullied victims repress the effects, and therefore these effects reoccur easily during their later lifestyles depending on the intensity.
The effects and consequences are thus more severe and rigid to deal with. According to the social learning theory, these are learnt behaviours through observation and internalization; therefore, to shatter the irresponsible behaviours, it is important that a victim seek professional assistance.
Therapy classes and other specialized assistance help to control the emotions of the victim. Personal care is furthermore an important factor of further prevention of such abuse due to control of emotions. Neutralization of anger through control of emotions and efforts to change personal qualities is an effective effort of managing bullies and thus breaking the abuse cycle.
It might be difficult to approach a bullied individual to assist him or her since the situation might be overwhelming and confusing, but bold steps are better especially when taken earlier whenever a suspicious signs of bullied person are noted. An abused personality requires composed reassurance and categorical sustenance. A victim becomes ease and ready to share once reassurance of help is available.
Bulling is comparable to powerful experiences of stress, which persists for a while, until victims are not able to withstand. This form of stress therefore prolongs overtime and changes the way brain develops.
The person acquires the behaviour through observation of similar actions as the social learning theory indicates, and by involving professional caregivers especially adults, the stress narrows to manageable levels. This point outs that there exist appropriate intervention or support to assists victims bring back the response system to the normal baseline.
Maltreatment such as bullying is a case that is comparable to toxic stress. In order to prevent such maltreatments, there is need to understand the causes and circumstances that cause the bullies to acquire these behaviours. The four level social-ecological models assists caregivers in understanding the potential strategies for preventing such abuse at specific stages.
The theory utilizes the concept of an individual case stage and embodies it to a relationship stage, external communal relationships stage and eventually consideration of the societal factors that cans assist in solving the severe cases. The model is illustrated in the diagram below.
Figure 1: The Social-Ecological Model