Bullying Vignettes Measure

Abstract

The Bullying Vignettes Measure (BVM), developed by Dakin, McGrath, Rhee, and Haslam in 2023, is a specialized psychometric instrument designed to assess the perceived seriousness and severity of various incidents of workplace bullying. This measure originated from a study focused on understanding how American adults perceive broadened definitions of harm in occupational settings, utilizing a sample recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.

The BVM utilizes eight distinct vignettes—short narrative scenarios based on real-life behaviors, case studies, and news reports—to effectively gauge the perceived severity of both clearly defined (prototypical) and more ambiguous (marginal) instances of workplace mistreatment. Initial validity results support the measure’s ability to differentiate between these two categories of bullying scenarios.

Keywords

Workplace Bullying, Severity, Perceived Seriousness, Employee Attitudes, Organizational Measures, Vignette Methodology, Working Conditions.

Authors

Dakin, Brodie C., McGrath, Melanie J., Rhee, Joshua J., Haslam, Nick.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Bullying Vignettes Measure is to systematically quantify the subjective assessment of severity regarding scenarios that depict different levels of workplace bullying. It serves as a tool to explore the psychological boundaries of what individuals consider harmful or unacceptable behavior in a professional environment.

By contrasting ratings between prototypical instances (clear, classic bullying) and marginal instances (less explicit or severe behaviors), the instrument aims to map shifts in employee attitudes and perceptions regarding the seriousness of various interpersonal interactions in the workplace.

Construct

The central psychological construct measured by the BVM is the Perceived Severity and Seriousness of Organizational Misconduct. The scale is specifically designed to assess cognitive and emotional judgments related to the intensity of harm caused by specific workplace behaviors, rather than measuring the frequency of such behaviors or the respondent’s personal experience as a victim.

The core methodology relies on the assumption that respondents can reliably distinguish between scenarios that represent clear instances of bullying and those that represent behaviors that fall into a broader, less severe, or marginalized category of harm, thus allowing researchers to study the expansion or contraction of what constitutes bullying in organizational contexts.

Validity

Construct Validity: The initial validation of the Bullying Vignettes Measure focused on establishing its construct validity through rigorous pretesting of the scenario materials. This pretesting successfully demonstrated a reliable statistical difference in the mean severity ratings provided by participants when comparing the set of prototypical vignettes against the set of marginal vignettes.

This result confirms that the instrument effectively captures the theoretical distinction between clear-cut and ambiguous instances of workplace bullying, providing confidence that the vignettes function as intended to elicit varying severity judgments.

Reliability

No reliability data, such as measures of internal consistency (e.g., Cronbach’s Alpha) or test-retest reliability, is currently available for the Bullying Vignettes Measure based on the information provided in the foundational study documentation.

Factor Analysis

No data concerning the underlying factor structure of the Bullying Vignettes Measure is available. Factor analysis (either exploratory or confirmatory) was not reported in the provided source material.

Instrument

Test Type: Original

Format: Participants are presented with eight narrative scenarios (vignettes) and are required to indicate how severe they believe the depicted behaviors are. Responses are quantified using a 5-point Likert scale, anchored from 1 (not severe at all) to 5 (extremely severe). The measure is structured symmetrically, comprising four vignettes illustrating prototypical bullying instances and four illustrating marginal bullying instances.

Language Available: English

Population Group: Human (Male and Female)

Age Group: Adulthood (18 years and older)

Population Details: The measure was developed and initially validated using a sample of adult participants located in the United States.

Test Methodology: The primary methodology involves scenario-based assessment and psychological judgment scaling, specifically focusing on the rigorous pretesting and assessment of construct validity.

Keywords

Workplace Bullying, Severity, Perceived Seriousness, Organizational and Occupational Measures, Employee Interaction.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier:

• Dakin, Brodie C.: orcid.org/0000-0003-1654-0813
• McGrath, Melanie J.: orcid.org/0000-0001-8632-218X
• Rhee, Joshua J.: orcid.org/0000-0002-6245-7060
• Haslam, Nick: orcid.org/0000-0002-1913-2340

Affiliation Email addresses: All authors are affiliated with the University of Melbourne. Email contact is available for the corresponding author: Dakin, Brodie C. ([email protected]). Email addresses for McGrath, Rhee, and Haslam are not available in the source data.

Correspondence Address: Dakin, Brodie C.: University of Melbourne, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, Parkville, Victoria, Australia, 3010.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: Researchers interested in utilizing the Bullying Vignettes Measure must contact the Corresponding Author for permission.

Commercial Use: Use of this instrument for commercial purposes is not permitted.

Fee: No fee is required for academic use.

Test Year: 2023.

Reference’s

• Dakin, B. C., McGrath, M. J., Rhee, J. J., & Haslam, N. (2023). Broadened concepts of harm appear less serious. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 14(1), 72–83. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506221076692

• Web Site (Open Science Framework Repository): osf.io/svtgp?view_only=027cf8e894524d69964245ce0aa8425a

Items of the Bullying Vignettes Measure

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The Bullying Vignettes Measure consists of eight distinct vignettes. While the specific content of each vignette is not provided in the given information, it is stated that four vignettes depict prototypical instances of workplace bullying and the remaining four depict marginal instances. Participants rate the perceived severity of the behaviors described in each vignette on a 5-point scale. No specific test items are available in the provided text.