It's easy, it works, and it makes me feel good' - A response to Arsenio and Lemerise

We welcome the comments of Arsenio and Lemerise on our original debate (Sutton, Smith & Swettenham, 1999a and 1999b). In this article we will once again clarify our position on the Social Information Processing (SIP) model: some consensus does seem to be emerging here. However, we argue that we can and should define social competence in a manner free of reference to social desirability in order to assess links with bullying skills and motivations. Moreover, we argue that focusing on motivations (such as those Arsenio and Lemerise mention that we highlight in our title) might provide both a clearer theoretical understanding of bullying and ultimately lead to a more effective set of techniques for dealing with it.