Existing research into cyberbullying has tended to utilise surveys in order to understand the extent to which cyberbullying is experienced by young people in society. However, there has been little homogeneity between researchers when attempting to define cyberbullying and consequently there is disparity in how it has been operationalised. As well as this, recycling of the term ‘bullying’ brings with it certain presumptions and qualifications which may not be apt for social interactions in the new and ever evolving virtual world. Furthermore, it implicitly assumes that cyberbullying will bother young people, whilst simultaneously failing to acknowledge the situations which may bother young people but which do not constitute cyberbullying. In the present study the word ‘cyberbullying’ was thus omitted from use with participants in an attempt to circumvent the ‘trouble’ inherent with the term. The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of what bothers young people when on Facebook. A research methodology was sought which minimised the potential for researcher bias and maximised the opportunity for young people to give their personal account. Accordingly, Q methodology was employed to explore how 41 young people ranked 54 statements depicting hypothetical problem scenarios on Facebook. Participants sorted the statements according to personal significance from most agree (would bother) to most disagree (would not bother). The overall configuration of statements was subjected to factor analysis, from which a four factor solution was identified; ‘I want to protect others’; ‘I am worried about the dangers on Facebook’; ‘I know who I am and what I’m doing’; and ‘I don’t want any trouble’. The emergent social viewpoints were discussed further with four young people and an understanding was gained of what they perceived of Facebook; what action they would take if they experienced something negative on Facebook and what role they felt school should play in such situations. The findings were discussed in relation to existing literature, and the potential roles of schools and Educational Psychologists were considered. Limitations were acknowledged and recommendations for further research suggested.

While cyberbullying in education is a widely studied topic, research into workplace cyberbullying is less well represented in the literature.  There are a number of approaches taken in the literature to defining the topic which results in a lack of an agreed definition on which to base future research.  Using a qualitative approach involving in-depth face to face interviews with fifteen participants this study aimed to produce a definition of workplace cyberbullying grounded in the literature and supported by real world experience.  Additionally, a comparison of the perceptions and the prevalence of workplace cyberbullying between the public and private sectors was undertaken.  The definition of workplace cyberbullying produced was: Any act, intended to cause harm or perceived as harmful in the workplace that is delivered through digital means.  The results of this study indicate that there is little difference between the two sectors regarding the perceptions of what constitutes cyberbullying in the workplace, with email misuse being the single most reported avenue for workplace cyberbullying.  The implications of the study are that email misuse is a common cause of workplace cyberbullying in the workplace and given the high number of participants in the current study reporting experiencing workplace cyberbullying further research is recommended to quantify the extent of the issue.

There is significant research into childhood bullying and associated psychosocial difficulties in childhood. In contrast, research into the impact of childhood bullying in adulthood is sparse and predominantly quantitative. This study addresses this gap by exploring the lived experience of adults who were bullied as children. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and the data was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Participants were six women and two men, aged between 27 and 57 years of age, who experienced bullying during their childhood and adolescent years. Four superordinate themes emerged from the interviews: “The impact on the self’, “Interpersonal relationships”, “The struggle for control, power and autonomy” and “Making sense of childhood bullying experiences in adulthood”. This study’s findings have been placed in wider context to existing literature. This study has also adopted an integrative theoretical framework for the interpretation of the findings in order to understand the mechanisms and processes involved in the experiences reported by participants. Therefore, suggestions can be made for psychological interventions and therapeutic exploration in clinical work with adult clients who experienced childhood bullying. The theoretical approaches used were developmental life span, humanistic, psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioural. Clinical implications, such as control relating to coping strategies and the potential for post-traumatic stress in adults who experienced childhood bullying, are also explored. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research are discussed.