PS100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Barbara Corcoran, Workplace Bullying, Psychological Abuse
Developmental Psychology
Bullying at school/in the Education Workplace
- Video very biased towards men at beginning, slightly sexist towards women when Gary says women
know how to press buttons
Bullying:
- Bullying refers to the abusive treatment of a person by means of force or coercion. It is aggressive
behaviour that is repeated over time, is intentionally harmful and occurs without provocation (Olweus,
1991 in Harris & Petrie, 2002).
- It is a term frequently used in the school context especially when referring to the behaviour
of school children, which is where one child is said to be bullying another child. Bullying may
be physical such as hitting, punching, and spitting or it may involve language that is browbeating using
verbal assault, teasing, ridicule, sarcasm, and scapegoating. Boys tend to use direct bullying with
behaviours such as teasing, hitting, or using a weapon
- whereas girls typically use more indirect behaviours such as spreading rumours, ignoring or
excluding others intentionally or influencing others to do these things.
Individual
Workers Perspective
- Estimated 1 in 6 workers experience a psychological abuse on the job by a co-worker or a boss
- One woman: “Followed, spied on, had people reporting on me about who i was meeting or who I was
having lunch with” “Continual degradation”
- Other woman: “10 hours a day of someone just humiliating me”
- Depression - Barbara Corcoran “can feel diminished, ashamed and very very angry”
- Go through bullying most when they are young - don't know their power, and they are much more apt
to be intimidated
- Gary Namie PhD - Crosses the line when it causes someone to have their health harmed - their mental
health, emotional health or their physical health - need to distinguish bullying from incivility or rudeness -
Health harming mistreatment - psychological warfare
- Barbara Corcoran - “Surprising the ego of the individual to the point where they stop believing in
themselves”
- The Australian Education Union's submission to the inquiry said a survey found 99.6 per cent of
educators had experienced at least one of 42 bullying behaviours at some stage of their careers.
Childrens’ perspective
- (Teachers bullying students) Many school children have been subjected to traumatic experiences
in school that have significantly effected their social adjustment in the classroom setting and
their overall psychological and emotional status.
- (Students seeing their teachers being bullied) Young people in this state are also suffering because they
are witnessing this bullying taking place in schools. They see their much loved teachers treated with no
respect and the people that perpetrate these offences are never held to account
Relational
- “Couldn't push back because it made him worse”
- Disproportionately targets employees for mistreatment - punishment for the very few
- “Is a female boss as likely to bully as a male boss?” - 50% of the bullies are women - shows there are
different forms of harassment
- Create a non-bully culture within the workplace - reward failure, anonymous questions
- Individuals feel ashamed of being unable to cope with what is happening to them and that ‘making a
scene’ would be more injurious and therefore it is better to stay quiet.
Collective
- It's estimated workplace bullying costs up to $36 billion a year in workers' compensation and lost
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Video very biased towards men at beginning, slightly sexist towards women when gary says women know how to press buttons. Bullying refers to the abusive treatment of a person by means of force or coercion. It is aggressive behaviour that is repeated over time, is intentionally harmful and occurs without provocation (olweus, It is a term frequently used in the school context especially when referring to the behaviour of school children, which is where one child is said to be bullying another child. Bullying may be physical such as hitting, punching, and spitting or it may involve language that is browbeating using verbal assault, teasing, ridicule, sarcasm, and scapegoating. Boys tend to use direct bullying with behaviours such as teasing, hitting, or using a weapon. Whereas girls typically use more indirect behaviours such as spreading rumours, ignoring or excluding others intentionally or influencing others to do these things.
