Background and aims: This study explores the types of attributions children make about school bullying situations and how these attributions may be related to subsequent behaviour and feelings. The relevant research background is explored – both from a bullying perspective and an attribution perspective. Psychological models that are thought relevant are discussed – particularly the learned helplessness and the Beck’s cognitive-behavioural model. The aims of the study were: to explore the kinds of attributions made about bullying by a non-clinical population; to explore the different types of attributions made by children within a framework of later attribution theories; to explore the relationship between type of attribution and type of solution offered; and to explore the themes linking different types of attributions in children’s stories. Results: The results of the content analysis suggested that children made a range of attributions which could be coded into characterological and behavioural attributions. There was some suggestion from correlational data that these were related to the type of solution offered by the participants. Qualitative analysis explored some of the connections between the types of attributions and concluded by describing a typical framework for a ‘story’ about the bullying incidents. Implications: Several implications are explored for both bullying and attribution research. Suggestions are given for school interventions – particularly the importance of working with the powerlessness of victims. For clinical interventions, some ideas are explored for working with children who have been bullied or bully – although future research would benefit from looking at attributions within a clinical population.

This thesis comprises three studies that explore the attitudes and beliefs of prison staff and prisoners towards HIV and hepatitis B and C prevention policy in prisons. Analysis of the factors that influence the way prisoners and prison staff view prevention strategies highlighted some important issues form the perspective of the people most closely involved with implementation of prevention policy. The exploration of these issues was complex due to the security, legal, cultural and ethical issues that had to be considered. A case study approach incorporating qualitative and quantitative methods was used to try and embrace the complexity of the research aim. A qualitative foundation for staff and prisoner interviews was used for two reasons; firstly, so that the views of the researcher were not imposed and secondly, because there were few prior research studies to base the current study on. In addition, as prisons differ in security category and in the types of prisoners held, it was presumed that developing the research to give a wider representation of the issues would be valuable; this overview was achieved by questionnaire. Data were collected from ten prisons, there were forty-one in-depth staff interviews from three types of prisons; data from 182 questionnaires from 7 prisons and 18 in-depth interviews with prisoners from the three prisons where staff were interviewed. The results show that he predominant concern of staff is that the prevention policies discussed in the study are to do with sex and drug misuse; activities considered illegal within the prison environment. Staff believed that some of the prevention measures concerned with educing the risk associated with injecting drug use conflict with their discipline and security role and also conflict with the drug strategy policies that focus on eradicating drug use in prisons. Opiate detoxification programmes, abstinence based therapeutic programmes and drug-free areas were viewed most positively by staff and were portrayed as most closely aligned to their security and discipline role and the role of prisons in society. Most staff believed that providing condoms in prison would also act against their discipline and security role. This is principally because of the potential to conceal or smuggle drugs using condoms and also because the stigma of same sex relationships in prisons may lead to aggression and bullying from other prisoners.

Bullying has become a pervasive problem in schools throughout the world. Although there has been an increasing research interest in many different countries, only a small number of studies have been carried out in Northern Ireland. The aim of this thesis was to identify the nature and extent of bullying in schools in Belfast. The stability of these problems over a one year period and the effect of bully/victim status on children’s peer relations and self-esteem, were examined. 8% of children at stage one (n=157) reported bullying others, 29% experienced bullying and 17% were involved as a bully-victim. At the final stage there was an increase in the number of bullies, with a corresponding decrease in victim and bully-victim reports. Despite this, there were identifiable groups of children who were repeatedly involved in bully/victim situations. There was a significant difference in the social status and reputation of children more accepted by their peers and perceived as sociable and aggressive, than children less involved. Stable victims were both rejected by their peers and had a negative social reputation, than any other group. Furthermore, the results indicated that repeated victimisation was related to low levels of self-perceived competence, whereas the self-esteem of stable bullies was comparable to not involved children. Overall, the extent of bullying problems indicated in this study and their effects on peer relations and self-esteem indicate that further research is needed in schools throughout Northern Ireland. The contribution that this study makes in relation to the existing body of knowledge on bully/victim problems in schools is discussed.

