“Gaining an understanding of cyberbullying. The importance of the role group factors play in an account of cyberbullying between teenagers”
Abstract
To establish the importance of group level accounts in relation to cyberbullying, group norm
and group membership we assessed. The effect of these group factors had on action tendencies
would provide an understanding of the process which are involved in a cyberbullying incident.
The Participants were assigned to one of the three groups ; Perpetrator group, Third party group
or the Target group. The perpetrator group norm was then manipulated to either be kind or
unkind. These manipulations were carried out before the participants read through a
hypothetical incident of cyberbullying and asked the questionnaire, involving their opinion and
the actions they would take as a result of the cyberbullying. The third-party enhanced our
understanding of group-level process concerning an incident of cyberbullying. They stated they
would ‘join in with nasty messages’ and this highlights the significance this group membership
plays on an incident of cyberbullying. The perpetrator group also shown significant results for
behaving differently, this strengthens our understanding further. The limitations could account
for the other action tendencies lacking significant results. The hypothesis was proven in this
study as the group norm and group membership affected the action tendencies of the
participants.