Sociology

CUCA
City University College of Ajman
كلية المدينة الجامعية عجمان

Chadi Walid Azzam
102-1342-002
Sociology
Soc 101
Dr.Hardip Anant
26 November 2013

Bullying We live within a society and no matter how we try to separate our self from it we will fail because society make us what we are and determine our identity in the life. Therefore, any problem happen in it will definitely affect us one way or another. One of these problems is bullying.
Bullying definition is unwanted; aggressive behavior among school-aged children that involves using power and violence to satisfy a certain desire or obtain some benefits. There are three types of bullying, the first one is verbal: mean that Bullies do not have to be Burly to cause harm because they can tease their victims by talking, like make fun of them and call them names, or maybe knowing something sensitive about them and threaten to spread it out if they did not obey them.
The Second type is social bullying; in this type, bullies try to hurt the reputation and the relationships of the victims by tell other children to stay away from them or by embarrassing them in public. The last type is physical bullying; however, this is the most influential and the most terrifying for victims because now we are not talking about hurt feeling no! We are talking about cause bad physical damage and deliver pain and suffering. At this kind, bullies start to transform to Remorseless person that may do anything, from kicking and hitting to cause Permanent damage.
However, in bullying, we do not have just two element like the Bully and the victim no! Because we have also other kids involved in bullying, but they are not engaged directly in bullying though they may devote the behavior, by witnessing it. There are three kind of witnesses; the first is kids who assist: these kids may not start bullying or lead to such behavior but they are encouraging it by just standing and watching without doing anything, so this action will help bullies to continue their doing because they know that no one is going stop them. The second kind is kids who reinforce: these kids are also not directly involve in bullying but they give bullies god audience, by laughing and mocking or maybe by taking pictures of victims while being bullied, this action will make bullies feel more power and greatness so they continue their behavior thinking that they are heroes. The last one is Kids who defend: these kind of kids cannot watch someone being beaten without doing anything. Therefore, they stand for victims and try to protect them and guard them. in contrast this kind of kids are the major shield against bullying, because bullies will think twice before hitting somebody fearing that other kids will help the victim and that they will over number him.
Nevertheless, the major question of this social problem is what is the effect of bullying?
Well, bullying have major effect on bullied, those who bully, and who witness bullying
But of course the most Disastrous consequences is on the victims of bullying, like depression and anxiety, because they will always think of pain and humiliation waiting for them when they leave their safe house And go to their frightening School.
Furthermore, there are effect on their Academic progress, because bullies like to target smarter students and intelligent one, by calling them names like nerds or teachers favorite pet, so this well make them skip class or even drop out of school. However, the most worrying thing is that some children will even think of suicide. and this has proven in the results of the survey conducted by the World Health Organization to school students in UAE in the year 2010 for age group of 13 to 15 years, which showed that the percentage of students who thought seriously about suicide one or more times during the year amounted to 15.5 percent, including 16 percent of females and 14 percent of males.
However, we see the effect on victims but what about the doer.
Studies has shown that Bullies are more likely to be involved in violence activities like gangs and drug dealers or even become cold-blooded killers.
All of this will lead us to the biggest question, are bullying is something that can just found in the west?
No, because bullying is a global social problem that exist in all countries but of course in Different rates.
Let us take UAE as an example. Even so the rate of bullying in this country are low, experts of human relations institute (HRI) in Dubai have shown that differently than other part of the world where stronger children target the weaker children, in Dubai children’s from some nationality think that they are more important and they are superior of other children from other nationality.
Because Dubai is a place for a lot of nationality from the whole world, there will be always new children come to the city and they maybe in a state of cultural shock. Therefore, this well make them an easy target for the bullies in school especially if their language is poor so they will not even be able to defend themself verbally.
Now after we know everything about bullying, we need to know what caused it in the first place.
By applying the sociological perspective we will discover why bullying occurs.
First, we will apply symbolic interactionism, which is theory that study the social life, focusing on the micro level, studying how people use symbols to represent and define their self and others.
In the past the meaning of bullying was different, they used to define it as a normal behavior that every child do and it well disappear by the time, not as a violence and bad behavior that must stop.
Therefore, this wrong definition of bullying helped bullies to do what they want without any one to stop them. However, today people have more awareness of the consequences of bullying so they do everything to stop it. For example in USA almost every state is legally requires anti-bullying policies in schools.
Even so bullying did not stop, because bullies trying to be over smart, so they use social media to harsh others and new term occurs witch is cyberbullying. That is mean to annoy others by sending bad words to them or spread rumors.
Second, we will apply functional analysis; this sociological theory focus on the macro level of society and it depend on the thought that the world is a whole unit that is made of many parts and these parts work together to form it.
Therefore, in order to the world to work well all of his components must work well.
By applying this approach to bullying, we will see that the problem occurs because the family have failed to do its function, that is mean that Bullies did not born mean and violence but they become like that because their family did not give them enough interesting. For example if parents are busy with their work and don’t have the time for their kid he will probably become mean and nervous because he thinks that no one likes him, so he will be lonely and would think that there is a problem in him, that’s why he use violence to force others to respect him. Or maybe he become like that because there is a problem in his family. For instance, how we can blame a child, who is used to see his father beating his mother, simply we cannot because this behavior is destroying his psychological and turning him to an unmerciful person that does not feel the pain of others.
Finally, we will apply conflict theory, which is also focus on macro level analysis, but it does not look at the society as a whole unit that work together no! It says that if we move the cover that surrounds it we will see something different; we will find a permanent conflict for gaining the power. By applying this theory on bullying, we will understand why bullies are acting badly. Inside every family, there is a frequent conflict between sons and parents and this is normal because kids want more freedom and parents want more discipline and respect. However, what is not normal is when parents curb their kid by not letting him express himself, or by beating him every time he do something wrong. All of these things will make the child feel that he is weak, and because he don’t have the courage to face his parents he attempt to attack other children in order to satisfy his desire of obtaining power.
In the end, Bullying is a very serious sociological problem that need to be studied carefully by doing research and surveys, so that sociologist can finally end kids suffering that has remained for centuries.

Work sited

Asger, Muby. “Taming bullies in Dubai school.” Al Nisr Publishing LLC 2013 (June 30, 2011). <gulfnews.com>
Reiney, Erin. “What is bullying.” U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (December 28, 2012).
< stopbullying.gov>
Alvarez, manny. “What makes a child become a bully?” FOX News Network LLC (January 17, 2007).
< foxnews.com>.
Al Suwaidi, Huda. “15.5% of the UAE students considered suicide within one year.” Albian journal (June 27, 2012). <Arabian business.com>.

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