Psychotic disorders are experienced by between 100,0000 and 500,000 people in the U.K. at any one time.  The symptoms which characterise these disorders are more common in the general population than previously assumed.  Studies of both adults and children have demonstrated that up to 70% of non-clinical samples endorse items related to psychotic experiences.  Pre-psychosis or psychosis prodrome has been considered influential in the early identification and intervention in psychosis.  However the experiences that have been identified as indicators of psychosis are non-specific such as quality and withdrawal and could also be indicative of other psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression.  Models of psychosis previously focused upon deficits in those with psychosis.  Current cognitive models focus more upon thinking biases such as attributional bias or jumping to conclusions.  These models move away from the idea that psychosis is experienced by people who are physiologically or biologically different from those who do not.  These models are the foundation of current psychological intervention in psychosis and aim to reduce associated stigma and shame.  The present study aimed to assess the prevalence of psychotic experiences in a non-clinical sample of school-aged children.  Associations with depression, anxiety, stress, bullying and dissociation were also investigated.  Nine questionnaires were completed by 308 14 to 16 years olds.  results indicated that 98% of the sample endorsed at least one item on the early signs of psychosis measure and 92% endorsed at least one item on both the measures of delusional ideation and hallucinatory experiences.  Psychotic experiences were significantly associated with all other factors and those who had been bullied were significantly more likely to report psychotic experiences.  This study adds further support to the continuum model of psychosis and clinical practice implications are discussed.

This thesis deals with the issue of bullying at work.  The bullying concept refers to situations where a person is persistently and over time exposed to hostile and demeaning behaviours at work.  Whether the bullying is deliberate of not, it is likely to cause humiliation, offence and distress in the target person.  In the thesis, the focus is on two aspects of bullying at work – namely prevalence rates and occupational health outcomes.  In recent years, attention has been paid to bullying and harassment among health care professionals.  Findings from several countries suggest that health professionals are frequently exposed to various kinds of bullying behaviours or acts.  Indeed, the two studies reported in this thesis point to high levels of bullying in the health sector. The studies took place in two hospital trusts, one located in Scotland and the other in Iceland.  Questionnaires were used to assess the prevalence and nature of bullying experiences in these trusts.  The study samples were large and randomly generated.  Two key methods were used to assess prevalence levels.  The first method focused on persistent exposure to undesirable behaviour at work.  The second method focused on subjective experiences of bullying at work.  An interesting disparity in findings appeared, depending on the method used.  Results from the first method consistently pointed to higher prevalence rates than results from the second method. Apart from studying local prevalence rates, the project aimed at comparing the rates from the two countries.  The results from this cross-cultural comparison pointed consistently to higher levels of bullying in Scotland than in Iceland. However, both studies showed that people were most likely to report work-related negative acts and personal derogation or isolation.  This accords with the notion that rational-appearing aggression and other forms of covert aggression are more frequently used in the workplace than are overt forms of aggression.

This study analyses the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace from a social constructionist perspective to argue that what is considered sexual harassment is different according to context.  Using this framework of structure and agency in two different countries at a particular time, it argues that sexual harassment has been constructed differently within the law in France and England during the 1990s, and that these differences are also reflected in contrasting assumptions about sexual harassment within the narratives of individuals living in France and England. In the first instance, the study compares the legal definitions of sexual harassment in France and England during the 1990s and argues that in England sexual harassment has been defined as a discrimination issue, whilst in 1992 French law on sexual harassment deliberately rejected this frame and defined sexual harassment as sex-based conduct aimed at obtain sexual favours.  The study explored the implications of the French definition of sexual harassment. The study then explores the narratives of a set of matched female student respondents in France and England undertaking secretarial courses.  It argues that assumptions relating to power and sexuality at the national legal level also exist within the micro narratives of individuals.  Two competing conceptualisations of sexual harassment are identified, that of ‘natural unreciprocated desire’, whilst English respondents are more likely to understand sexual harassment as the ‘power to discriminate’.  The study also finds particular cross-national differences in the narratives.  French respondents were more likely to express a preference for male bosses and colleagues than did the British respondents.  They also reported less concern regarding intimate relationships at work than respondents in England.  In addition, French respondents were more likely to blame women’s dress and behaviour for sexual harassment.  The empirical data identifies some overlap in conceptualisations of respondents within each country, which indicated that competing understandings co-exist and there is the potential for change.

