Cyberbullying and Harassment
Course #66424 -
- Participation Instructions
- Review the course material online or in print.
- Complete the course evaluation.
- Review your Transcript to view and print your Certificate of Completion. Your date of completion will be the date (Pacific Time) the course was electronically submitted for credit, with no exceptions. Partial credit is not available.
The goal of this course is to discuss a newer form of abuse—cyberbullying and cyberharassment. The course will review how perpetrators employ different digital mediums to harass their victims and the terminologies that have been linked to these harassing behaviors. The scope of cyberbullying and harassment and at what point online and offline harassment converge and diverge will also be explored. Risk factors, consequences of cyberbullying, how dating and domestic violence have been transformed by technology, theories to explain this phenomenon, and prevention and educational efforts will also be discussed.
- INTRODUCTION
- INTERNET AND DIGITAL COMMUNICATION TRENDS
- DEFINING CYBERBULLYING
- ONLINE AND DIGITAL MEDIUMS FOR HARASSMENT
- FORMS OF CYBERBULLYING
- PREVALENCE OF CYBERBULLYING
- SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ONLINE AND OFFLINE BULLYING/HARASSING
- PROFILE OF CYBERBULLIES
- PROFILE OF CYBERBULLYING VICTIMS
- POTENTIAL INDICATORS OF CYBERBULLYING
- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS USED TO UNDERSTAND CYBERBULLYING
- ONLINE DATING AND CYBERHARASSMENT
- DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AND INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE
- PSYCHOSOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF CYBERBULLYING
- RISKY INTERNET BEHAVIORS
- PREVENTION AND INTERVENTIONS
- CONCLUSION
- RESOURCES
- Works Cited
- Evidence-Based Practice Recommendations Citations
This intermediate course is designed for psychologists who may intervene in cases of cyberbullying and harassment.
While incidents of cyberbullying are becoming more common, the solution is not necessarily to avoid the Internet and other digital technologies; rather, more Internet safety education and prevention information are needed to raise awareness. The purpose of this course is to provide psychologists with the information necessary to identify and intervene in cases of cyberbullying and harassment to minimize the negative effects to patients and to improve professionals' ability to educate the public to prevent cyberbullying.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Discuss Internet and cell phone usage among different segments of the population.
- Define cyberbullying, cyberharassment, and cyberstalking.
- Identify various online platforms and how they may be used to harass or bully.
- Discuss the prevalence of cyberbullying and harassment among children, adolescents, young adults, and adults.
- Analyze the general profiles of cyberbullying perpetrators and victims, including possible indicators of cyberbullying.
- Utilize theoretical frameworks used to explain cyberbullying.
- Evaluate the health, psychosocial, social, behavioral, and academic impacts of cyberbullying and harassment.
- Identify risky Internet behaviors.
- Apply different prevention, educational, and clinical interventions for cyberbullying.
Alice Yick Flanagan, PhD, MSW, received her Master’s in Social Work from Columbia University, School of Social Work. She has clinical experience in mental health in correctional settings, psychiatric hospitals, and community health centers. In 1997, she received her PhD from UCLA, School of Public Policy and Social Research. Dr. Yick Flanagan completed a year-long post-doctoral fellowship at Hunter College, School of Social Work in 1999. In that year she taught the course Research Methods and Violence Against Women to Masters degree students, as well as conducting qualitative research studies on death and dying in Chinese American families.
Previously acting as a faculty member at Capella University and Northcentral University, Dr. Yick Flanagan is currently a contributing faculty member at Walden University, School of Social Work, and a dissertation chair at Grand Canyon University, College of Doctoral Studies, working with Industrial Organizational Psychology doctoral students. She also serves as a consultant/subject matter expert for the New York City Board of Education and publishing companies for online curriculum development, developing practice MCAT questions in the area of psychology and sociology. Her research focus is on the area of culture and mental health in ethnic minority communities.
Contributing faculty, Alice Yick Flanagan, PhD, MSW, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Margaret Donohue, PhD
The division planner has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Sarah Campbell
The Director of Development and Academic Affairs has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.
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The role of implicit biases on healthcare outcomes has become a concern, as there is some evidence that implicit biases contribute to health disparities, professionals' attitudes toward and interactions with patients, quality of care, diagnoses, and treatment decisions. This may produce differences in help-seeking, diagnoses, and ultimately treatments and interventions. Implicit biases may also unwittingly produce professional behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that reduce patients' trust and comfort with their provider, leading to earlier termination of visits and/or reduced adherence and follow-up. Disadvantaged groups are marginalized in the healthcare system and vulnerable on multiple levels; health professionals' implicit biases can further exacerbate these existing disadvantages.
Interventions or strategies designed to reduce implicit bias may be categorized as change-based or control-based. Change-based interventions focus on reducing or changing cognitive associations underlying implicit biases. These interventions might include challenging stereotypes. Conversely, control-based interventions involve reducing the effects of the implicit bias on the individual's behaviors. These strategies include increasing awareness of biased thoughts and responses. The two types of interventions are not mutually exclusive and may be used synergistically.