RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

(Make an introductory paragraph before presenting the context of this part)

Explanation:
Study results normally refer to direct answers to your research questions that you generate from
the data.
Discussion is about interpreting (or analyzing) your study results. When you discuss the study
results, you relate your study findings to previous studies; you contextualize the contribution of
your study. As for having them as sections in a research paper, that depends on what a researcher
wants to communicate. Some researchers would present study results first before discussing the
study findings. This strategy allows a researcher to focus on presenting the study results only in
conjunction with the research questions and/or objectives. Other researchers would prefer to
combine presentation of study results with discussion given that both are closely connected.
The conclusion summarizes the entire piece of writing.

Example:
The results of the analysis of the interview data will be presented in this chapter. The
themes identified within the data include: (a) students’ definitions of bullying, (b) the role
appearance plays in bullying, (c) students’ perceptions of how to prevent bullying, and (d)
students’ reflections on past experiences and regrets with bullying. It also elucidates the
connections between the results and the literature. In addition, it also discusses the conclusions of
this study and how they helped answer the research question. and proposes recommendations for
schools and further research into this timely and important topic.
Summary of the Findings
The research question for this study - What perceptions do college freshmen have regarding
bullying and what are their definitions of the term “bullying”? - led me to develop interview
questions about participants’ experiences with bullying and how they defined and classified
bullying. In order to be able to fully grasp the concept of bullying, an understanding of participants’
definitions of bullying was needed. These definitions encompassed the students’ perceptions of
how they viewed bullying. The analysis of student definitions of bullying led to four sub-themes:
(a) overall definitions that include both physical and verbal bullying, (b) emotional bullying, (c)
the role of power in bullying, and (d) the role of groups.
Definitions of Bullying
For the most part, students had similar definitions of bullying. These definitions focused
on what students referred to as physical and verbal bullying. For instance, to the question “How
would you define bullying?”
Tammy replied, “I don't know. Any mental or physical or psychological insult or
pain you give to somebody else….I think any time you cut somebody else down it’s
bullying…. I don't know; just anytime you cut someone down probably.”
Gloria offered a broader definition noting,
“Bullying would be walking over somebody else and trying to make them do
something that you wanted them to do and classifying it would be, I don't know how to
classify bullying, but like defining it, yeah, walking over somebody and feeling superior to
them as if you can do whatever you want to them and they have to listen to you.”
Hanna defined bullying as:
It's kind of, I don't know, like joking about somebody to their face. It could be as
little as talking behind someone's back or it could be, you know, stealing someone's lunch
or ganging up on them and making them feel threatened. It can be like a threat, like a
physical threat or just a verbal threat as in joking and mimicking and making someone feel
bad about themselves.”
While some students believed that bullying was a natural part of growing up, others were
more forthcoming in defining and classifying bullying. These definitions, and those offered by
other students suggested two major components of bullying: verbal and physical.
Most students agreed that there was a physical component in bullying. Ken viewed bullying
strictly as an incident requiring a physical element, when he stated,
“I have seen kids get picked on like verbally, but I wouldn't consider that bullying
I don't think. I mean I had always thought that bullying was like one guy kind of beating
up another guy, like, give me your lunch money type thing.”
Ken continued to define bullying as more physical,
“I would classify it as like the physical, I guess, beating up. Like one person beating
up another person; just one-sided physical encounter or something like that.”
When asked if there were degrees of bullying, he responded with,
“like you can shove someone around or you could actually punch them in the face;
I would say that’s different degrees because one is going to hurt more than the other.”
Ken was the only participant who believed that bullying only consisted of a physical
component. While this one student seemed to believe that bullying only involved physical actions,
most of the other students interviewed held the perception that there were other types of bullying
besides the physical. Paul stated that he believed that everyone would consider
“any kind of physical harm done to anybody else” as constituting bullying”.
but unlike Ken, Paul also saw a verbal component to bullying, as well as an exclusion component.
Some of those interviewed tended to view physical bullying as the highest level of bullying. Emma
noted the consequences of bullying by asserting,
“Bullying usually leads to fighting. You can look at it, a lot of people who have
been bullied, they are the kind of people who might turn around and actually cause the
violence.”
She went on to discuss the students at Columbine who were bullied and “turned around and opened
fire on the school.” After her discussion of the progression of physical bullying to violence, she
also noted that bullying is not always physical by stating,
“bullying is more using your words and maybe giving a shove or something, but
[also] fighting and violence that is actually hurting someone physically or mentally.”
Several students defined bullying as an act that could include both a physical and verbal
element. When asked how she defined bullying, Ursula stated,
“I think it can be embarrassing people in front of your peers, you know, and putting
