Introduction
Increased social problems have led to many cases that need to be addressed by psychologists. For instance, in schools there are increased cases of students’ violence that have caused riots and other social problems in schools. Cases of sexual abuse have also drastically increased in modern society. Cases of rape are reported on a daily basis in the media just as reflection of moral corruption in the society. All these social problems are causing dilemmas among psychologists who are supposed to help in solving these problems. This paper will therefore analyze some of these dilemmas among the psychologists.
Sexually abused child
In dealing with sexual abuse in children, the psychologist would require to follow the APA (American Psychologists Association) ethical guidelines for child protection. According to the 2010 amendments on ethical principles, standard 3 on human relations stipulate that sexual harassment is solicitation of sex, physical approach, or non-verbal or verbal which has sexual undertones (APA, 2010). Therefore according in following the ethical principles and child protection laws, then there is a fundamental duty of making sure that the child is protected from abuse and neglect. This is done by psychologists: tackling sexual harassment complaints and respondents with dignity and respect; discussing limits of confidentiality; and minimizing intrusion of privacy all of which are indicated in section 5 (privacy and confidentiality) in the 2010 APA guideline.
Sexual abuse is a common dilemma that faces many psychologists due to increased cases of children and women abuse in the recent times. In this scenario a child has been sexually abused at home without telling anybody what has been happening. Sexual abuse has great effects on the life of the victim at the time of abuse and even in future (Lemieux & Byers, 2008). Post traumatic stresses are also present in adults who were sexually abused at young age (Seifert, Polusny & Murdoch, 2011). Though it depends with the duration, type and seriousness of the abuse, many people who were sexually abused when they were young has retained some problems as result of this experience. The effects of sexual abuse can be categorized into following groups; social, physical, sexual and psychological problems.
a) Psychological problems
Children who are sexual abused develop some sense of panic attacks, fears, sleeping problems, irritability, nightmares and sudden reactions. These victims also develop little confidence for themselves as a result of what they have gone through (Murtagh, 2010). Respect for themselves change as well for their own body and they start viewing themselves as less important. This view at times makes them to indulge themselves in harmful behaviors such as drug abuse, prostitution, too much sport or work and other self destructive behaviors.
b) Sexual problems
People who have been sexually abused have many problems related to sex. A spouse who may have been abused sexually has problems with making love and can easily be irritated by some behaviors or remarks that may refresh the memories the past incident. These people at times do not like making love with their spouses at all or when they do it they want just want to make less love. They also a have problem with getting sexually aroused and orgasm due to their past experiences.
c) Physical problems
Physical problems experienced by sexual abuse victims include abdominal pain, menstrual pain, stomach ache, intestinal complaints, back pain, headache, chronic pain, painful shoulders and pain when it comes to making love due to bad memories. Sexually abused people also experiences eating disorder at times.
Understanding these effects is very important for psychologist to know how to handle a victim of sexual abuse. The child who has been sexually abused is undergoing all these consequences of the child abuse. The child has been affected psychologically, socially, sexually and in many other ways. The learning process of a sexually abused child in school is affected due to neurological damage. Traumatic stress resulting from abuse usually causes some changes in the brain of a child development and functioning. According to Anderson et.al (2002) there is abnormal relaxation time in brain of a child who has been sexually abused. This and other effects in the brain will affect the learning process of a child in school. Thus a thorough psychotherapy is necessary to help the victim of child abuse to recover and live a normal life.
For psychologist to address this problem, the first step is to take the child through the process of disclosure by creating a very good environment that will enable the child to narrate all what he or she has gone through. Children who receive positive response or support after sexual abuse incident have shown little traumatic signs compared to those who received negative response especially from people who are close to them. One way of supporting these children is creating an environment where they will be able to speak out what they have gone through. This will help in the healing process of a child and reduce the effects of the incidents. It is important for a counselor to give attentive ears to what the child is saying and to take it serious rather to respond negatively. Many relatives of the victim have rejected or blamed the child for the abuse thus ending up making the effects worse to the child and thus taking no step to stop further abuse (Babatsikos, 2010). Ability of the child’s parent or caregiver to calm and shelter the child may reduce the effects of trauma.
