Maria Cristina Lorusso PROJECT ON ENVY AND BULLYING

I made a project and research on envy and bullying in a school in Piedmont

GIORNO 30/06/2021

Project and research on envy and bullying year 2020/2021

Maria Cristina Lorusso

In the year 2021 I carried out a research on bullying and envy at a secondary school in Lanzo Torinese (Piedmont) where I worked as a professor of Human Sciences, dedicating part of the scheduled hours to the project on Envy and bullying. This survey aimed to understand the relationship between envy and bullying and the presence of these two problems in the school considered.

I gave a sample of 63 students an anonymous questionnaire with 20 questions in classes I, II, IV and V. To define the classes I used unknowns and the letter Z instead of the actual letters. The 1X was made up of 7 students, the 2X made up of 18 students, the 4X made up of 6 students, the 5X made up of 16 students and the 4 Y made up of 5 students and a 5Z made up of 11 students. Before starting to fill out the questionnaire, the students listened to a brief presentation on the two issues being researched: bullying and envy. Usually, I always dedicate the first 30 minutes to training so that the kids can answer questions in an informed way.

I explained to the students, who were part of the analyzed sample, how envy arises, a negative emotion that appears suddenly following a confrontation with the other. This state of mind is very widespread in recent times. Envy is a hidden and strong emotion that invades the life of the human being without him noticing it, an insidious evil that makes man angry, leading him to carry out wrong actions against the envied subject. You can feel envious of an object, a personality trait, family, friends and the boyfriend of the other. Bullying is also a very widespread phenomenon in our society, and is now known by all young people and children, but still occurring in schools and outside. The bully targets the weakest and most different subject, the one who somehow manages to attract his attention due to some fragility, but not only. The bullied subject may also be envied by the bully and hated because he has something different (eg he may be the best in the class). The data from the questionnaire allowed me to better understand the problem of envy among adolescents, its manifestation and

the percentage of bullying in school.

The results of the survey:

71% of the students of the Albert Institute think that the others are luckier than them, while 27% did not and 1.6% did not answer. 63.5% say that there are people who are luckier than others, but they don't deserve it.

This last figure highlights an alarming situation because students due to envy fail to understand the efforts of others and the effort they have made to achieve the goals they want. In fact, one of the disadvantages deriving from envy is the inability of the envious person to understand and know the envied subject. The envious person feels for the envied a feeling that hinders mutual knowledge.

24% of students say they have commented on another person's action or work in a negative way to affirm themselves. 13% claim to have denigrated others but realized they were wrong, while only 6% of the total said they had denigrated others because they thought they did not deserve what they had or for some specific aspects of them. We know that denigration and disqualification of the other are very common behaviors among envious people but also in the bully-victim dynamics. The desire to assert themselves is very strong especially during adolescence, a period in which children develop and build their identity.

Humiliation serves the subject troubled by envy to affirm himself and is an important indicator of this emotion, but in these classes it seems that students are able to inhibit such moods. Often, their reactions are manifested by theft and vandalism, in some cases integrated into bullying. 24% of students say they have stolen and ruined an object that did not belong to them, 14% say they often have the desire to steal, 8% say they have it very often, luckily 78% say they never have this desire.

When asked have you ever wanted other people's items? 84% say yes (Fig. 1). From this result it emerges that on the one hand, students let themselves be infected by fashions and desires transmitted by the consumer society, on the other very often they transfer many of the qualities of the person who possesses it to the object.

Fig. 1 Have you ever wanted other people's objects?

This data is confirmed by the fact that 70% of young people declare that they have envious friends (Fig. 2) for 44% of cases of some aspects of the personality, for 19% of an object, for 19% of beauty, for 14% of clothing, for 10% of the family, for 31% of friendships and for 11% of boyfriends (Fig. 3).

Fig. 2 Have you ever had envious friends?

32% of students say they are envious of girls, while 16% say they are envious of boys, 16% of both and 35% of none. Very often envy arises precisely among two friends to a comment from a third person. This emotion pervades the soul of adolescents, ruining the relationship between girls, an important protective factor during adolescence.

Fig. 3 What were they envious of?

I think that the theft of the object or the momentary appropriation are precisely to be linked to the desire to take possession of some qualities of the other that the boys are unable to have. In fact, most of them claim to envy some personality characteristics of others such as extroversion, sociability and optimism. In any case, the desire for the other's object can also be linked to economic conditions, sometimes so severe as to favor a deviant attitude.