This work has focused on the antecedents of sexual harassment as a whole, setting aside the examination of differential antecedents for the different behavioural categories of sexual harassment (gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention and sexual coercion) although different categories may be differentially determined, especially when considering the variety of behaviours involved within these. The present study aims to: (a) investigate each category of sexual harassment separately, (b) explore what person and what organisational characteristics contribute to each type of harassment, (c) examine differences in the dynamics behind perpetrating and experiencing each type, (d) examine how individual responses to harassment mediate outcomes, as well as (e) what role organisational context has in predicting responses or outcomes of harassment, and (f) to investigate gender differences within this framework. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to develop models tested on a male dominated police organisation (135 male and 125 female police officers and support staff) in the UK in the first instance, and subsequently on a more gender balanced academic institution (118 male and 84 female academics and support staff). Results suggested that, for the most part, relationships generalised across organisations, such that, male perpetrating, for both categories of harassment, was predicted by attitudes alone, while among females gender harassment was predicted by job gender context and attitudes, and unwanted sexual attention was predicted by agreeables. Experiencing harassment was a function of organisational tolerance and personality characteristics, with different patterns emerging for males and for females. The most consistent finding in outcome models was the negative impact of internal coping on psychological health.

This research is concerned with the communicative processes involved when young people talk about an anti-bullying strategy called peer support. Peer Support involves training a group of young people to support their peers in any difficulties they may be facing at school or home. The initiative tends to be implemented as part of a ‘whole school’ approach to anti-bullying strategies. This thesis focuses on qualitative analyses of discursive devices and strategies employed by young people, their teachers and trainers as they interact. The project draws on video-recorded material from 4 schools in England. The data follows groups of young people over one academic year, and include 6 days of training plus semi-structured interviews, a focus group meeting and an unsupervised discussion. All of the young people who participated in this project were either training to be supporters, trained supporters or attending a school that had a peer support system in place. I will show how traditional research into anti-bullying strategies has developed and discuss how the majority of these findings are focused on quantitative methodology. This thesis will then examine the development of qualitative research methods and show the role that language-based research can play when a different methodology is utilised. The focus of this type of research is on the voices of young people and the role that social interaction plays in constructions and formulations surrounding issues of peer support schemes in school. This type of in-depth analysis allows insight into dominant issues and dilemmas that emerge when a peer support scheme is actioned. This thesis concludes with recommendations for training programmes and highlights the major issues that implementing a peer support scheme in a secondary school may have on the young people involved. It is only through studying the dynamics of social interaction that these findings have been generated and, as such, many interesting areas of future research have emerged.

Bullying can be defined as “repeated aggression, verbal, psychological or physical conducted by an individual or group against others” (Department of Education, 1993. p.6). Once regarded as a childhood issue, the prolonged suffering of victims into adulthood, the quality of their relationships and their ability to operate effectively in the workplace is an area of concern. These children mature into adults with self-esteem issues, anxiety about life in general and feelings of inadequacy. Being the victim of bullying can persist in adulthood, as the coping skills necessary to deal with the problem have not been suitably developed. For the victims it may lead to a life of depression and low self-esteem causing problems in adult relations and accomplishments. The victims may never develop appropriate self-confidence, preventing them from engaging in adult relationships and pursuing careers. It may in extreme cases even lead to them committing suicide. The bully themselves appear to suffer in a similar manner. The skills for living a well-adjusted life are underdeveloped or simply do not exist at all. They too appear to suffer from relationship problems, a pattern of aggressive behaviour that makes familial relationships difficult; low self-esteem and high anxiety also appear to be characteristic of the adult bullies.

The findings show that the proactive-moderating (PM) approach is the one most frequently used by class teachers to tackle physical, verbal and indirect bullying. This approach seeks to tackle bullying before incidents happen, and stresses the importance of teacher-pupil interaction at the regular class level. Teachers report that the PM approach is the most effective method of tackling pupils’ bullying behaviour. The teachers clearly see their role as important in that the strategies most highly recommended to pupil victims and bullies are at the class level. There are significant differences among teachers in terms of the relationships between their perceptions of the nature of bullying, their beliefs and attitudes, their teaching experience, support from the Head and senior staff, school size, and teachers’ choice of approaches to tackling bullying. Teachers have broad perceptions of the nature of bullying, so they tend to adopt the RM and PM approaches in the classroom. The strongly humanitarian teacher has positive beliefs and attitudes towards his/her teaching and classroom management. He/she will adopt counselling skills to guide pupils’ bullying behaviour instead of using a RE or ignoring approach. Teachers with many years teaching experience tend to adopt a proactive approach (PM and PE) to tackle bullying behaviour, because they believe that prevention is better than cure. If the Head and senior staff have a clear policy towards bullying, then a proactive approach will be used in the school. Bullying incidents happen most frequently in larger schools. Hence, these schools tend to use a proactive approach to prevent pupils’ bullying. It appears from the findings that many Taiwanese teachers recognise their important roles in schools in relation to dealing with the bullying problem. Both senior staff and class teachers need in-service training, because the complex nature of bullying compounds the difficulty of detecting bullying. The provision of core material on the topic should be seriously considered as an essential part of basic training for teachers. This study represents a good starting-point for school staff to utilise in formulating a more effective whole-school anti-bullying policy, thereby helping to reduce the rate of juvenile delinquency in Taiwan.

