How Can Good Kids Behave Badly:On Bullies'Self-Justification with Moral Disengagement
In this paper,the mental process of self-justification and its interaction with bullying behavior are analyzed by cognitive dissonance theory and self-consistency theory.These theories are used to explain where students'subjective malice toward their peers comes from,why good kids can behave badly,and why people selectively choose to forget about bullying their peers.Once a student's behavior such as playful fighting causes harm,it will cause the troublemaker to have cognitive dissonance.To relieve the stress from cognitive dissonance,the troublemaker tends to engage in internal self-justification consistent with positive self-cognition.When a troublemaker with high self-esteem causes a serious injury,his self-justification is accompanied by a process of moral disengagement,in which he blames the injury accident on the victim.This kind of moral disengagement for self-absolution urges the troublemaker to justify himself with further attacks,and then the definite bullying occurs.However,bullying causes more serious cognitive dissonance and self-justification.The bullies deepen their malevolence towards the victims in moral disengagement,and finally fall into a vicious cycle of bullying and self-justification.Practice and research have shown that the Shared Concern method and the Jigsaw method can prevent bullies from falling into the vicious cycle.
school bullyingcognitive dissonanceself-justificationmoral disengagement
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