Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg

Faculty of Human Sciences

Institute of Human-Computer-Media

Media Psychology

The Dark Side: Cyber Bullying

Expert Paper

Master Seminar „Psychology of Online and Mobile Communication“

Winter Semester 2019/2020

Dr. Silvana Weber

Submitted by Angie Do

Matriculation Number: 2193333

Semester: 1

E-mail: angie_yin_an.do@stud-mail.uni-wuerzburg.de

Telephone Number: 015908190784

Address: Stauferstraße 60, 97074 Würzburg

Deadline: 14. 01. 2010

Agenda

1. Introduction 3

2. Summary of the research 3

3. Personal thoughts 4

5. References 6

6. Declaration of authorship 7
1. Introduction

In recent years, online communication has assumed increasing importance in the daily lives of
emerging adults. Adolescents are using digital technologies primarily to form or maintain
relationships and are more and more integrating these devices into their real, offline worlds
(Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2018; Cummings, Butler & Kraut, 2002). For this reason,
there has been a growing research interest for the influences of digital communication on
online behavior (Erreygers et al., 2017). Previous work has revealed several opportunities and
risks of communication via digital technologies. In this paper, different types of online social
behavior will be discussed, with a special emphasis on the construct cyberbullying. The aim
of this work is to provide an overview on the topic and present findings on how the use of
digital communication technologies have an effect on people´s online social behavior. The
current expert paper concludes with the own thoughts of the author.

2. Summary of the research

With regard to negative aspects of these technologies, cyberbullying appears to be one of the
most studied topics. Workplace cyberbullying in particular is a growing problem and has
evolved into one of the most prevalent types of harassment in the work enviroment (Coyne et
al., 2017).

The term has been most frequently defined as a series of repeatedly, negative acts that are
carried out by an individual, using electronic forms of contact against a victim who has
difficulties in defending themself. These antisocial behaviors are initiated by a perpetrator via
online or wireless communication devices, such as social media or e-mail (Coyne et al.,
2017), that are characterized by an intent to injure and a power imbalance (Erreygers et al.,
2017).

However, cyberbullying is by no means a new phenomenon. Tradtional bullying in the

workplace has long been present and is a societal issue particularly in the healthcare and
commuity care sector. Indeed, offline bullying seems to be the most worrying type of
workplace violence experienced by nurses (Ontario Safety Association for Community &
Healthcare, 2009). Severe negative consequences of bullying have been identified in the
literature, including serious influences like stress, burnout or symptoms of depression (Coyne
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et a.l, 2017; Ontario Safety Association for Community & Healthcare, 2009). Likewise,
cyberbullying can affect victims in a negative manner, such as anxiety, decreased well-being,
intention to leave or job dissatisfaction (Coyne et al., 2019).

In a paper from 2012, Piotrowski reviewed the fundamental literature on traditional bullying
and cyberbullying in the workplace. The findings indicate that many employees feel
defenceless and vulnerable to online bullying from fellow co-workers. However,
organizational leaders prevalently do not appreciate the serious effects that cyberbullying may
have on employees.

Coyne et al. (2017) conducted two studies that examined the role of bullying mode, type and
target relationship on bystander responses to bullying at work. To compare the effects of
online and offline bystander behavior and the influence of personal and work-related scenario,
the first study used a repeated measures ANOVA to predict bystanders´ intervention intention.
Results illustrated a siginficant effect of bullying mode and type. Bystanders were least likely
to agree with the victim online and more likely to reinforce the perpetrator when the bullying
was work-related. Moreover, the second study focused on the effect of target closeness and
how bystander behavior is influenced by weather the victim is a close friend or a work-
colleague. The evaluation of measurement results based upon a mixed ANOVA indicated a
small effect. This shows that bystanders tended to defend the target and were less likely to
support the perpretator when the victim was a friend.

Great attention is devoted to the negative consequences of digital communication.

Nevertheless, there is a study looking at the risks and opportunities of online communication
simultaneously. Erreygers et al. (2017) examined how the role of emotions and digital media
use is affecting online prosocial and antisocial behavior. In a post-hoc analysis, a structural
model was tested with media use as a mediator between emotions and online social behavior.
Findings showed that participants´ experiences using online technologies are more often
prosocial than antisocial. In addition, using digital media for entertainment or informal
communication purposes was positively related to all types of online social behavior.
Therefore, the more negative and positive emotions adolescents experienced, the more they
used audiovisual and social media.