This thesis explores the career experiences of women civil engineers in the UK and examines how women negotiate their place in a highly male-dominated profession. The thesis considers why women are under-represented in this profession, are rarely appointed to senior management positions and how changes in the business pattern of UK engineering consulting companies has created barriers or opportunities for women. Uncovering the detail of women’s career expectations and experience was more suited to a qualitative approach to data collection. .A series of semi-structured interviews was carried out with thirty-one women engineers working in different sectors of the profession. The women were in a variety of personal circumstances, including single and married women, some with young children and others with no dependent caring responsibilities. The ages of the women ranged from twenty three to fifty six years with the majority having attained chartered status. The interviews focused on factors that affect career progression and these were discussed within the three themes of subcultures of the profession, work/life balance and possible agents for change. Quantitative membership data from the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and other construction professions has been analysed to provide the context for the research. Feminist concerns about the relationship between women’s role in the private sphere of the home and the public sphere of paid work have led to a theoretical framework that draws mainly on the work of Walby and Cockburn. This has been enhanced by Greed’s gendered critique of the wider construction sector. The findings show that women feel isolated within the profession and t his isolation seems more pronounced for the few women who reach the top and also generally in the setting of the construction site. Despite attempts by some contracting firms to reform the culture of construction sites, this sense of isolation is heightened by problems of harassment in that setting. .Thus, for many women the prospect of working on site is still very daunting. .Equal opportunities policies have a low profile in the industry and this research shows that women working as professionals in construction do not see’ equality’ measures of this type as likely agents for change. The image of the profession as predominantly a ‘male preserve’ continues. and the ICE is regarded as a ‘very male club’ which admits women only reluctantly. Although women report feeling marginalised within the profession many receive personal support from individual male and female colleagues and this factor can be critical to their career progress. Moving into management is seen as necessary for career success but some women are ambivalent about the negative impacts this may have on work/life balance. The culture of long hours is dominant and this marginalises women with caring commitments and reinforces male hierarchy within the profession.

Although it is some twenty years since the establishment of the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a response to extreme psychological trauma, it is still a subject which is surrounded by controversy. This thesis takes a broad-brush approach to workplace trauma, looking at the nature, incidence and treatment of post-traumatic stress within a working environment. A traumatic experience in the workplace takes on a different meaning to employees than traumatic exposures in other settings. Using material collected from traumatised employees the organisational influences on the experience of trauma were demonstrated. This case study material was then used as a mechanism to highlight the need for organisations to consider the best way to meet the needs of traumatised workers. It was essential to this thesis to have an appropriate means to measure post-traumatic stress in the workplace. The development of the IES-E, a post trauma questionnaire, was undertaken to provide organisations with a simple reliable and valid tool to assess the levels of trauma and rates of recovery within its workers. The IES-E questionnaire provided the means to compare the symptoms of being a victim of an armed raid with those of the employee exposed to chronic bullying. The IES-E was also used to provide the means to demonstrate the positive benefits of the post trauma interventions of psychological debriefing and trauma counselling in victims of a major rail crash and a terrorist bomb blast. The requirements for organisations to manage disasters effectively led to the development of a disaster management process that was introduced into a number of organisations. In each of the businesses described, a cost benefit analysis was undertaken indicating that the management approach led to reduced costs and improved mental health.

