University Psychology Report: Cyberbullying Research and Findings

This report delves into the pervasive issue of cyberbullying, examining its detrimental effects on individuals, particularly within the context of social media and the workplace. The research focuses on various hypotheses related to the reduction of cyberbullying, including the influence of work, social climate, and managerial and colleague support. The study, conducted in South Sweden, surveyed a large sample of individuals, analyzing the relationship between these factors and cyberbullying victimization. The findings indicate that a poor social climate contributes to cyberbullying across different groups. The report highlights that cyberbullying is more prevalent among women than men and stresses the importance of awareness regarding the sharing of personal information online. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for further research to fully understand the sources of cyberbullying and develop effective prevention strategies. The analysis underscores the significant psychological impact of cyberbullying, including increased risk of mental illness and suicidal ideation, emphasizing the urgent need for intervention and support.

Running Head: PSYCHOLOGY
Principles of Psychology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Research on Cyberbullying........................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................3
References..................................................................................................................................4

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Introduction
With the advancement of technologies internet has become an important part of day to
day life in the recent times. On one side internet has connect people across the globe, helped
in education and financial transactions. On the other hand it has caused detrimental effects in
our life. These detrimental effects are internet addiction, cyber bullying, isolation and
suicides (Diomidous et al., 2016). This article will mainly focus on the cause of cyber
bullying stated as hypothesis and till what extent the hypothesis are true.
Research on Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is defined as an aggressive behavior caused over internet. Due to
cyberbullying young people often feel lonely, develops mental illness and other
psychological problems. Mostly young person are subjected to cyberbullying. The person
often lose confidence, starts self-doubt and isolates themselves from family and friends. In
worst cases this can cause suicide (Kowalski & Giumetti, 2017). Approximately 20-40% of
adolescent person committee suicide due to cyberbullying (Aboujaoude et al., 2015).
Forssell (2018), conducted a study to explore the possible hypothesis which can
reduce the occurrence of cyberbullying. The hypothesis stated in this study are as follows.
Hypothesis 1: Influence over work can reduce cyberbullying.
Hypothesis 2: Workplace having good social climate can reduce cyberbullying.
Hypothesis 3: Cyberbullying can be reduced by social support given by the managers.
Hypothesis 4: Cyberbullying also be reduced by social support given by colleagues.
The study was conducted in South Sweden over 140,000 individuals having age group
from 25 to 65 years. Individuals were randomly selected and was sent cyberbullying behavior

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questionnaires. Among which only 3371 individuals responded to the questionnaires (51%
men and 49% women). This study included both people at the age of retirement and young
people recently joined a job.
1542 respondents were subjected to cyberbullying out of 3317 individual who
responded to the questionnaire. 371 and 200 respondents were male and female managers.
468 and 500 respondents were male and female non-managers (Forssell, 2018).
Discussion
From the above performed study it was deduced that hypothesis 1 was not true as
there was no significant relationship between an individual’s work and cyberbullying. It was
also deduced that poor social climate can cause cyberbullying in all the four groups which
was studied, thus supporting hypothesis 2. Hypothesis 3 and hypothesis 4 were partly
supported because, there was a difference in cyberbullying in terms of gender. Women
managers had no relation between lacks of support from managers thus stating hypothesis 3
partly correct. Woman managers got less support from their colleague thus stating hypothesis
4 partly correct (Forssell, 2018).
Conclusion
With increase in the use of internet and social media cyberbullying is increasing.
Individual should be aware sharing personal information shared over social media. This is
also the leading cause of suicide among young people. From this study it can be deduced that
cyberbullying has mostly occurred in case of women than men. Although this study did not
clearly indicate the source of bullying. For this reason further studies needs to be done.

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References
Aboujaoude, E., Savage, M. W., Starcevic, V., & Salame, W. O. (2015). Cyberbullying:
Review of an old problem gone viral. Journal of adolescent health, 57(1), 10-18.
Forssell, R. C. (2018). Gender and organisational position: predicting victimisation of
cyberbullying behaviour in working life. The International Journal of Human
Resource Management, 1-20.
Diomidous, M., Chardalias, K., Magita, A., Koutonias, P., Panagiotopoulou, P., & Mantas, J.
(2016). Social and psychological effects of the internet use. Acta informatica
medica, 24(1), 66.
Kowalski, R. M., & Giumetti, G. W. (2017). Bullying in the digital age. In Cybercrime and
its victims (pp. 167-186). Routledge.