School violence and bullying: Measuring individual and contextual variables Thomas Gumpel The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Tom.Gumpel@mail.huji.ac.il Ordinary Men, Christopher Browning In mid-‐March 1942 some 75 to 80 percent of all vicQms of the Holocaust were sQll alive, while 20 to 25 percent had perished. A mere eleven months later, in mid-‐February 1943, the percentages were exactly the reverse. (p. xv) 2 Bernburg, 1898 3 August Landmesser 4 The Tsunami 5 How do they get that way? •  Is it a disposiQon? •  Or is it a situaQon? WHAT CAN NORMAL PSYCHOLOGY TELL US? General Psychology •  Social idenQty theory •  CogniQve dissonance •  Belief in a just world Social idenQty theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) 9 The duality of Detachment vs. Satura,on •  Detachment –  The fear of being taken in, of losing our idenQty –  A defensive posture •  SaturaQon –  The need to be involved, open and passionate, connected 10 FesQnger’s theory of cogniQve dissonance •  How do we strive for internal consistency? –  Consonant relaQonship –  Irrelevant relaQonship –  Dissonant relaQonship •  Magnitude –  The importance of cogniQons •  The more reference points, the greater the eﬀect –  RaQo of cogniQons •  The raQo of consonant to dissonant variables 11 So, why do they do it? •  Mechanisms of moral disengagement: –  Moral jusQﬁcaQon –  Advantageous comparison –  Displacement of responsibility –  Diﬀusion of responsibility –  Disregard or distorQon of responsibility –  DehumanizaQon –  AaribuQon of blame A. (1990). Mechanisms of moral disengagement. In W. Reich (Ed.), Origins of terrorism: Psychologies, Bandura, ideologies, theologies, states of mind (pp. 161-‐191). Cambridge: Woodrow Wilson Interna,onal Center for Scholars & Cambridge University Press. WHAT CAN ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY TELL US? Psychopathology •  •  •  •  DisposiQon? Social informaQon processing The Dark Triad Trauma / Depression DisposiQon (or, you are what you are) •  Are some people simply aggressive? 15 DisposiBon? Imagine that you are walking down the street in a hurry to get to a friend’s house, and a police car slowly pulls up next to you. The policeman gets out of the car and says, “Hey, you. We just got a report from a gas staQon owner nearby who says that his store has been robbed. We want to talk with you about it.”   So the policeman stops you and you don’t get to your friend’s house. What do you think was going on in the mind of the policeman?   How likely is it that the policeman quesQoned you because the policeman is being mean to you or is thinking that you robbed the store?   How likely is it that the policeman stopped you because he thought you could help out with important informaQon about the robbery?   What would you do or say to the policeman if this happened to you?   If you really wanted to get to your friend’s house as soon as possible what could you do or say that would help you? Dodge, K. A., & Coie, J. D. (1987). Social-‐informaQon-‐ processing factors in reacQve and proacQve aggression in children's peer groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53(6), 1146-‐1158. The Dark Triad – ruthless self-‐ advancement •  Machiavellianism –  ManipulaQon, exploitaQon, and self-‐interest •  Narcissism –  Grandiosity, egoQsm, and profound lack of empathy •  Psychopathy –  Grandiosity, impulsivity, callousness, and a lack of remorse •  May exploit evolved cooperaQve behaviors, while eliminaQng need to reciprocate –  PosiQve correlaQon with mate switching 17 Narcissism •  Threatened egoism –  Self-‐absorpQon –  Leadership –  ExploiQveness Assistant & Reinforcer Help-‐seeker and defender, neg. correlaQon with bystander Narcissism Gumpel, T. P., Wiesenthal, V., & Söderberg, P. (in press). Narcissism, perceived social status, and social cognition and their influence on aggression. Behavioral Disorders. Aggressors and the dark forces •  Psychopathy –  Narcissism –  Impulsivity –  Callous-‐unemoQonal •  Pure aggressors and aggressive-‐vicQms are more narcissisQc •  Aggressive-‐vicQms are more impulsive Psychopathy Gumpel, T. P. (2014). Linking Psychopathy and School Aggression in a Nonclinical Sample of Adolescents. Journal of School Violence, 13(4), 377-395. doi: 10.1080/15388220.2014.889605 What happens to vicQms? •  VicQms are traumaQzed, and suﬀer from depression Criterion B: RecollecQon .09, ns Physical VicQm .04, ns .31* .01, ns Criterion C: Avoidant .34* RelaQonal VicQm Depression -‐.44, ns .03, ns .35* 1.24* Criterion D: Hyper-‐arousal Gumpel, T. P. (in press). Prolonged stress, PTSD, and depression among school aggressors and victims. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma. What happens to aggressors? •  Aggressors are traumaQzed, but no depression Criterion B: RecollecQon .28† Physical Aggression 1.30, ns .21, ns .29† .20, ns RelaQonal Aggression Criterion C: Avoidant .23* .30* -‐1.65, ns 1.25, ns Criterion D: Hyper-‐arousal Depression The big quesQon •  Are the perpetrators of evil events evil because what they did or who they are? –  We need to use psychology to understand the “incomprehensibility” of extraordinary human evil 24 Individuals …. •  What is the relaQonship between psychopathology, personality, and human evil? –  The “Mad Nazi” thesis •  Evil people or evil acQons? –  Rudolph Hess – loss of memory, amnesia, insane •  He aaempted to take advantage of the general percepQon that only pathological people could implement and parQcipate in atrociQes –  Allied propaganda – the Nazi leaders as a group of diabolical, sinister, viciously sadisQc and demonically deranged lunaQcs •  Sound familiar (think of the types of discussions around suicide bombers) 25 The quesQon: •  Not if there would be psychopathology, but how severe the psychopathology is. –  Douglas M. Kelley and Gustave Gilbert •  Assigned by the US Military to evaluate Nuremberg defendants –  Used Wechsler-‐Bellevue Intelligence Test »  Average IQ: 128 –  Rorschach – the plot thickens Hermann Rorschach 26 Some measurement issues regarding the individual •  DiﬀerenQaQon between aggression and bullying? •  ParQcipant roles and the ringleader bully? •  TriangulaQon of data for anQsocial behavior THE COLLECTIVE Understanding group processes •  Obedience to authority •  ParQcipant roles over Qme and events? •  Rapid changes in behavior are contextually driven Obedience to authority? •  Milgram Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67(4), 371 -‐ 378. doi: 10.1037/h0040525 Was this male aggression? •  Sheridan & King, 1972 (shock the puppy) –  Men – 54% –  Females – 100% 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Stanford Prison Experiment •  Is there a diﬀerence between acQve and passive aggression? •  Is it a few bad apples? Or is it the bushel? Zimbardo, P. G., Haney, C., Banks, W. C., & Jaﬀe, D. (1973). The mind is a formidable jailer: A Pirandellian prison. The New York Times Magazine, 8, 38-‐60. Structure and Classroom Management Gumpel, T. P., Zioni‐Koren, V., & Bekerman, Z. (2014). An ethnographic study of participant roles in school bullying. Aggressive Behavior, 40(3), 214-228. doi: 10.1002/ab.21515 Contextual Changes Some measurement issues regarding the collecQve •  Is qualitaQve data the only opQon? •  How do we link qualitaQve and quanQtaQve data? Where are we going? •  Issues of compeQQve vicQmhood –  Understanding narraQves •  Is there really any such thing as a bystander? –  How nice for the bystander! •  AcQve Bystandership –  Aggressors see complicity as agreement •  Silence is complicity •  Group processes silence us