In the third chapter, the results from a pilot study are presented, the first to be conducted in Ireland.  It examines results obtained from 30 self-selected victims, who were interviewed and given a personality test (Cattells’ 16PF5).  Factors contributing to bullying and the effects of bullying were explored, as were the victims’ personality and their perception of the situation. Organisational factors such as stressful and hostile working environments, also the senior position of bullies, their aggressive behaviour and personality were cited by victims as reasons for being bullied.  Most victims reported psychological effects ranging from anxiety to fear, and physical effects ranging from disturbed sleep to behavioural effects such as eating disorders.  In relation to personality, many victims felt they were different, and we found to be anxious, apprehensive, sensitive and emotionally unstable.  Action taken by victims ranged from consulting personnel to taking early retirement. The aim of the investigation reported in Chapter Four was to extend the pilot study and to attempt to make up for its limitations.  Thus, a control group of non-victims was employed, the number of respondents was increased, interviews were conducted in the workplace, and a revised interview schedule and a more appropriate personality test were included.  The sample comprised 60 victims and 60 non-victims, employees from two large organisations in Dublin.  Both samples responded to a semi-structured questionnaire and completed the ICES Personality inventory (Bartram, 1994; 1998).  Results showed that victims were less independent and extraverted, more unstable and more conscientious than non-victims.  The results strongly suggested that personality does play a role in workplace bullying and that personality traits may give an indication of those in an organisation who are most likely to be bullied. In an extension to the main enquiry, the history of respondents with regard to their experience of bullying at school was examined.  Four groups were formed: (1) those who had been bullied both at school and at work, (2) those who had been bullied at work, but not at school, (3) those who had been bullied at school but not at work, and (4) those who had not been bullied at school or at work.  The test results from each group showed that the victim profile was most marked for Group One; Group Four were non-victims throughout their lives; Group Three also produced non-victim profiles; Group Two were most similar to Group One.  In interpreting these findings it is tentatively suggested that Group Three (those without the typical personality characteristics of a victim) were able to shrug off the bullying they experienced at school, whilst Group two had possibly escaped bullying at school because of the support available to them from family and friends, and from being team members of school debating societies and sports teams, support that was no longer available when they were adults. A subsidiary pilot study of Chapter Four re-assessed victims with additional tests of the Interpersonal Behavioural Survey and the Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventories, second edition.  Results indicated that again, victims had high dependency and in addition, low self-esteem and direct aggression, poor assertiveness and a tendency to denial and to avoiding conflict. Chapter Five represents an attempt to examine the personality characteristics of bullies, using the ICES and IBS and a behavioural workplace questionnaire (BWQ).  Although it proved difficult to obtain a large enough sample of bullies, findings were encouraging.  Bullies proved to be aggressive hostile individuals, high in extraversion and independence.  They were egocentric and selfish, without much concern for other’s opinions.  Most bullies said that they themselves had been bullied at work. Chapter Six extends the personality profiles of bullies and victims to consider their behaviour.

My aim is this thesis is to explore how and why Korean female clerical workers have experienced sexual harassment within the organisational structure of their workplaces.  My data derives from qualitative interviews with 28 female clerical workers who work in Seoul, South Korea. However, my own position and experiences as a Korean feminist scholar are also embedded within the research process and explicitly incorporated into my analysis.  Despite having focused upon the experiences of Korean female workers, this thesis will contribute to an understanding of how experiences of women as sexual victims are embedded within the oppressive of heterosexuality and male-dominated organisational culture regardless of the socio-cultural differences of each society. In order to do so, this thesis first highlights the specificities of Korean heterosexuality and heterosexual culture whilst also examining features of organisational culture in relation to both gender and sexuality. This approach reflects my belief that incidents of sexual harassment are deeply embedded within the socio-cultural features of each society and, in particular, based upon the changing and ongoing features of gender and sexual culture.  The representative elements of Korean heterosexuality are identified as the enforcement of female sexual chastity and subservience and the permitting of solely marital sexual relations for women, while men expect varied sexual experiences. The super-heterosexual forces are interrelated with the promotion and maintenance of male-dominated and sex-discriminatory organisational culture. Thus, I understand the specific features of Korean heterosexuality and organisational culture to be the predominant contributors in the perpetuation of sexual harassment within Korean workplaces. In relation to experiences of sexual harassment, I suggest that the definition of sexual harassment is both flexible and contextual and its varieties diversely constituted within the socio-cultural features of each society.  Moreover, I discover the fact that the victims’ reluctance assertively to respond to sexual harassment is greatly affected by heterosexual and male-dominated organisational culture.  Therefore, my suggestion is that possible strategies to combat sexual harassment would be also based upon these socio-cultural features.

Bullying in schools has become an increasingly recognised problem. Since Olweus (1978) there has been an increase in research dedicated to this area, highlighting the ways bullying can be defined and its impact on the psychological well being of children and adolescents. As not all young people who are bullied experience psychological consequences, research has also examined differences in coping with