Fight or flight: A temporal-causal analysis of the behavior of a bully-victim

Abstract

This paper presents a temporal-causal network model of a (cyber) bullying victim. Temporal-causal modeling is a tool for examining complex processes by modeling internal states of an agent to examine internal processes. Bullying is a social-cognitive process, that involves mental processes which may put victims at risk for short or long-term physical and psychosocial problems. The temporal causal model for bully-victim is simulated in accordance to react the bully by fight or fly strategy. Subsequently, parameter tuning and mathematical analysis techniques were applied to the simulations to verify and optimize them with respect to patterns derived from empirical literature.