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After the review of the literature, some own thoughts are expressed to this topic in the
following chapter.

3. Personal thoughts

The use of digital communication technologies appears to have a lot of different influences on
its users. Coyne et al. (2017) demonstrated that bystanders´ intervention intention to respond
is influenced by the mode, the type and the relationship to target. There was indeed an effect
of target closeness on bystanders willigness to take some action. However, these effect sizes
were small. As a result, future research should additionally examine other moderating
variables that may effect adolescents´ behavior, such as awareness of bullying, tolerance of
bullying or country culture.

As mentioned before, a key problem with much of the literature on digital communication
effects is that most research is devoted to the negative affects of these technologies. In the last
decades, there has been a plenty of media attention on risks of using digital tools. Evidence
for a positive influence of digital communication could also be found. Erreygers et al. (2017)
showed that adolescents performed and received more prosocial than antisocial behavior
online. But due to the lack of studies examining positive effects of online communication,
more research is needed to conform these findings. Besides media use, it is possible that there
are other existing influential variables that may mediate the association between emotions and
online social behavior. Future research could benefit from investigating other variables such
as the content and valence of the media messages.

Furthermore, despite their relevance there are only few longitudinal studies on this topic. The
benefit of this type of research is that it allows researchers to look at changes over time and to
improve the validity of the inferences (Wang et al., 2017). Thus, future research should focus
more on the effects over time.

In conclusion, digital communication seem to have positive and negative effects on users´
intentions and online behavior in the cyberspace. Even though cyberbullying is a rising issue
and a harmful problem behavior (Piotrowski, 2012; Coyne et al., 2017), it should be taken
into account that there are potentially many other benefits and opportunities of online devices,

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which have not yet been sufficiently investigated. There is still limited research on the
favorable impact of using digital communication technologies.

4. References

Coyne, I., Gopaul, A.-M., Campbell, M., Pankász, A., Garland, R., & Cousans, F. (2017).
Bystander responses to bullying at work: The role of mode, type and relationship to
target. Journal of Business Ethics, 157(4), 813-827. doi:https://doi.org/
10.1177/1059601118820966

Cummings, J. N., Butler, B., & Kraut, R. (2002). The quality of online social relationships.
Communications of the ACM, 45(7), 103-108. doi:10.1145/514236.514242

Erreygers, S., Vandebosch, H., Vranjes, I., Baillien, E., & De Witte, H. (2017). Nice or
naughty? The role of emotions and digital media use in explaining edolescents´ online
prosocial and antisocial behavior. Media Psychology, 20(3), 374-400. doi:https://
doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2016.1200990

Ontario Safety Association for Community & Healthcare. (2009). Bullying in the workplace:
A handbook for the workplace. Toronto: Ontario.

Piotrowski, C. (2012). From workplace bullying to cyberbullying: The enigma of e-

harrassment in odern organizations. Organization Dvelopment Journal, 30(4), 44-53.

Subrahmanyam, K., & Greenfield, P. (2008). Online communication and adolescent

relationships. Future of Children, 18(1), 119-146.
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Wang, M., Beal, D., Chan, D., Newman, D., Vancouver, J., & Vanenberg, R. (2017).
Longitudinal research: A panel discussion on conceptual issues, research design, and
statistical techniques. Work, Aging and Retirement, 3(1), 1-24. doi:https://doi.org/
10.1093/workar/waw033

6. Declaration of authorship

I herby declare that the expert paper submitted is my own unaided work. All direct or indirect
sources used are acknowledged as references. I am aware that the expert paper in digital form
can be examined for the use of unauthorized aid and in order to determine whether the expert
paper as a whole or parts incorporated in it may be deemed as plagiarism. For the comparison
of my work with existing sources I agree that it shall be entered in a database where it shall
also remain after examination, to enable comparison with future theses submitted. Further
rights of reproduction and usage, however, are not granted here.This paper was not previously
presented to another examination board and has not been published.

Würzburg, 14.01.2020
Ort, Datum Unterschrift

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