Psychological Profile of Bullies

HMSHood

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Psychological Profile of Teen Cyberbullies
http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/07/06/psychological-profile-of-teen-cyberbullies/15344.html

Being a cybervictim only was associated with living in a family with other than two biological parents; perceived difficulties in emotions, concentration, behavior, or getting along with other people; headache; recurrent abdominal pain; sleeping difficulties and not feeling safe at school.

Being a cyberbully only was associated with perceived difficulties in emotions, concentration, behavior, or getting along with other people; hyperactivity; conduct problems; infrequent helping behaviors; frequently smoking or getting drunk; headache and not feeling safe at school.


How a Bully Is Made
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/awakening-psyche/201108/how-bully-is-made

1. Physical Punishment
2. Watching Aggressive Behavior in Adults
3. Violent television
4. Problems with Processing Emotions
5. Part of a More Serious Psychiatric Disease Course


Number four and five caught my attention.

In the 1990s, researchers started to investigate whether any cognitive deficiencies might contribute to a child's level of aggressive behavior. This work revealed that aggressive boys often respond aggressively because they are not as skilled as their peers in reading other people. They fail to accurately interpret other peoples' intentions and when they're unsure of why someone does something or looks at them a certain way, they tend to respond aggressively. Another study investigated whether anything could be done to help young people like this overcome their deficiency and be less aggressive as a result. In one correctional facility, incarcerated adolescents were taught how to pay attention to non-hostile cues in a social setting. When they accurately perceived hostility coming their way, they were shown how to use alternative responses. Supervisors at the juvenile correction facility who were questioned after this training program reported less aggression and less impulsivity in those adolescents who had taken the training

This emotional processing deficit seemed to be a factor present in my own 14 year-old son at the time his behaviors turned aggressive. Here was how he described his state of mind and emotions at wilderness therapy camp:

I'm trying to get in touch with my feelings. I'm having a hard time cause I haven't had feelings in a long time for some reason. My counselors say it's the drugs but I don't know. It seems to me I didn't have any feelings before I started using either. As it turned out, Alex's psychological problems were far deeper than his outward behaviors appeared to reveal.


A meta-study of 11 longitudinal family studies reveals that conduct disorder puts a boy at a higher risk for becoming an antisocial young man and/or a psychotic adolescent (J. Welham et al. 2009). I was struck by the number of studies in this review showing that boys who went on to develop schizophrenia had conduct problems when they were young. The word "externalizing" (what many view as "acting out") is often used to describe their early problem behaviors. This was the course my son Alex's adolescent psychological problems eventually took. He was diagnosed and treated for the onset of schizophrenia at age 17, a story I tell in my new book A Lethal Inheritance.

Never thought there was a connection between schizophrenia or mental illness and bullying. I know there is a connection between personality disorders and bullying, particularly paranoid, antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic.
 
Psychological Profile of Teen Cyberbullies
http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/07/06/psychological-profile-of-teen-cyberbullies/15344.html

Being a cybervictim only was associated with living in a family with other than two biological parents; perceived difficulties in emotions, concentration, behavior, or getting along with other people; headache; recurrent abdominal pain; sleeping difficulties and not feeling safe at school.

Being a cyberbully only was associated with perceived difficulties in emotions, concentration, behavior, or getting along with other people; hyperactivity; conduct problems; infrequent helping behaviors; frequently smoking or getting drunk; headache and not feeling safe at school.


How a Bully Is Made
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/awakening-psyche/201108/how-bully-is-made

1. Physical Punishment
2. Watching Aggressive Behavior in Adults
3. Violent television
4. Problems with Processing Emotions
5. Part of a More Serious Psychiatric Disease Course


Number four and five caught my attention.

In the 1990s, researchers started to investigate whether any cognitive deficiencies might contribute to a child's level of aggressive behavior. This work revealed that aggressive boys often respond aggressively because they are not as skilled as their peers in reading other people. They fail to accurately interpret other peoples' intentions and when they're unsure of why someone does something or looks at them a certain way, they tend to respond aggressively. Another study investigated whether anything could be done to help young people like this overcome their deficiency and be less aggressive as a result. In one correctional facility, incarcerated adolescents were taught how to pay attention to non-hostile cues in a social setting. When they accurately perceived hostility coming their way, they were shown how to use alternative responses. Supervisors at the juvenile correction facility who were questioned after this training program reported less aggression and less impulsivity in those adolescents who had taken the training

This emotional processing deficit seemed to be a factor present in my own 14 year-old son at the time his behaviors turned aggressive. Here was how he described his state of mind and emotions at wilderness therapy camp:

I'm trying to get in touch with my feelings. I'm having a hard time cause I haven't had feelings in a long time for some reason. My counselors say it's the drugs but I don't know. It seems to me I didn't have any feelings before I started using either. As it turned out, Alex's psychological problems were far deeper than his outward behaviors appeared to reveal.


A meta-study of 11 longitudinal family studies reveals that conduct disorder puts a boy at a higher risk for becoming an antisocial young man and/or a psychotic adolescent (J. Welham et al. 2009). I was struck by the number of studies in this review showing that boys who went on to develop schizophrenia had conduct problems when they were young. The word "externalizing" (what many view as "acting out") is often used to describe their early problem behaviors. This was the course my son Alex's adolescent psychological problems eventually took. He was diagnosed and treated for the onset of schizophrenia at age 17, a story I tell in my new book A Lethal Inheritance.

Never thought there was a connection between schizophrenia or mental illness and bullying. I know there is a connection between personality disorders and bullying, particularly paranoid, antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic.

Not trying to be facetious, but there is actually a psychological term “Alexithymia,” which might apply to Alex.

http://www.answers.com/topic/alexithymia?method=26&initiator=CANS

Russell
 
Not trying to be facetious, but there is actually a psychological term “Alexithymia,” which might apply to Alex.

http://www.answers.com/topic/alexithymia?method=26&initiator=CANS

Russell

Interesting. Never heard of Alexithymia. Here are the description from your link.
1.) Difficulty identifying feelings and distinguishing between feelings and the bodily sensations of emotional arousal
2.) Difficulty describing feelings to other people
3.) Constricted imaginal processes, as evidenced by a scarcity of fantasies
4.) A stimulus-bound, externally oriented cognitive style.

That sounds like other evil people.
 

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