The thesis examines various descriptions of bullying in fiction, biography and autobiography, comparing a traditional image of a bully with the more modern concept which enables many actions to be described as bullying. The difference between a description and a definition of bullying is explored using an analogy with the word “murder”. Murder can be achieved in many ways – stabbing, shooting, poisoning etc but none of them defines murder, the terms describe the means by which murder is undertaken. Bullying, in like manner, has no precise definition – merely a series of descriptive terms. Many writers have described the difficult experiences of young people at school – possibly because of their parentage. The children of teachers, policemen, famous people seem to attract a high level of attention because of their parentage. The school experiences of Prince Charles, Graham Green, Sean o Faolain, James Joyce and others are examined. The objective of the research was to examine the possibility that parental occupation might be a factor in bullying. Fifty children, in twenty schools, who were attending a school in which at least one parent was a teacher were asked to complete a questionnaire which was a modified form of the Olweus (1993) survey – (modified to include data on parental occupation and other family details) as well as interviews with students and teachers, 380 other children in five different schools were asked to complete the same questionnaire. The results were then compared. Many children experienced bullying but only a tiny percentage actually get bullied. Such a distinction is discussed. The possible application of literary extracts to illustrate examples of bullying and other acts of interpersonal aggression, to identify bullying and to show coping mechanisms is suggested and an anthology of such extracts is offered in a substantial appendix.

This study examined the enemy images as perceived by young children in two countries. The children’s sources of information as well as whom or what they conceived as a protector from the enemies were also inquired. The field of enemy images among young children is hitherto a relatively unexplored one. However, the study was influenced by more general literature on how children perceive their social environment, and in particular by the writings of Lambert and Kilneberg, Vygotsky, Cullingford, Dragonas and Frangoudaki. The empirical part of the study took place from January 1966 to February 1997 with 171 school children aged five to nine. It was conducted in Greece (in a big city and an island) and in Britain (in a small English city). Due to problems of access the number of British children involved in the research was much smaller than the Greek one. The data collection methods included semi-structured group interviews and a projective exercise, where children were asked to produce a drawing of an enemy. The children conceived specific groups or individuals as enemies. The following main enemy images could be distinguished: a. enemy-warriors (often countries that had been in a war conflict with their country in the past); b. enemy-criminals (people doing evil things, threatening the society; sometimes crime was associated with specific social groups, such as “the immigrants”); and c. enemy-acquaintances (other children at school or from the peergroup. Some cases of bullying were also reported). A number of sub-categories of enemy images were also identified. Almost all the interviewees described the same enemy images. They did, however, give different emphasis and meaning on what it is to have enemies, depending on their age, gender and place where they were from. The research suggested that the social context in which children live and grow up has the major role in the formation of enemy images; children’s age and gender also appeared to influence the images children held.

This thesis is concerned with the interactions between staff and interactions in the classroom in regard to bullying among pupils in primary schools in Norway. The main investigation comprised 22 primary schools. A total of 2002 pupils, grades 4-6, and 279 teachers participated. Information was obtained through the use of one questionnaire developed specifically for pupils, and one developed for teachers. Only two of 15 selected schools were significantly different from each other on both Bullying Others (BO) and Being Bullied (BB). The school low on BO and BB also had significantly better scores than the other school on all staff related variables. Information from all 22 schools, comprising 118 classes, was used in a class level study of the relationships between classroom management, social interactions between the pupils in the class and class level estimates of BO and BB. Both high scores on classroom management and high scores on social interactions between the pupils were strongly and negatively related to bullying others, and negatively but more weakly related to being bullied. To consider the problem of causality more closely, a small-scale field experiment was conducted with two groups of first grade teachers, each group consisting of 20 teachers and their classes. Two groups of control classes were included. The teachers in the field experiment were offered four one-day seminars plus group counselling during the first school year. At the end of their first school year, the pupils in the two experiment groups and those in the two control groups were compared. The pupils in the experiment groups scored significantly better than the control groups on bullying others, and being bullied, as well as on all other 8 variables studied. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the results, and a theoretical model is suggested.

