First, I’m sorry because the documentary is in Catalan, and I know that
many of you don’t understand it. But I think it is interesting to explain what
it is about. However, the documentary has automatically generated subtitles in
Spanish, English, German, Italian...
This documentary is on Catalonia’s public TV channel (TV3) and is called
“Històries de l’escola”, which means “Stories from School”. It started in March
and has six episodes, showing the daily life of different schools.
The first episode clearly shows how a girl suffers from bullying. At the
beginning of the episode, she has a panic attack because her classmates call
her "fat whore", among other insults.
The school’s social worker plays an important role. He talks to the
student and the people involved to try to find a solution. He also works with
the class tutor and other teachers to improve the classroom environment. The
tutor says she feels bad about the situation.
Some girls say they don’t want to go to class because of the mean
comments they receive, like “whore” and “fat”. They also feel intimidated and
laughed at.
On the other hand, the boys involved don’t want to admit what they did
or say it’s not a big deal.
I think it’s important to show real problems in schools. Many students
suffer from bullying in silence. Also, as we talked about in class, not all
teachers try to help or improve the situation.
"Why Don’t We Help? The Silent Role of Bystanders in Bullying
ReplyDeleteThe other day, I was thinking about how I could connect the contents of this course with other subjects in my degree—in other words, how I could relate bullying to psychological processes. Then, I remembered a psychological effect we discussed last year in social psychology.
Have you ever wondered why people who witness a bullying situation don’t intervene? Rationally, we know that bullying is harmful and that we should step in, yet no one does. Have you ever asked yourself why this happens?
This is known as the bystander effect, a psychological phenomenon that explains why people are less likely to help someone in danger when more witnesses are present. In the context of bullying, this effect is key to understand why so many refuse to act, even when they recognize that something is wrong.
So, how can we connect the bystander effect to bullying? When many people are present in a situation—like the hypothetical case I described earlier—what happens is known as diffusion of responsibility (someone else will do it, someone else will help the victim).
Darley and Latané studied this phenomenon and concluded that the more people who witness an emergency, the less likely anyone is to help, due to the diffusion of responsibility.
Hawkins, Pepler and Craig in 2001 conducted a study called "Naturalistic Observations of Peer Interventions in Bullying", which reached a significant conclusion: bystander intervention is crucial in reducing bullying.
85% of bullying cases occur in front of others (with witnesses present).
Yet, only 10-20% of bystanders intervene.
However, when a peer steps in to defend the victim, bullying stops within 10 seconds in 57% of cases.
In conclusion, we must combat these two psychological effects (bystander effect and diffusion of responsibility) through education and awareness, because even a small action can help tackle a big problem.
Laura Sanchez Nogales