NAME OF THE UNIVERSITY

NAME OF THE FACULTY

CONNECTION BETWEEN BULLYING, NEUROTICISM AND POST-

STUDENT NAME
STUDENT ID NUMBER

TITLE AND NAME SURNAME OF THE TEACHER

CITY OF THE UNIVERSITY, 2021

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), workplace bullying, neuroticism, and the possible

repercussions of PTSD are all explored in this paper. Theoretical discoveries concerning the

definitions, nature, history, and order of post-traumatic stress disorder are provided in this

approach. Workplace bullying is offered as a potential antecedent of PTSD, which is

consistent with prior studies; it is claimed that workplace bullying can induce PTSD.

Furthermore, data suggests that stressful experiences are not the primary etiology of PTSD;

individual characteristics have a role in predicting PTSD. As a result, neuroticism as a

personality trait is hypothesized to have an effect on PTSD. As a result, neuroticism can

influence perceptions of workplace bullying. As a result, neuroticism can help to attenuate the

link between workplace bullying and PTSD. In this framework, the suggested study model

and connections between variables are addressed in light of future research recommendations.

PTSD's influence on organizational results is also explored.

Keywords: Bullying, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Neuroticism

1. Psychological Trauma and Its Importance.........................................................................1

1.2. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder......................................................................................4

2. Bullying at Work...................................................................................................................6

3. Neuroticism............................................................................................................................7

4. Research Model and Propositions.......................................................................................8

5. Conclusion.............................................................................................................................9

References................................................................................................................................11
1. Psychological Trauma and Its Importance
Psychological trauma refers to an experience that negatively affects the life of the

person after experiencing a traumatic event or witnessing an event that can be described as a

traumatic event. It means that the acquired experience is traumatic; It means that the

experienced event occurs unexpectedly or suddenly, the individual's coping resources or

capacity are insufficient in the face of the tension created by the event, and this event

threatens or harms the psychological integrity of the person. What is meant by psychological

integrity is the individual's psychological needs, psychological resources, and cognitive

schemes that he or she has about life. The past life of the person and the characteristics of the

culture in which he lives also affect the psychological trauma and whether he adapts to this

trauma (McCann & Pearlman, 1990).

Exposure to traumatic events reveals intense anxiety, fear and avoidance behavior in

the individual. Psychological traumas that exceed the individual's coping skills and leave the

person alone with fears such as losing control and losing their life; They create emotional,

mental and physical burden. Traumatic events can be both natural and man-made disasters.

Earthquakes, floods, avalanches and hurricanes are natural disasters. Events such as war,

torture, rape, bombing, displacement, traffic accidents are also human-made disasters. All

these disasters can be accepted as the predecessor or trigger of the psychological trauma

experienced (Işıklı, 2001).

1.2. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Although trauma is a word that has settled in our language to describe very stressful

situations in our daily life, it actually refers to events that far exceed the human's coping

capacity and create an excessive dose of stress. The experiences of the person are subjective

and affect whether the event is traumatic or not. Psychological trauma is also a subjective

experience. Accordingly, it is not possible for a person to incorporate the emotional

life, physical integrity, self or honor of the person causes psychological trauma. Experiencing

the event beyond the person's coping capacity means that it makes the person feel fear, horror,

helplessness, confusion, and pain. Therefore, psychological trauma is not the result of routine

events experienced in the daily stresses of life; It is possible to think of it as the inability of

the person to integrate the emotional experience that threatens his life or self and as a result of

this threat, and as a result, the person's inability to overcome what he or she has experienced.

Examples of traumatic events are wars, natural disasters, accidents, surgeries, deaths,

murders, rapes, abuses. How traumatic an event is also depends on the person who

experiences it, so psychological trauma experiences are affected by personal differences

(Giller, 1999).

