There has been an abundance of studies that have adopted positivist approaches, employing quantitative methods, to research OCD ‘symptoms’ and their underlying neurobiology and neurochemistry. There appears to be a lack of research investigating how OCD is experienced by those living with the diagnosis, and in particular the experiences of young people diagnosed with OCD. Ten young people, aged 14-17 years old, with a diagnosis of OCD were recruited from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). The young people were interviewed and a Thematic Analysis (TA) was used to analyse data. Four themes were developed through the analysis. The first theme ‘Traumatic and stressful life events’ found that 9 out of the 10 participants experienced at least one of the following three life events just prior to the development of their OCD: ‘Hostility in the family’, ‘Illness and death’, ‘Bullying and friendlessness’. Four subthemes, ‘Lack of understanding of the behaviour’, ‘Being secretive’, ‘I thought I was going crazy’, and ‘Feeling different’, provided a richer understanding to the theme ‘Responses to signs of OCD’. The four subthemes ‘Feeling “right”‘, ‘I was taking on all the responsibility’, ‘It’s ruined everything’, ‘Everyday life is now in my bedroom’ explored the third theme ‘The battle of living with OCD’. The last theme ‘Ambivalent relationship to help’ described the conflict that most participants had over exposure therapy and accommodation of their OCD. Lastly, most participants felt the long waiting time for help was frustrating. The theme is fully explored by the following three subthemes: ‘Conflicts of exposure therapy’, ‘Conflicts about accommodation of the OCD’, and ‘Frustrations of long waiting lists’. The themes that emerged may provide important information for clinicians and the implications of the research findings are discussed. The strengths and limitations of the study are noted and there are suggestions for future research.

Teachers play a critical role in responding to, reporting, and preventing bullying. This study focuses on teachers’ perceptions of various types of bullying: physical, verbal, relational, and especially the more recent phenomenon of cyberbullying. It compares English and US teachers’ perspectives of the seriousness of these different types of bullying, thereby investigating how and why teachers have different views of how to address bullying and the different reasons they give as to why they would or would not respond to different bullying scenarios. This can possibly contribute to potential strategies to combat bullying.

The research is based on a sequential explanatory mixed methods design. In the first quantitative phase, the researcher developed two questionnaires, asking teachers for their perceptions of different hypothetical bullying scenarios, drawing on Expectancy Theory and Social Cognitive Theory. Questionnaires were adapted from those previously developed in a series of American studies (Bauman and Del Rio 2006; Yoon and Kerber 2003; Stauffer et al. 2012). They were administered to a purposive sample of teachers in both England and the US in order to provide a comparative element in two English-speaking country contexts. The questionnaires were analysed to establish whether there are differences between the perceptions and the reasons for responses for new and experienced teachers across the two different country contexts. The analyses also explored teacher perceptions of more long-term strategies to deal with cyberbullying.

In the second qualitative phase, a series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with small sub samples of teachers in both England and the US to provide additional qualitative evidence about teachers’ understandings and experiences of bullying. The interviews explored a number of topics emerging from the quantitative findings pertaining to bullying and cyberbullying, allowing teachers to comment on the survey findings and share their experiences. In addition, the analysis of the qualitative interviews offered the opportunity to provide richer descriptions and insights, building explanations and enhancing understandings. This process enables the research to investigate the degree of similarity between the quantitative and qualitative findings. The combination and integration of findings from both phases of the mixed methods study adds to the ability to triangulate findings and to explore and clarify the reasons for differences in perspectives between English and US teachers. In the mixed sequential explanatory strategy, quantitative findings reveal general trends from the data that are later expanded and investigated further within the qualitative phase. The discussion then explores the nature of the similarities and differences between these findings.

The quantitative findings suggest that three main variables predicted both US and English teachers’ responses to cyberbullying scenarios: the perceived seriousness of the situation, the confidence in one’s ability, and the location (home having less of a response than school scenarios). The qualitative findings suggest that teachers’ perceptions of severity could be shaped by current policies and the relationships teachers developed with their students; the perceived confidence in one’s self could be mediated by one’s interpretation of the school culture and the trust established with others on staff; responding to a home cyberbullying situation could depend on one’s understanding of pastoral responsibilities and the current parental involvement. This research provides new findings that can inform policy makers and practitioners in designing and implementing anti-bullying programs that are relevant to different contexts. Knowledge of teacher perceptions could prove useful as a starting point for developing a teacher education program. An understanding of the different types of bullying and cyberbullying that need attention could enable anti-bullying programs to present new and relevant material.

While relational networks have been an important part of much research into human interaction since at least the 1980s, there has been little research into network creation and decay, with much research simply creating a snapshot of an established network. Additionally, only a small number of studies have portrayed networks as dynamic and changing, instead viewing ties as binary, either strong or weak, but not something in between.

