Do bullies have low self-esteem or a surplus of esteem & narcissism? Why I changed my mind
Do bullies have low self-esteem or a surplus of esteem and narcissism? Why I changed my mind.
It's always satisfying to read something that makes
you turn one of your views on its head. A good example is the Scientific
American article 'Violent Pride', where the traditional attitude towards
bullies and violent young men was truly trounced. It was affirmed again in
Scientific American, in 'Kiddo knows best' by Adrea Alfano, confirming the view
that relentless praise of children promotes narcissism. ‘Don’t praise
the child, praise the work’ was another excellent piece of work by Professor Black,
that relates this work directly to the classroom.
Memories
My memories of school are not good. Two tough, often
violent, Scottish, secondary schools where few went on to Higher Education. As
a bookish sort of kid, my day started with anxiety, and was punctuated by breaks
and lunchtime, which I dreaded, when predators would prowl. I'd like to say
that the classrooms were safe refuges but back then there were a couple of
teachers with leather straps, who literally broke the blood vessels in my wrist
with the 'tawse', a thick, two-tongued leather strap. I'm still burning with
the injustice of those incidents. In any case, I had many years of witnessing
the problem I'm about to describe.
Low self-esteem theory
The traditional view in schools and social work, is
that problematic, and often violent bullies, suffer from low self esteem.
When Roy Bauermeister looked for research to support this view, he found
zilch. Not content with this, he went on to complete a thorough set of research
projects to see if his hypothesis, that they have an overabundance of esteem,
even narcissism, was true.
Bullies have high self-esteem
What he found was shocking. Far from having LOW
self-esteem, they were egoistical with grandiose views of themselves. Their
inflated sense of self-importance meant that, when threatened, or perceived to
have been threatened, they turned to violence. Their research was confirmed when they extended their studies to prisoners, where murderers and
violent offenders, on the whole had high scores on self-esteem studies. Alcohol
often acted as a trigger as it boosted their esteem. In a series of clever
trials he showed that threatened egoists and narcissists were the norm in
bullying and violent behaviour, not threatened low self-esteem.
Tough on outside, weak inside?
But couldn't it be that their low self-esteem is just
hidden, deep inside? This was the orthodox view, on the back of the Freudian
paradigm, where unconscious drives lurked beneath every act. The research here
was also clear. Those who have studied violence, from playground bullies to
gang culture, have found no evidence of hidden low self-esteem. "In
contrast to a fairly common assumption among psychologists and psychiatrists,
we have found no indicators that the aggressive bullies are anxious and
insecure under a tough surface".
Don’t praise the
child, praise the work
Sounds a bit kooky but this gem of advice,
from Professor Paul Black backs the above theories up and makes perfect sense
when you look at the evidence in schools. He is not saying don’t praise your
child as a parent. This is advice for teachers when a child produces verbal or
written work for feedback. “Never praise a child, praise what they did” says
Professor Black, and by this he meant praise the work of the
learner, not the learner. To praise the student encourages two ideas that
are powerfully corrosive in learning; a) the idea that it’s all down to ability
b) the idea that the ‘teacher’ likes me. Praising the person stops students
from trying harder. Learners must believe they can change for the better.
Wait 3 seconds
Teachers have been observed to jump in
too early when asking questions (less than a second) and rely on ‘hands up’
techniques, which encourages the narcissists, extroverts and achievers but
discourages the rest. Target questions to individuals, then wait, for at least
three seconds.
Don’t pass judgement
Every answer deserves a positive
response in terms of building confidence in their work, not esteem and ability,
and not knocking them down. You have to steer between being too dominant and
too open, but steering students in the right direction is the real art of
feedback.
Right questions get right answers
Reflect on the questions you ask. Many
questions just fill time or don’t stretch the students or probe understanding. Hinge
questions are carefully structured to diagnose students, which is why coloured
cards and clickers can accelerate a teacher’s diagnosis of whole class performance.
Careful comments
Comments on student work is hard work
but some simple rules help. Avoid vague, general, “Needs more
detail….expand…add a few thoughts of your own if you can” comments. Be specific
about the error and recommend a specific action. A good comment would be,
“You’ve used ‘particle’, ‘element’ and ‘compound’ in your answer, look at the
glossary in your textbook to see how they differ”.
Dangerous consequences
Far from being a trivial issue, it is a serious lifetime health issue. The long-term effects of bullying are well known. Two thirds of teachers have experienced bullying, one
in four pupils and similar numbers in the workplace. The danger that lurks in
many schools and institutions is that staff are encouraged to boost already
bloated egos in the mistaken belief that they have low self-esteem. This is to
inflate already overblown egos to become larger and more dangerous. Praise, in
other words, needs to be tied to actual behaviour and performance, not
dispensed freely. Could it be that our schools have become more dangerous
because the bullies have been inadvertently molly-coddled?
2 Comments:
Praise the deed and not the child is based on Carol Dweck's research, I believe.
Black's work pre-dates Dweck's Mindset book - but good point - both support the same idea. I find Black more convincing as he has offers more practical advice http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Black
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