The approach to use when dealing with a sexually abused child will depend on the following factors: age of the child during disclosure, presentation circumstances and finally the co-morbid conditions. In order to treat a child who is sexually abused, family therapy, individual or group therapy may be applied. For a child who has been sexually abused by a family member or a close relative, parental involvement is so crucial since parents are the closest people to the child. Family therapy may work best for this scenario though individual therapy also applies in all types of cases. The counselor ought to listen to all the experiences that the child has undergone through and then address them appropriately to help him or her to recover (Galvin, Christina R.; Brooks-Livingston, 2011). Understanding and addressing each and every issue raised by the child is very important in the recovery process. The victim ought to be given all the possible help which may include an advice to go to hospital for check up and treatment of all possible injuries and diseases. Sexually transmitted diseases are a common phenomenon to many people who are abused sexually (Haydon, Hussey & Halpern, 2011). It is therefore important for the parents of the child or other close relatives to make sure that the child is taken to hospital and the necessary treatment is given. Finally as GAO Reports (2011) suggest all protective measures need to be taken to prevent such occurrence in future.
Bullying in Schools
According to 2004 APA ethical guideline on bullying, the child who is a victim has to have the following characteristics. They are: sensitive, shy, anxious, depressed, insecure, lacking even a single friend, and physically weaker than peers if a boy (APA, 2004). Furthermore, the guideline proposes that bullying in schools took many forms such: physically, social exclusion, cyber bully, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual harassment, disability, and gender identity. “Therefore, the APA guide on child protection evaluation stipulates that a psychologist should strive to be aware of personal biases and societal prejudices and hence seek to engage in non-discriminatory practices (APA, 2010).”
Bullying has in the recent past become a major educational problem that needs to be appropriately addressed by any school system and especially middle level institution where it is so pronounced (Oluwakemi & Sheehan 2011). This form of bullying occurs because of diversity in schools today where students from the marginalized groups and whose culture is stereotypically considered primitive are harassed by others whose place of living and culture is perceived superior. The effects of bullying may make the student to fear attending the school for they consider it as the most unsafe place bringing unhappiness to them. They may also be isolated because others fear to be associated with them for fear of losing their identity thus they end up having no friends. According Bechtoldt, Schmitt and Kathrin (2010) bullying also inculcate stress, low esteem and depression which if not addressed appropriately may have adverse effects in adulthood. In extreme situations, bullying victims may be distressed to a point of committing or trying to commit suicide. Even when they may not commit suicide their better outcome in academic, social and economic development is hindered.
In dealing with such a victim the psychologist should use techniques which are cultural responsive such that he affirms the affected children and addresses any of the above effects which may manifest in the student. The psychologist is supposed to have awareness that bullying really happens, various form of bullying and be able to listen and help the students manage the effects of bullying. The first thing would be to create an environment enabling the students express their feelings and clearly say what has happened to them. It would be better to help them raise their self esteem so that they may be assertive. In doing this, the psychologist can encourage the student’s teachers to ignore all their irrational behaviors and reward any good behavior. They may also be taught how to be assertive more so if their self esteem is so low that they cannot say no to the bullying perpetrators as postulated by Singer (2005). Also, it would be so significant to assure them that the outside factor leading to their self esteem is eliminated and in this case bullying. The psychologist may do this by approaching the school and helping it eliminate this kind of vice in their school and assuring the affected students that they have seized being vulnerable to bullying any more.
According to Sherer and Nickerson (2010) the school may do this by having seminars involving teachers, students and parents and addressing the behaviors of every student which would enhance zero tolerance to bullying. Strategies like formation of groups of students in the school to address cultural issues affecting them, having counselors from various cultural backgrounds to address the students and having scenario cases depicting the negative consequences of bullying because of cultural diversity. Creation of anti-bullying committees can also work. Implementation of these strategies in the school will create “safe” school environment and this will have far reaching effects towards raising the self-esteem of discriminated students once they realize that they can no longer be bullied by the others. Parents can also be encouraged to give attention to their children so that they may have some sense of belongingness and also assure them their security as well as constructively dealing with their emotions so as to detect and prevent suicidal behaviors.
Juvonen et al., (2003) argue that psychologists should also ensure that these students do not lay the blame on themselves for being bullied. This avoids cases where students justify being bullied as a consequence of their status. It is not therefore good for the psychologist to bring to the attention of the students that it is not their fault to have been born where they were born nor is it a mistake to adopt their cultures. Psychologist should ensure that learners understand that no culture is superior over the other. This step is extremely essential if the healing process is to take its course properly.
Sheikh (2008) puts it that even after stoppage of bullying it is important for the psychologist to help the students deal with post-traumatic stress. These are the reminders that would bring back the pain to the students which they experienced with bullying and would appear in form of flashbacks, nightmares and physical distress. The psychologist may encourage the school to have a permanent trained therapist who can handle students when memories of trauma strike them. He can also advise these students to work through emotions out of the past memories such that with time they can be able to control the bad memories flexibly and objectively.
