1. Identify the most important step in the student’s guide to research that you would need in order to analyze bullying.
2. Define the identified critical step of research in your words.
3. Explain how bullying relates to one (1)of the following topics:
   1. the agents of socialization (i.e., family, teachers and school, peers),
   2. formal organizations (i.e., conformity to groups),
   3. different types of deviance (i.e., everyday deviance, sexual deviance, or criminal deviance).

Research into bullying

After I have watched the video regarding bullying and genocide, I would say that two steps from the student’s guide to research are really important to analyze bullying. They are framing the research question and taking into consideration the ethical implications. In the video, Barbara Coloroso has shed profound light on bullying, its causes, its implications and how to prevent not just our kids from becoming bullies but our generations. One of the definition of bullying that is put forward is that “bullying is getting pleasure from somebody else’s pain”. When I see at this definition, I am compelled to think about focusing on the first step to research i.e. framing a research question. Framing a research question in this regard is important as the type of research question regarding bullying would shape the direction of the research. I would also take into full consideration to weight the ethical implications. Bullying itself is and ethical, social and legal issues and all these aspects should be taken into consideration when researching bullying.

Bullying and formal organizations

Group conformity comes into action when there is unquestionable obedience to authority. In such a situation the people in the group would do anything that is told to them by the authority in the group. They would not ask question as all of them would be doing the same thing, even a criminal activity, and would find it ok as it depicted a group behavior. As explained in the video, we do not tend to get out of our own little boxes and have a really simplistic view of the world when we are in a group conformity situation. Coloroso states in the video “what causes genocide is a group of people who would not ask question.” When you lose the ability to question, you lose the ability to distinguish right from wrong.