The first respect in which this paper breaks from much of the literature is that it rejects the notion that bullying behavior is carried out by a small, identifiable social group. Rather, bullying is regarded herein as a widespread social phenomenon, characteristic of the social interactions of those who would not be branded as bullies in the traditional sense. Bullying behavior is not emblematic of the mentally or emotionally disturbed bully, but rather is an inevitable result of the repeated convergence of motivating and enabling factors of bullying behavior (Zapf, 1999). For bullying to occur, the perpetrator must be willing and able to perform the behavior. The repeated coincidence of these factors is necessary because in order for a behavior to qualify as bullying, it must be repeated over time … If personality can be thought of as a stable construct, it follows that people can be expected to react to setbacks and difficulties in a manner similar to how they have in the recent past. We all face negative emotions, and many of us are imperfect in coping with them, often resulting in thoughtless behaviors or communications directed at others. The result is a set of repeated behaviors which, if directed in a hostile manner at others, might very aptly be called bullying. Therefore, many of us can be evaluated as bullies under this criterion, not in the traditional sense, but in a more broad one which does not regard us as antisocial personalities, but as social animals whose behavior toward others is shaped by our varying emotional states. A school is a particularly fertile ground for this kind of research, as students are constantly under societal and peer pressure to succeed academically. In their striving to achieve, students are often met with setbacks and disappointments which evoke the negative emotions focused on in this paper.

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• Psychology