Six criteria are mentioned in the guideline, last published by the American

Psychiatrists Association in 1994, to diagnose psychological trauma and post-traumatic stress

disorder. The first of these criteria defines the traumatic event, the following three criteria

define the symptoms of trauma, and the last two criteria define the continuation of trauma and

its effects on human life (Tehrani, 2004). In order to diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder, it

is necessary to determine whether the event is traumatic or not. If the person reacted to the

stressful event with feelings of fear, horror, helplessness and this event involves a real or

perceived threat to the person's own life or integrity (physical or sexual abuse, humiliation,

rape, accident, natural disaster, war, struggle, being taken hostage, torture, witnessing an

unexpected death, witnessing similar events even if they are not experienced directly) are

considered to be traumatic. If the person experiences the event repeatedly (hallucinations,

nightmares, appearance of images about the event while awake), avoids thinking about the

event or talking about the event, cannot remember the event in detail, is startled by the sounds

or movements in the environment, cannot fall asleep and sleep, has difficulty concentrating
Post-traumatic stress disorder can be suspected if all these symptoms persist for more than a

month and cause the person to experience negative stress to the extent that it harms his social

life, work life or other areas of his life (Yehuda, 2004).

2. Bullying at Work

Bullying in the workplace, which is seen as one of the most serious problems

encountered in modern business life, refers to situations such as the social exclusion of an

employee from the work group, the lack of appreciation for his efforts to do his job, and his

being threatened (Kivimaki, Elovainio, & Vahtera, 2000). Leymann (1990) emphasized that

bullying behaviors are common in daily life, but they turn into bullying when they are

exhibited regularly and for a specific purpose. Although there is no consensus in the literature

about exactly what kind of situations workplace bullying covers and which behaviors can be

considered as bullying, it can be said that definitions of workplace bullying basically contain

three elements: bullying should be defined by looking at the effect on the person exposed to

that behavior; The individual exposed to the bullying behavior should be negatively affected

by this behavior (feeling sad, needy, humiliated, etc.), and the bullying behavior should be

permanent (long-term) (Quine, 1999). If the victim cannot avoid bullying behaviors, if the

behaviors are repeated continuously and for a long time, and if these behaviors cannot be

prevented due to power differences between the victim and the bully, the victim suffers

(Leymann, 1990).

Bullying in the workplace is exhibited in a repetitive and continuous cycle; directed at

a person or group; These are behaviors that aim to intimidate, humiliate and humiliate the

victim and pose a risk to the safety and health of the employees. Tough and demanding

managers cannot be considered bullies as long as they adopt a respectful and fair attitude and

act towards meeting high performance targets. Bullying means to criticize individuals

unfairly, to blame, to treat others differently than they are, to shout, to humiliate, to follow
closely, to set unrealistic dates; They are behaviors such as causing to work under pressure

(Sharp, 2011).

Although being exposed to bullying behaviors is not considered as a traumatic

experience under all circumstances, it is a remarkable finding that the symptoms seen in

individuals exposed to bullying are similar to those seen in rape victims (Dahl, 1989).

Employees exposed to workplace bullying show symptoms of re-experiencing these events

(nightmares, visions, hallucinations); the feeling of powerlessness and negative stress

experienced by bullying as a personal attack, especially targeting the victim and experiencing

it more personally compared to traumatic events such as natural disasters and accidents,

hiding the exposure to bullying and suppressing the victim's negative emotions; It can be

explained by the fact that as bullying continues, it becomes chronic and turns into learned

helplessness (Tehrani, 2004).

3. Neuroticism

Neuroticism can be defined as a tendency to experience negative emotional states such

as anxiety, depression, guilt and anger as a personality trait (Schimelpfening, 2011).

Therefore, neurotic individuals are more prone to be anxious and depressed, and experience

feelings of guilt and anger more often. Neuroticism, also known as the opposite of the

emotional balance dimension in personality traits called the Big Five (Five General Factors of

Personality), is characterized by negative emotions such as irritability and depression.

