Creating a Novel Assessment in Exploring the Impact of Workplace Bullying (303561)

Keywords: bullying, vignettes, workplace bullying, eliciting emotions, affect

A popular methodology in studying the effects of workplace bullying is the use of retrospective assessments. Unfortunately, retrospective assessments have limitations. It is difficult to explore the influence of current feelings on factors such as cognitive functioning when the assessment is exploring past feelings. The purpose of the proposed study will be to create and validate an assessment designed to elicit the feeling of being bullied in the workplace.

Participants will be asked to read a set of vignettes and mentally place themselves in the situation. The bullying feelings scale will include multiple vignettes consisting of scenarios based on the Negative Acts Questionnaire (NAQ). For example, one vignette will place the participant in a situation where s/he has underperformed on a work task due to pertinent information being withheld. To validate the target feelings have been achieved, immediately after reading the vignette, the participant will be asked to express their feelings based on a list of emotional expressions. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) will be used to document current state feelings.

It is anticipated that as the frequency of bullying vignettes increase, there will be an increase in self-reporting of negative feelings, and a decrease in positive feelings. This novel approach will provide information not available in retrospective assessments. It is possible that participants become desensitized to repetitive exposure to the same bullying act, while certain combinations of bullying acts may elicit stronger negative feelings. Indeed, this assessment will allow for an investigation into possible interactions between various bullying acts.

The benefit of the proposed study would be significant. By eliciting a bullying state, researchers could explore the immediate effects of being bullied on factors such as decision making and cognitive functioning.