What the psychologist should avoid
a) Focusing how these students can bring to an end bullying through their own initiative as this would act as a confirmation to them that they themselves caused the bullying.
b) Advising them on self reconciliation with those who bullied them or with the help of their peers as mediators. First, the aspect of mediation implies that both parties have the blame which is not necessarily so in bullying. Secondly, the selected peers may not be listened by the others who are involved in bullying and this would be an avenue for their continued victimization
c) Giving advises which may not work or that has been tested and found ineffective. This is because they may think that it is their failure when the proposed strategy fails to work. The reliance on the psychologist as a resource may also diminish if whatever they are proposing has already proved not to work.
Elementary school dilemma
Conflicts in schools could be avoided through proper education and training. It is therefore important that a psychologist follows APA, 2010 guidelines on Education and training—section 7—when coming up with programs that would help students resolve their differences amicably. The principles that are advocated for in this section are: steps to ensure that programs are designed to provide proper knowledge and experience; readily available information to all parties involved; accurate programs; mandatory group or individual therapy; and assessing students coupled with performance supervision (APA, 2010)
In the article, training elementary school students to manage conflict, Johnson David et al., were faced with dilemma of how they can help elementary school students to management their conflicts in a more peaceful way. In one of the suburban school in Midwestern US, the cases of violence and the rate at which students were accessing guns were rampant. It was therefore important for Johnson and other education psychologists to come up with ways to help these students solve their problems in a more reasonable way. Due to increased societal influence, students from this school had adopted destructive strategies to resolve their conflicts. Strategies such as withdrawal, verbal threats, restating demands, informing the teacher among others were applied to resolve the conflicts that were arising amongst the students in the daily process of learning. These strategies had grievous consequences where at times students could shot their fellow students or teachers.
Garrard and Lipsey (2007) indicate that conflict resolution programs are very important to the students. In order to solve conflicts among the students, several methods can be applied. First, peer mediation programs can be used where a third party who is impartial and neutral come in to help the conflicting parties to resolve their disagreement in a peaceful way. In this process, the students in conflict agree to negotiate with the help of a third party who may be their fellow students to resolve their interpersonal issues.
According to those people who advocate for this program, peer mediation helps to minimize the cases of suspension absenteeism, detention and cases referred to the principal. On the contrary, the method helps to increase the confidence of the students as well as increasing their academic performance. This argument is also supported by the school administrators and teachers who are frequently involved in solving conflicts among the students. According to social psychologists, peer mediation method ensures that conflict resolution process is less blaming and more democratic. This will reduce the alienation mentality that may arise from autocratic and traditional methods that are sometime used to discipline the students. Again the use of a fellow student may be embarrassing to the students resolving the conflict compared to the use of a teacher. This embarrasses the students involved and makes them not to be in a conflict another time thus reducing cases of conflicts among the students.
According to Beets et al. (2009) another method that can be applied is character and social program after understanding the cause of conflicts. It is also important for the counselor to understand what is causing bad behaviors among students in order to address their problems more appropriately. There are many factors that may cause violence among students. For instance some students are misbehaving as a result of drug addiction, domestic violence such as divorce and separation, child abuse among other social problems (Hemphill, et al, 2011). Student’s counselor ought to dig deep in order to establish the real cause of violence or conflicts among the students. This is because some problems may require more than one dimension approach since they are beyond the control of the student. For example, domestic violence may affect the behavior of students in school yet they can do very little about it. Such issues are societal problems and they need to be addressed from that level rather at the school level. Conflicts that arise from drug abuse and video games may be addressed from school level as well as from society level. Understanding all these causes of conflict will help the counselor to choose the appropriate strategy to apply.
Conclusion
The approach used by psychologist to address a certain problem depends with the setting. In this study the psychologist has used school setting to address the three dilemmas. This is because the three dilemmas deal with the students problems namely; student sexual abuse at home, bullying and resolving conflicts among the students. If the setting different like in the case of corporate organization, business, clinic for mental health or even in private practice the approach would have been different. For instance in business organization, the psychologist would be dealing with dilemma of the customers where he or she seek to understand the mind of the customers (Mo, Hui & Yujie, 2011). Mental health clinic or private practice will require the psychologist to apply methods that are independent of parents or teachers but more so methods that are related to medical services. In work place the problem of sexual abuse is common and therefore a different approach is necessary (Rospenda, Richman, Wislar & Flaherty, 2000). However some strategies such as disclosure of the abused child may also apply even in work place therapy (Jones & Morris, 2007). Thus the approach that will be applied will depend with the type of setting.
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