One of the most alarming data of the entire survey is the following: 46% of students think that there are reasons that justify the theft! One of them wrote that theft can sometimes be justified, it depends on the situation. Most of the boys, however, do not consider theft as a punishment against the richest boy, but simply a moment in which the student, due to his incessant desire for the object dictated by envy or other motivations, decides to take it without thinking. to the consequences. In fact, only 1.6% say they want to punish the richest people. Also, to the question: In front of a successful man, what do you feel? 9.5% respond that they have an adverse feeling but have not expressed it, 76% think they are lucky to have met him and 5% that they are angry because he was not like them. Envy is manifested and felt only by one part of the sample, while the other part, even if he feels the desire to possess what the other has, does not suffer from it. On other occasions, students have declared that they keep their envy hidden in front of successful people, in fact 63% of them say they don't feel anything, 17.46% say they miss the object, 14.2 % declare, on the other hand, that they feel mortified, 63% of students declare that they feel nothing.

To the question: Have you ever heard comments within your family that hid envy for one aspect of the other's personality or for a property? 33% of the students said yes, this means that families are not yet able to contain their judgments and the desire to negatively comment on the actions of others in front of their children.

Envious comments within the family can generate bad habits, it plays a fundamental role during the child's development and for this reason it is important to educate him from an early age to esteem and love others. There are envious parents who spend most of their time talking to relatives about the fortunes of others, without evaluating the effort they have made to achieve these goals. If children listen to these arguments they get used to speaking ill of others and act superficially and lightly.

The phenomenon of bullying is quite extensive, 65% of students claim to have been bullied and only 9.5% claim to have been the perpetrator of bullying. Out of 41 subjects who said they had been bullied, 73% claim to have been teased, 34% that stories were spread, 15% suffered offenses for their geographical origin, 12% suffered threats, 10% theft, 7% suffered physical violence and 5% damage to property. For 41.46% of students, the bully was from the class, for 41.46% from the school and for 17% from outside the school. 75% of teens who have been stolen say it may have been caused by envy and 34% of 41 boys who have been bullied also state that such acts may have been caused by envy, a high percentage do not respond or he writes sentences in which he explains his perplexities saying: most likely they could have been caused by envy.

Some students report:

I was not bullied but I witnessed a scene of bullying on the train. It happened that one girl was envious that the other had made friends with her ex-friend. This girl threatened to beat her out of her if she didn't tell him what she said.

I was indirectly bullied, this guy hated me and started spreading stories about me by ganging up with other girls and other guys. Even now when they see me on the street they laugh and start making verses and jokes.

I was being teased verbally and physically, I suffered a lot and my head was in confusion, I just thought the world was against me. It is because of this, even if only in part, that I had difficulties in things in life, especially in relationships with girls who did not want me not only because of my ugly appearance, but also because of the

mistreatment I suffered,etc.

I have been the victim of teasing about my physical appearance or my being in a quite serious way. I asked for help but the teacher did nothing, this led me to not believe in myself and to have many insecurities.

At the end of the questionnaire, I made a complementary training session to the initial one on envy, in which I explained to the students what they should do if they feel attacked by the pang of envy. First, they must try to convert this emotion into emulation and esteem, putting it out and openly declaring their admiration for their mate or what they have. The knowledge of the other and the love for the other are sometimes hindered by the bite of envy, and it is therefore necessary to calm down and try to understand this emotion and replace it with admiration. Furthermore, during this workshop the students intervened and answered three other questions:

1- What are your favorite features of the other?

2- What do you hate about yourself and what do you prefer?

3- What are the characteristics of yourself that you prefer?

Considering their answers, I can conclude that the students especially envy parts of the personality of others such as sociability, extroversion, the ability to be sincere and direct, the ability to contain anxiety, while only a few only the physical aspect.

They declare that they cannot bear parts of their personality such as psychological fragility, anxiety, shyness and excessive sensitivity. They describe themselves as very sensitive and good guys while they tend to emphasize aspects of the other's personality that concern extroversion, the ability to be direct and sunny.

When asked what are the characteristics of yourself that you prefer? Students declare that they know how to help others, that they are very empathetic, generous and able to give advice.

Signature

Prof Maria Cristina Lorusso

Bibliography

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