The function of school bullying

Abstract

This thesis investigates why bullies bully others. There are two bullying subgroups; bullies, which have been renamed to alpha-bullies for this thesis, and bully-victims. Alpha-bullies bully others frequently without being bullied, while bully-victims both bully others and are themselves bullied. A prediction is made that, in determining why bullies bully others, the answer to this question will be different for each of the two bullying groups. A thorough investigation is made into the contingencies of reinforcement, the relationships between antecedents, behavior, and consequences, to determine which contingencies reinforce the behaviors of each group. It is determined that Alpha-bullies bully others to project dominance and protect their upward social movements and their position in their status hierarchy. Bullying among alpha bullies is given the functional description, a description of the behavior which outlines it’s purpose, peer-oppression. Bully-victims are determined to have learned to interact with others through bullying by having this behavior role-modeled for them at home, school, and in other settings. They have internalized the bullying behaviors of important role models in their lives and engage in bullying to their own detriment. The bullying behaviors of bully-victims is given the functional description, internalized peer-oppression. The prediction that the bullying of the two subgroups would be functionally different is determined to be probable, and a conclusion is made that bullying in school represents a system of privilege and oppression. The implications of these findings are discussed.