them down or it can be physical too, bullying. I mean you can be, or it can just be you and
another person and embarrassing them and thinking you have control over them.”
Another student, Noel, concurred, noting that one of the degrees of bullying is “taunting and
teasing and name calling; that would be the lowest.” Adam stated that a big part of his definition
of bullying consists “mostly making fun of people” and that he just saw bullying as verbal, “Like
Bart Simpson. Like he made fun of people, other kids.” Adam also felt that there was “another
level where they actually physically do something to people.” Frank defined bullying as, “…
putting down another person or group of people like with words or actions.” “Threatening
somebody” or excessively “making fun of someone” constituted bullying to Jan, while Paul
believed that some people would not consider verbal abuse a form of bullying. Twenty participants
included verbal bullying within their definitions of bullying. Of course, how students responded
to verbal bullying would impact whether or not they defined it as bullying. In discussing verbal
bullying, Adam expanded on his definition of bullying. He noted:
“It’s never going to stop. It’s just a way of life. Just try to, the kids that get less
bullied are the kids that keep to themselves because people say stuff about them or they
will say stuff to them loudly, but because they ignore the stuff, it doesn't register as bullying
to them.”
Adam’s definition of bullying included a verbal element, but it was his opinion that, if negative
verbal statements were ignored, these statements might not be registered as bullying by the victim.
Harry was one student who did register what had been said to him by others, and also considered
it bullying. He stated,
“I received a little bit [bullying] in middle school, but it was just kind of like, you
know, with words and stuff like that. It wasn’t anything physical.”
Harry implied that physical bullying had a greater impact than the verbal bullying. Just as Harry
defined physical bullying differently from verbal bullying, some students noted that some verbal
statements could be even more painful than others; therefore, they should be classified differently.
While Veronica noted that just pointing and saying something or laughing could be considered
bullying, Gloria asserted:
“I guess, like, something serious is if it was something personal to them, such as,
like, something they value that you were, like morally wrong I guess, and if they would
really be offended by it by getting upset and running off crying or really getting hurt. I
guess, I don't know, there are just different things that you can like say that are over the
line and other things aren't.”
When asked for an example of something that would be over the line, Gloria said,
“Like physically hurting someone or just emotionally embarrassing them like
publicly in front of like everyone like really humiliating them by doing something they
find not comfortable…”
Lucy felt there were some verbal altercations that could be worse than others. Lucy noted,
“I really think spreading rumors is bullying and jeering at someone, jeering behind
 someone's back…. I really think spreading rumors about someone that either are true or
are more severe than what the truth is, is really bullying because I think that hurts people
more than anything.”
When asked to define “jeering” she said,
“Jeering. Just picking at someone; like keep them, I don't know; it's a term we have
always used in high school. Constantly ragging on the person; constantly, I guess, beating
them down a little bit, but not physically.”
She also noted that she did not remember much physical bullying happening and attributed that to
the fact that her school was an all-girls school. Because there was a notable absence of physical
bullying, this student may have been more acutely aware of the verbal bullying that took place in
her school. These three female students, Gloria, Veronica, and Lucy provided evidence that verbal
bullying can have various categories, or at least a range of possible levels that vary according to
what is said and how it is said. It was also implied that the intention with which a statement is
made could determine the level of bullying.
Discussion
The results of this study provided insights into various aspects of bullying and they
confirmed some of what is already known. While the definitions of bullying that emerged in this
study are in keeping with prior research, the idea of emotional bullying can be teased out and
examined as an entity in its own right. In addition, the results on the role of groups in bullying are
consistent with some of what has been found, while at the same time yield new findings that
suggest that groups are a major component of bullying, especially relational bullying. Another
unique finding was that of the influence of clothing on being bullied. Rarely found in the literature,
yet a topic that emerged in many of the interviews, clothing was seen as a very important element
in many of the cases of bullying. Research on the effects of a person’s clothing on their being
bullied is very limited at best (Yoo & Johnson, 2007). General appearance was another topic that
was revealed in the interviews. Whether it was a person’s size, weight, or clothes, there was 213
noticeable mention of appearance as a factor in many incidents of bullying that were recalled by
the participants. Another topic that emerged is the victimization of those in special education when
it comes to bullying. Based on the responses of the participants, some students receiving special
education services are the victims of bullying at school. The topics that emerged in the data provide
many insights into the phenomena of bullying, but one unique topic that emerged was that of
regrets felt by those who bully or witness incidents of bullying. The results of this study yield
timely, informative, and enlightening insight into a topic that has impacted lives everywhere. As
this research and the literature demonstrate, bullying is a problem that continues to grow and
continues to create environments less than conducive for learning (Woolfolk, 2003).