The Power of Peers: Why Some Students Bully Others to Conform

2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 1704-1716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharyn Burns ◽  
Bruce Maycock ◽  
Donna Cross ◽  
Graham Brown
Keyword(s):  
Group Process ◽  
Peer Group ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Group Status ◽  
School Time ◽  
Individual Perceptions ◽  
Interactionist Perspective ◽  
Purposive Sample

Utilizing an interactionist perspective, two associated sensitizing constructs, and a combination of social psychological theory, this article reports on the influence of the peer group on individual perceptions, and its impact on initiation and persistence of bullying. The specific research question, “How does the need to conform with peers and the peer group influence the initiation and persistence of bullying others?” is investigated. Semistructured, one-on-one interviews with a purposive sample of 51 Grade 7 students (aged 12 years) were conducted during school time to investigate factors that influence students to bully others and what might help them to stop. Emerging from the theme of peer group was the need for belonging and group status, in particular social norms or the need to conform, which was influential when students described why they initiated and persisted with bullying others. The influence of labeling, the group process, and the aspiration to be like others within their group emerged as key constructs. The implications of these data for schools will be described and recommendations made.

Social Psychological Theory: View From Germany

1981 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 611-612
Author(s):  
Stephen G. West ◽  
Anne Maass
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Social Psychological Theory ◽  
Theory View

scholarly journals So Useful as a Good Theory? The Practicality Crisis in (Social) Psychological Theory

2021 ◽  
pp. 174569162096965
Author(s):  
Elliot T. Berkman ◽  
Sylas M. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
National Level ◽  
Laboratory Data ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Psychological Theories ◽  
Health Domains ◽  
Societal Problems ◽  
Social Psychological Theory

Practicality was a valued attribute of academic psychological theory during its initial decades, but usefulness has since faded in importance to the field. Theories are now evaluated mainly on their ability to account for decontextualized laboratory data and not their ability to help solve societal problems. With laudable exceptions in the clinical, intergroup, and health domains, most psychological theories have little relevance to people’s everyday lives, poor accessibility to policymakers, or even applicability to the work of other academics who are better positioned to translate the theories to the practical realm. We refer to the lack of relevance, accessibility, and applicability of psychological theory to the rest of society as the practicality crisis. The practicality crisis harms the field in its ability to attract the next generation of scholars and maintain viability at the national level. We describe practical theory and illustrate its use in the field of self-regulation. Psychological theory is historically and scientifically well positioned to become useful should scholars in the field decide to value practicality. We offer a set of incentives to encourage the return of social psychology to the Lewinian vision of a useful science that speaks to pressing social issues.

Tinder: A Game with Gendered Rules and Consequences

2021 ◽  
pp. 232949652110194
Author(s):  
Dana Berkowitz ◽  
Justine Tinkler ◽  
Alana Peck ◽  
Lynnette Coto
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Impression Management ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Sexual Scripts ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
College Age ◽  
Patterns Of Interaction ◽  
Social Psychological Theory

The popularity of Mobile Dating Applications has increased in recent years, with Tinder transforming the dating landscape for college students. Drawing upon 249 peer-facilitated interviews with college-age men and women, we explore how this population uses Tinder. Informed by social-psychological theory and research on impression management and stereotyping, we show how Tinder’s marketing strategy and game-like platform appeal to college students’ desires to reduce uncertainty and risk in forming romantic and intimate connections. However, by upending existing interaction norms, the Tinder environment creates new forms of ambiguity, which, in turn, incentivizes conformity to traditional heterogender norms and encourages racist and classist swiping behavior. Our study advances the literature on inequality and intimate marketplaces by generating insight about how contemporary dating and sexual scripts are constructed, accomplished, and negotiated when new technologies disrupt established patterns of interaction.

Conceptualising Doctoral Supervision in Malaysia as a Small Culture

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafidah Sahar ◽  
◽  
Nur Nabilah Abdullah ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Group Process ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Cross Cultural Comparison ◽  
Cultural Boundaries ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Doctoral Supervision ◽  
Shared Norms ◽  
National Systems ◽  
Purposive Sample ◽  
Supervisory Practice

Research on doctoral supervision in the field of Intercultural Communication has traditionally been applied to cross-cultural comparison, particularly across national systems and cultural boundaries. However, recent years have witnessed that such comparison is being challenged and re-analysed in light of potential risk of over generalisation and stereotyping in its observation. In this research, we consider the relevance of small cultures (Holliday 1994, 1999) as an alternative approach to conceptualise doctoral supervisory practice as a dynamic on-going group process through which its members make sense of and operate purposefully within particular contexts and shared behaviours. Narrative-based qualitative research was designed to generate and analyse the data. The participants were a purposive sample of six recently graduated PhD students at a Malaysian public university. One-on-one narrative interviews were conducted with the students to gather their supervisory narratives. Analyses of the students’ transcripts were completed using a holistic-content approach (Lieblich et al. 2008). Findings reveal a distinct set of behaviours and understandings that constitute the cultures of supervisory practice in the Malaysian university context. Through the notion of small cultures, this research proposes that cultures of PhD supervision can be best understood through an analysis of shared norms, behaviours and values between students and supervisors during supervisory practice. This research hopes that the move from a focus on large culture (i.e. Malaysianness per se) to a focus on the meaning-making process between students and supervisors from different backgrounds can assist education practitioners such as PhD supervisors to avoid stereotyping and overgeneralising.

scholarly journals Transference and counter-transference in systems psychodynamic group process consultation: The consultant’s experience

2004 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Cilliers ◽  
S. Rothmann ◽  
W. H. Struwig
Keyword(s):  
Group Process ◽  
Financial Institution ◽  
Phenomenological Research ◽  
Organisational Development ◽  
Group Relations ◽  
Process Consultation ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
Phenomenological Research Design ◽  
Group Emotions ◽  
Purposive Sample

This study explored consultants’ experiences of transference and counter-transference when conducting group relations training from the systems psychodynamic stance. A phenomenological research design was used with semistructured interviews conducted on a purposive sample of 13 organisational development consultants in a financial institution. The data was analysed by means of content analysis. The results showed that consultants have varied receptiveness in terms of receiving projections and managing transference. These differences involve triggers, characteristics and systemic valence. The consultants experienced counter- transference on five different cognitive and emotional levels. Distinguishing between personal and group emotions, receiving projections and managing transference, all contribute to the complexity of organisational consulting. Opsomming Hierdie studie het ondersoek ingestel na konsultante se ervarings van oordrag en teen-oordrag tydens groepverhoudingsopleiding vanuit die sistemiese psigodinamiese posisie. ’n Fenomenologiese navorsingsontwerp is gebruik met semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude gevoer met ’n doelgerigte steekproef van 13 organisasie ontwikkelingskonsultante in ’n finansiële instelling. Die data is ontleed deur middel van inhoudsontleding. Die resultate het aangetoon dat konsultante uiteenlopende ontvanklikheid het wat betref die ontvangs van projeksies en die hantering van oordrag. Hierdie verskille behels snellers, kenmerke en sistemiese valensie. Die konsultante het teen-oordrag ervaar op vyf verskillende kognitiewe and emosionele vlakke. Om onderskeid te tref tussen persoonlike en groep-emosies, die ontvang van projeksies en die hantering van oordrag, dra alles by tot die kompleksiteit van konsultering.

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