Psychology Essay: Exploring Conflict and Bullying in Society

This essay explores the distinctions between conflict and bullying, highlighting their differing characteristics and societal impacts. Conflict is defined as a disagreement between individuals or groups, often involving differing opinions or interests, and typically occurs between parties with relatively equal power. Bullying, conversely, involves the intimidation or harm of a vulnerable person, characterized by an imbalance of power and a deliberate intent to control or seek attention. The essay emphasizes that while conflict can sometimes lead to bullying, the two phenomena are distinct, with bullying causing significant negative effects on mental and physical health, including depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem. Examples, such as workplace scenarios, are used to illustrate these differences. The essay concludes by asserting that while conflict is a normal aspect of human interaction, bullying is not and is a harmful behavior that is not acceptable in society.

Running head: CONFLICT VS BULLLYING
CONFLICT VS BULLLYING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CONFLICT VS BULLLYING
Conflict and bullying both are seen to have negative impacts on the society however are
very different from one another. Conflict is defined as dispute or a mutual disagreement, often
involving a difference of interest, opinions and many more between one or more than one person
or sometimes in a group (Desender, Van Opstal and Van den Bussche, p. 675). On the other
hand, bullying is defined as an action that generally seeks to intimidate, coerce or harm someone
especially the people who are vulnerable (Schott, p. 21). This paper shall elaborate on the
differences between bullying and conflict and also provide the effects it can have on people and
the society.
It has been seen that conflict among people can often give rise to bullying however; there
are significant differences between conflict and bullying. Conflict mainly occurs between people
with equal power whereas in bullying it can be seen that there is an imbalance in power and there
is always one dominating the other who is weak and vulnerable.
Conflict generally does not seek for any kind of power or attention as it generally means
disagreement with someone’s opinion or thoughts. However, bullying is a deliberate attempt to
seek attention, control and power. According to scholars, majority of the research that has been
conducted suggests that most people who bully others prey on the weaker so that they can feel
good about themselves and feel powerful (Berger and Caravita, p. 47).
Conflicts are generally non-violent and generally do not cause any harm physically or
mentally and people often overcome the conflicts however bullying can have negative impacts
on the mental as well as the physical health of the person which can lead to serious injuries and
also mental illness like depression, anxiety, low self-esteem which can often leave a scar on the
minds of the victim (Wolke and Lereya, p.881).

2CONFLICT VS BULLLYING
For example, in a workplace, often conflicts arise because of the cultural diversity that
leads to difference in opinion, expressions or practices. However, bullying in the workplace
occurs in order to demean someone, target someone and harm them usually mentally which has a
huge impact on the victim in the workplace which often has a huge impact on them unlike
conflict. Conflicts in the workplace are usually considered to be normal however, bullying in the
workplace cannot be considered to be normal because of the deliberate attempt of someone to
harass another person.
Conflict and bullying is often considered to be negative elements that bring negativity
among the people as well as in the society. However, it can be seen that the rise in conflict is
normal as every person is different and may have a different take on something which others
might not agree to which needs to be respected given the freedom of speech and expression
which is the right of the people. Bullying is not normal and is mainly done in intent to harm
someone mentally and physically without any concrete reason which is not acceptable in the
society.

3CONFLICT VS BULLLYING
Reference
Berger, Christian, and Simona CS Caravita. "Why do early adolescents bully? Exploring the
influence of prestige norms on social and psychological motives to bully." Journal of
Adolescence 46 (2016): 45-56.
Desender, Kobe, Filip Van Opstal, and Eva Van den Bussche. "Feeling the conflict: The crucial
role of conflict experience in adaptation." Psychological science 25.3 (2014): 675-683.
Schott, Robin M. "The social concept of bullying: philosophical reflections on definitions."
School bullying: New theories in context (2014): 21-47.
Wolke, Dieter, and Suzet Tanya Lereya. "Long-term effects of bullying." Archives of disease in
childhood 100.9 (2015): 879-885.