New insights on Bullying...

[parentastic]

There has been many threads here on bullying: what to about it, where it comes from, etc. Attachment research has recently yield some really amazing and surprising answers to this problem.

I'd like to share with you guys a video from Dr. Gordon Neufeld, a developmental psychologist & attachment expert, on What makes a bully. Now.. it's a bit long and, at times here or there, a bit tedious, but the insights are absolutely profound and, considering the importance of the topic, I think it's well worth the time to watch it. It's a one hour conference.

Let me know what you think of it, if you can find the time to watch it fully.

 

[tadamsmar]

Notice that a questioner had to bring up the Roots of Empathy program that has been around for 16 years. It's been evaluated and it has a positive effect size for some measures related to bullying, but no better than other effective programs.

Article on ROE, but with nothing evaluating it effectiveness.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1989122,00.html[/URL]

This includes evaluation of effectiveness:

http://www.gov.mb.ca/healthychild/roe/rootsposter_en.pdf[/URL]

Research indicates effective anti-bullying programs will cut about 1/3 of bullying. It's proving to be a pretty hard problem to solve. Empathy training is just one component that has proven effective.

Maybe his new twist on the matter will bear some fruit someday, who knows?

 

[parentastic]

Thanks for the links, they are interesting.

Research indicates effective anti-bullying programs will cut about 1/3 of bullying. It's proving to be a pretty hard problem to solve. Empathy training is just one component that has proven effective.

Yes. Like every significant problems in human systems, the solution cannot be a single component. It's the chaos theory: complex systems require complex solutions that are iterative over time (process), not simple one-time solution. Bullying has to be addressed through multiple points of interventions. But I think finally finding the root cause of bullying (and with Attachment, I think we are starting to get there) is what can inform the interventions.

Maybe his new twist on the matter will bear some fruit someday, who knows?

I am sure it will. In a way, it already does, because it allows us, the adults around the bullies, to realize what's going on and it can change our reaction so we can help the bullies "soften" rather than <I>increase</I> their tendency to bully with the use of consequences and control. So it's quite profound...