Bullying can take many forms, including physical, verbal, emotional, and cyber. No type is worse than another, as it depends on what is most effective against the victim. Verbal bullying is often the most prevalent in schools, while corporate bullying is often emotional or verbal due to legal implications.
By definition, a bully is someone who is cruel to weaker individuals. While there are numerous methods of bullying, there are four main types of bullying: physical, verbal, emotional and cyber. It’s important to remember that no one type of bullying is better or worse than another, as it depends on what is most effective against the victim. Often times, a bully will employ various methods in combination for maximum impact.
Physical bullying is the easiest type of bullying to define because it is among the most common. Injury to the person or his belongings is characteristic of this method. The bully may punch, kick, shove or spit on the victim.
Cyberbullying, as the name suggests, takes place in cyberspace. This means that any electronic communication device is a potential bully tool. This type of bullying involves various forms of harassing the victim, including posting pictures of the victim on websites against their wishes and sending the pictures via text messages to their cell phones. The bully may also show up in chat rooms to speak negatively about the target or interfere with their ability to chat.
The remaining two types of bullying, verbal and emotional, are often confused as the same thing. While similar in nature, the methods and results are often different. The goal of emotional bullying is to exclude the victim from social interactions and cause mental pain by leaving the victim in social solitude. Verbal bullying, on the other hand, does not use indirect methods such as spreading rumors.
A verbal bully will say humiliating and hurtful things directly to the victim, usually in front of their friends. The nature of harassment often makes verbal bullies harder to catch than a physical bully because there is little an authority figure can do without evidence. Of all the types of bullying, verbal bullying is often the most prevalent in schools.
Bullying isn’t limited to schools and playgrounds. Even corporate employees can find themselves the victim of harassment from a bully. When corporate bullying occurs, the bully is often someone in a position of power.
Rather than using effective management techniques, a company runs a department or business through fear and intimidation. He or she may employ one of four common types of bullying, but typically avoids physical violence due to legal implications. Cyber bullying is easily tracked, so he or she resorts to emotional or verbal bullying more often, as well as threatening to be fired.
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