As a child growing up in the ’80s, I rarely heard the term “bullying”. It’s not that bullying didn’t take place when I was a child, it simply wasn’t addressed in the way that it is now. Today, I can’t think of a week that goes by that I don’t hear the word. It’s talked about on the radio, in the news, on talk shows, and in schools. Recent research shows the damaging effects that bullying can have on its victims. In today’s society, childhood bullying can happen in person and online, from the hallways of schools to various social media platforms. Bullying is more than people being mean because they’re cranky, in a bad mood or having a bad day. Bullying is different because it’s psychological power play. A few months back, I was listening to a Here and Now program called “Does Bullying Serve a Purpose”. During the show, Elizabeth Englander discusses the psychology behind bullying. Englander, a psychology professor, mentions that “bullying is a way to gain social capital.” Dispite the fact that we can increase our social status by being nice to people, the results from that route are slower than the results that bullying would yield. To a […]