The Lovegrove Approach
A BRAND NEW APPROACH TO PSYCHOLOGICAL BULLYING: ADOLESCENCE, APPEARANCE and ANTI-BULLYING STRATEGIES...
First the research: As a psychologist I was funded to complete a Doctoral thesis on adolescents, their appearance, and their anti-bullying strategies. In my survey of over 1,000 school pupils, the main cause of distress over bullying and taunting was identified as the kind that targets personal appearance. So, rather than find anti-bullying strategies that attempt to tackle all bullying, it makes sense to look at this type of bullying first! After all, there is a huge amount of research which demonstrates that although our appearance may seem unimportant intellectually, in evolutionary terms it has always been vitally important!
The problem: A major difficulty for most victims was that whilst they wanted revenge for those who upset them, they were also very anxious to be popular – which made revenge problematic!
The answer: The only people who previously received help on confrontational behaviour that targets appearance were those who had major disfigurements. So I took the strategies that this group are offered to ordinary school pupils and together we reworked, developed, and experimented until we had a set of ten successful anti-bullying strategies. Because this system was developed with young people, it is very popular with school pupils!
We found that the strategies that made us feel good about ourselves and less judgemental of others were the ones that were ultimately the most successful. To pass the usefulness test, each strategy had to:
•Aid our understanding of why bullying happens
•Empower us to cope with bullying for ourselves and others
The first two strategies we developed helped with emotional skills around bullying, the next two were problem-solving skills, and the last six were the social skills that teenagers said they wanted most.
Help! I’m being bullied published by Accent Press at £7.99
Written for families, this is an easy read on The Lovegrove Approach with practical information and exercises to practice on. It is available from bookshops and from www.amazon.com
Details of research: http://apt.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&issn=1545-1569&volume=042&issue=01&page=0033&ct=1
The Bullying Doctor
Help! I'm being bullied...
Written for families this is an easy read on The Lovegrove Approach with practical information and exercises for practice. Published by Accent Press at £7.99, available from bookshops and www.amazon.com
Julia Donaldson, author of Gruffalo books: "This book sets out a positive and refreshing approach to bullying which really makes sense to children, parents and teachers. I wish it had been around when my own children were at school."
Gervase Phinn, author and broadcaster: Emily, in her clearly written and powerfully persuasive book, considers the causes of bullying and offers so much practical and useful advice for parents and all those who work with children. She stresses that no one deserves to be bullied, that those who are subjected to bullying should realise it is not their fault. Her message is clear: bullying should never be tolerated or ignored because it won’t go away – it must be tackled. This splendid handbook should be on the shelf of every parent and teacher.
