Year: 2011
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This thesis investigates the role of group processes in children’s responses to bullying from the perspective of social identity and group-based emotion theories. It starts by reviewing research on group-based emotions in adults’ intergroup relations, and on social identity processes in children. It is argued that studying children’s group-based emotions might enhance our understanding of group-level \nbullying. \nInitial results suggested that group-based emotions related to supporting and resisting cyberbullying depend upon children’s social identity, and that group-based emotions lead to specific action tendencies (Study 1). Wider group norms were investigated in Studies 2 and 3. In Study 2 the prevailing normative context shaped responses to bullying, while in Study 3 peer group norms had a greater influence \nthan school norms on children’s responses to bullying. \nThe way that children manage their social identity in response to bullying was examined in Study 4. How strongly perpetrator’s group members identified with that group was determined by initial ingroup identification and the \nperpetrator’s group norm. How group norms shape interpretations of bullying when it is ostensibly negative (Study 5a) or ostensibly positive (Study 5b) was studied \nnext. It was found that certain group-based emotional responses and action tendencies were inhibited when the bullying was misaligned with group norms. \nGroup processes in school bullying incidents were examined in Study 6. A qualitative analysis of teachers’ accounts of bullying revealed that although bullying is responded to primarily at the group level, such responses do not directly address group processes. In Chapter 8 I draw the thesis together by highlighting the role that group processes play in children’s responses to bullying. Implications for antibullying work are discussed. It is concluded that successful intervention rests on awareness of the group processes (a) that lead children to become involved in bullying, and (b) by which bullying may be resisted.
Author: Siân Jones
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1857888817