Individuals who score low on the neuroticism dimension are emotionally stable, calm,

confident, and more resistant to stress (Robbins & Judge, 2009).

It is a finding revealed by studies that neurotic individuals tend to experience negative

emotions throughout their lives, focus on the negative aspects of events (Hemenover, 1996),
show hypersensitivity to stressful events, perceive stressful events more negatively, and react

more negatively when confronted with stressful events (Neupert, 1996).

It can be thought that individuals who experience post-traumatic stress symptoms are

neurotic, that neuroticism leads people to be more sensitive to negative situations and to

perceive such situations more stressful, therefore, neurotic employees will be more negatively

affected by the bullying behaviors experienced in their institutions, and they will be more

inclined to experience post-traumatic stress disorder caused by bullying.

4. Research Model and Propositions

Post Traumatic
Bulliying at Stress Disorder
Work Place (PTSD)

Neuroticism

In the study, post-traumatic stress disorder is considered as the dependent variable,

workplace bullying as the independent variable, and neuroticism as the conditional variable.

Accordingly, individuals who are exposed to bullying behaviors in the workplace will be

psychologically affected by these behaviors and their mental health will deteriorate, and as a

result, they will experience post-traumatic stress disorder.

workplace bullying and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Considering that personal differences will also play a role in the creation of post-

traumatic stress disorder, it is predicted that the neuroticism feature, which can be considered

in this context, will strengthen the severity of the relationship between workplace bullying

and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Hypothesis 2: Neuroticism has a conditional variable effect on the relationship

between perceived workplace bullying and post-traumatic stress disorder. A stronger positive

relationship will be seen between perceived workplace bullying and post-traumatic stress

disorder in individuals with high levels of neuroticism. In individuals with low neuroticism, a

weaker relationship will be seen between perceived workplace bullying and post-traumatic

stress disorder.

5. Conclusion

It is natural that many things change negatively in the work life of employees with

post-traumatic stress disorder, and these changes affect the institutions negatively. In this

context, a decrease in job performance is quite an expected result (Lopez, 2011). Traumatic

stress-related symptoms such as the deterioration of mental health of the individual with post-

traumatic stress disorder, loss of will to live, loss of desire to make long-term plans for his

career and life, and difficulty in concentrating and learning prevent the work from being

carried out effectively; As a result of all these, the decrease in job satisfaction and well-being

may lead to leaving the job (Tehrani, 2004).

In future studies, the relationship between traumatic stress and traumatic stress can be

understood by examining whether the employees in the institutions show symptoms of post-

traumatic stress disorder, and by measuring the job satisfaction, organizational commitment,
well-being, performance and intention to leave of the employees who show these symptoms.

Classification of employees experiencing post-traumatic stress according to information such

as gender, age, educational status, position; types of institution-related traumatic events,

personality traits of employees with post-traumatic stress disorder after these events; Attitude

differences between employees who show and do not show post-traumatic stress symptoms

can be determined. By examining the relationship between workplace bullying and post-

traumatic stress disorder by research, our awareness of how destructive results can be caused

by workplace bullying can be improved. No research has been found examining the

relationship between workplace bullying and post-traumatic stress disorder, and it has been

observed that studies on post-traumatic stress disorder are generally about victims of

earthquake and physical abuse. In particular, whether employees who are absent from work or

quit their jobs show post-traumatic stress symptoms; If these symptoms are present, it can be

considered whether the symptoms are caused by bullying behaviors experienced in the

institution. In addition, it should be kept in mind that employees with neurotic personality

traits may be more adversely affected by workplace bullying and post-traumatic stress

disorder, and these issues should be examined in future research. Increasing social awareness,

putting into practice practices related to preventing bullying, providing trainings and

institutional support on post-traumatic stress through research to be carried out can contribute

to making managers more sensitive to these issues, taking into account personal differences.

In this context, the foundations of healthier working conditions can be laid and the quality of

life can be improved.

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