This thesis addresses both these problems using intercultural business email data to map relationships from the first introduction of two parties, to eventual decay, including stages of change along the way. A comprehensive model of dynamic relational networks is also presented, adding significant detail to the descriptions presented by prior studies, and presenting the idea graphically for the first time. The thesis uses a corpus of 1072 emails sent between a sole trader and 19 of her clients. Initially, an exploratory data analysis is conducted to present some of the structural and statistical aspects of the data. Then, using an inductive qualitative research process, tie creation is examined looking at how relationships are initiated and begin to progress. How strong functional ties are developed is then examined through linguistic strategies such as self-disclosures, multimedia sharing, and paying compliments. A systematic analysis of the usage of CMC (computer mediated communication) cues for relational work is given particular attention. The maintenance of weak ties is also examined, including using politic behaviour, adherence to one’s line, and recipient design. Tie decay, an under-explored area, is also analysed by describing how language differs before and after a break in contact, how a relationship can be destabilised and (possibly) repaired, or how it may become dysfunctional.

It is found that traits put forward by prior studies categorising relationships as strong, e.g., homophily, time dedication and trust, can be exemplified through linguistic elements in those relationships which are moving towards being strong (and, importantly, functional i.e., friendly, rather than dysfunctional, i.e., bullying). The thesis also shows how in all the business relationships presented, there is some amount of relational communication, which is important for ensuring a smooth business relationship.

Within this thesis the challenge of reducing bullying among children and adolescents in schools is reviewed (Chapter 2). The focus of this research was to examine the developmental decline in prosocial bystander responses to bullying (when a “bystander” is an individual who witnesses the bullying incident). To do so, a “developmental intergroup approach” (cf. Killen, Mulvey & Hitti, 2013; Rutland, Killen & Abrams, 2010) was applied to the context of bystander intentions. This approach suggests that intergroup factors such as group membership and identification, group norms, intergroup status and social-moral reasoning influence attitudes and behaviours during childhood and adolescence (e.g., Abrams, Rutland & Cameron, 2003; Rutland & Killen, 2011; Chapter 3). The present research examines whether this approach could shed light on why, with age, children become less likely to report helpful bystander intentions when faced with bullying and aggression among peers (e.g., Rigby & Johnson, 2006). Three studies were conducted, following an experimental questionnaire-based design (e.g., Abrams, Palmer, Rutland, Cameron & Van de Vyver, 2013; Nesdale & Lawson, 2011; Chapter 4). Study 1 (Chapter 5) showed support for examining group membership and group identification, group norms and social-moral reasoning) when understanding the developmental decline in helpful bystander responses. Two hundred and sixty 8-10 year olds and 13-15 year olds read about an incident of intergroup verbal aggression. Adolescent bystander intentions were influenced by norms and perceived severity of the incident. A significant moderated mediation analysis showed that the level of group identification among participants partially mediated the relationship between age and helpful bystander intentions, but only when the aggressor was an outgroup member and the victim was an ingroup member. Moral (e.g., “It’s not right to call them names”) and psychological (e.g., “It’s none of my business) reasoning differed by age and intention to help the victim or not. In Study 2 (Chapter 6) the role of intergroup bystander status and type of bystander response was manipulated. Two types of bystander norm (attitudinal and behavioural) were measured along with an exploratory examination of perceived leadership. Participants (N=221) read about an incident of verbal aggression where a bystander (who belonged to a high- or low-status group), either helped or walked away from an incident of verbal aggression. Helping bystanders were viewed more positively than those who walked away, but no effect of status on bystander evaluations was observed. However, moral reasoning was prioritised for high-status compared to low-status bystanders, regardless of their bystander behaviour. Additionally, bystander response (but not status) moderated the relationship between the behavioural norm and perceived leadership qualities. To further examine the role of norms a norm for helping versus not getting involved was manipulated in Study 3 (Chapter 7). Participants (N=230) read about deviant ingroup and outgroup bystanders who observed an incident of intergroup verbal aggression. Group membership was either school group or ethnicity (ingroup British and outgroup Travellers). Not only were participants sensitive to the group membership of the bystander, but they evaluated those who transgressed a helping norm more negatively than those who transgressed a norm not to get involved. Importantly this study also showed, for the first time, that children and adolescents are aware of group-based repercussions (e.g., social exclusion) if they do not behave in line with group norms. The studies presented within this thesis show strong support for considering group processes when examining the developmental decline in bystander responses to bullying and aggression and developing age-appropriate anti-bullying interventions. Further implications for theory, practitioners, policy and future research are discussed (see Chapter 8).