This thesis reports findings from three studies. It begins with a summary of the previous conflicting literature into the psychological effects of imprisonment. In an attempt to allow prisoners to speak for themselves and to identify research areas, the studies reported in the second chapter present illustrative quotations from interviews conducted with forty prisoners in low and medium security prisons. Following issues raised by these participants, chapters three to seven report findings from the first survey of fear in the Prison Service. Fifty-one per cent of prisoners and 67% of officers reported feeling afraid. More life sentence prisoners towards the beginning of their sentence and “vulnerable prisoners” not held in a Vulnerable Prisoner Unit report feeling fear. Seven per cent of the prisoners were afraid all of the time. The most common area in which prisoners felt fear was in their cell. Officers felt fearful in the context of situations in which control may be at risk. Officers also demonstrated a limited awareness of the fears felt by prisoners. However, they felt that prisoners would fear intimidation, bullying and being in debt whereas the prisoners themselves did not use any of these labels for their fears. Research reported in chapters eight to thirteen derived more information about the levels of fear and means of control utilised by officers. It particularly assessed the impact of female officers on male prison wings and their reception by the prisoners and their colleagues. Relationships between officers and prisoners are better than typically predicted and male and female officers do not favour different means of control, contrary to predictions. Chapter fourteen presents findings from a control group of police officers. The general conclusion is that fear in prisons is real, based on experience and both can and ought to be managed better.

This research investigated the levels of being bullied and bullying for 8-15 year old pupils in school. Various studies showed that pupils’ own reports of being bullied and bullying differed from teacher and to a lesser degree peer nominations of pupils who are victims or perpetrators of bullying. Analyses of data examined the consistency of the results from two questionnaires, the ‘Life in Schools’ booklet and a questionnaire on bullying designed by Dan Olweus. Both questionnaires were evaluated for their usefulness in identifying levels of being bullied. In addition interview measures were also compared with reports from the anonymous questionnaire (Olweus questionnaire). Results showed that although there was consistency between the two measures, pupils were more likely to admit to bullying in the anonymous questionnaire than during interviews. Interview data was also collected at two time points. Study 1 investigated types of bullying, pupils’ understanding of what bullying is, and feelings of being bullied and bullying. Study 2 investigated types of bullying and who bullied whom in different ethnic/racial groups. The interview data led to the Olweus definition of bullying and questionnaire to be modified on two occasions to accommodate different types of bullying, that of indirect bullying and racial abuse. Data was also analysed to determine whether ‘ethnic minority’ pupils were more likely to be bullied or engaged in bullying compared to ‘white’ pupils. Results showed that there was no significant difference between the two groups. Further analyses of sex differences in being bullied and bullying showed that females used more indirect means of bullying compared to males although male levels of bullying were higher than that of female pupils. A Survey Service was also designed and implemented so that schools could carry out their own survey to investigate levels of bully/victim problems in schools. The Survey Service provided a package of information and a quota of questionnaires for teachers to administer to pupils in their schools. Results were then analysed by the University researcher and a portfolio returned to schools giving a breakdown by sex and class of pupils who have been bullied and bullying. The final analysis investigated the effectiveness of using a bully court in one middle school. Results showed that in the intervention classes levels of bullying declined and in the non-intervention classes bullying increased. The outcome of the results is discussed in relation to its effectiveness and the ethics of using this type of intervention.

The study firstly identifies the level, and nature of bullying behaviour in 3 mixed urban comprehensive schools and secondly considers how school differences might affect bullying behaviour. Finally it examines the perceptions of those most closely involved, the pupils and the teachers. An adapted version of the questionnaire used by Olweus (1989) in his Scandinavian studies and in turn adapted in Britain by the Sheffield Bullying Project team (see Ahmad et al., 1991) was used to collect data from 1,155 pupils (514 girls, 641 boys) related to the aims of the project. Interviews with 60 pupils and 32 teachers, which included tutors and members from the senior management teams in each school, enabled information to be gathered from diverse sources and this illuminated the phenomenon from differing perspectives. The two principal instruments of investigation, questionnaire and interview, were supplemented by the use of documents and records where available and relevant. The research findings indicated that the three schools in question have an above average level of reported bullying which includes a high rate of non-physical bullying, primarily name calling and verbal threats. One of the main findings related to school differences, highlights the effect of awareness raising among pupils and subsequently the increased likelihood of pupils to report bullying behaviour. Surprisingly teachers in the same schools predicted higher levels of bullying than the pupils themselves who felt bullying in their schools was average to low. Teachers’ perceptions about bullying appeared to be less affected by school differences than by personal experiences. Pupils who had experienced bullying were not likely to volunteer to be interviewed and among this group differing or contrasting perceptions were linked to the length of time or severity of the bullying, how it had been dealt with and the part the victim had played in overcoming adversity, rather than any school differences.