‘community psychology and politics’ by David Smail

Demystification, eschewing roles that disempower others and enhancing accessibility to the tools of knowledge, are consistent with the aims of community and applied social psychology. Although a focus on psychological empowerment can be a distraction from the need for actual power, it can also enhance it. Psychologists who avoid victim blaming and individual causal attribution biases can contribute to the discourse about social change. This requires both a reinterpretation of the known facts, and a reframing of social analysis. Social scientists and professionals are today's theologians and priests. Our power lies in our legitimation as interpreters of social reality. Teaching the psychology of empowerment, participative decision making and informed consent can influence the powerful as well as the powerless.     

The topography of aggressive behavior of an attacking rat is determined by the behavior of the victim

Untreated rats were observed to either bite or box with Pentobarbital-treated opponents in a shockelicited aggression situation. Specific behaviors such as ataxia movements and submissive postures immediately preceded biting attacks, but rarely boxing whereas behaviors such as moving around the chamber and upright threat postures immediately preceded boxing attacks, but rarely biting. These data suggest that the topography of aggressive behavior of an attacking rat is determined by the behavior of the victim.     

How prevalent is contextual information in research on school bullying?

Empirical articles on school bullying need to give contextual details of the study, including on participants (number, age, gender), the country in which data was gathered, and the year in which it was gathered. We argue that these are important aspects of information, and that country and year of data collection cannot be inferred unambiguously unless they are explicitly stated. We report an analysis of contextual information on a sample of 201 articles, from 1976 to 2015, on school bullying. The great majority of studies gave information on number and age of participants, and most on gender balance. Most also gave explicit information on the country in which data was gathered. However only about one quarter of articles gave information on the date (year) in which data was gathered. For those that did, the average gap from data gathering to publication was 4 years, with a range of 1 to 11 years. We argue that the date of data collection is an important historical aspect, as many societal changes, even over a period of a few years, can impact on prevalence and nature of bullying. We recommend that besides participant and country information, year of data collection is routinely given in empirical articles on school bullying.     

Demonstrating detail in investigative interviews—An examination of the DeMo technique

Attaining an uninterrupted free report (FR) is at the heart of best practice investigative interviewing guidance. However, witnesses/victims do not naturally provide detailed accounts. Techniques have been developed to counter-act this, such as a report everything (RE) instruction. This research examined the relative effectiveness of an addition to the RE component, a demonstration of the level of detail, using a behavioural exemplar, by describing an innocuous object; the Demonstration for More detail (DeMo) technique. Participants (N = 61) watched a mock crime video and asked to recall it using one of three instructions: (a) basic FR as the control, (b) RE instruction and (c) RE instruction plus DeMo technique. Participants who were given the DeMo technique recalled more details than both the control and RE groups. Accuracy rates were similarly high across all conditions. The implications of using the DeMo technique within an investigative interview are discussed.     

The Nature of School Bullying and the Effectiveness of School-Based Interventions

School bullying has become a topic of public concern and considerable research in various countries around the world in the last two decades. We summarise characteristics such as types and causes of school bullying, based on findings from various studies. We further review a variety of large-scale, school-based intervention programmes, implemented in different countries and school settings, that have been systematically evaluated. These programmes have varied substantially in their effectiveness in reducing levels of bullying at schools. Reasons for these mixed outcomes are discussed, together with suggestions for improving the effectiveness of future interventions.     

Self‐esteem and its relationship to bullying behaviour

From the rapidly growing literature on bullying, it is increasingly recognised that peer relationship problems as manifested in being bullied are associated with low self‐esteem. However, the literature on self‐esteem in relation to children who bully others is controversial. The objective of this paper is to elucidate further our understanding of the relationship between self‐concept and bullying behaviour. Data from a nationwide study of bullying behaviour carried out in Ireland during 1993‐1994 have been reviewed. The relevant results from 8,249 school children aged 8 to 18 years are presented. The paper examines the global and dimensional nature of self‐esteem and how it relates to children and adolescents who either have been victimised or bullied others. A distinction is made between “pure victims,” “pure bullies,” and children and adolescents who were both bullied and who bullied others. In other words, pure victims were those who had not bullied others, and pure bullies had not themselves been bullied. Those who were both bullied and bullied others were subdivided further into victims who bully occasionally, sometimes, and frequently and bullies who are victimised, occasionally, sometimes, and frequently. The results show that children of both primary and post‐primary age who were involved in bullying as victims, bullies, or both had significantly lower global self‐esteem than did children who had neither bullied nor been bullied. However, the pure bullies, in contrast to the pure victims, placed the same value on their physical attractiveness and attributes and on their popularity as did their peers who had not bullied others or been bullied. The bully‐victims of all ages had the lowest self‐esteem of the subgroups in the study. Also, the more frequently children were victimised or bullied others, the lower was their global self‐esteem. The typology and frequency of bullying and the age of the children when they were involved in bullying influenced the status of the specific domains of self‐esteem. There were, e.g., significant differences in anxiety between the pure bullies of post‐primary age and their peers who had not bullied others or been bullied. The post‐primary children who bullied most frequently were the least anxious. The results indicate that high self‐esteem protects children and adolescents from involvement in bullying. Thus, in view of the strong relationship between self‐esteem and bullying that has been found in the present paper, it is recommended that top priority be given by parents and teachers to preventing and reducing feelings of poor self‐worth among children and adolescents. Aggr. Behav. 27:269–283, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.