Abstract
Today more than half of the world population use the internet and online communication tools. These changes in communication has come with a pay-off, which is cyber aggression. Bullying behavior in physical space has changed its medium. Personality is one of the factors that play a role in traditional bullying and it is related to cyberbullying. Different personality theories examine personality and online harassment behavior relations from different perspectives. Biological theories focus on brain anomalies and hormone-behavior interaction. Psychoanalytic theory emphasizes how cyberspace effect personality. Trait view of personality theories found that different traits which are psychopathy, narcissism, machiavellianism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, consciousness, neuroticism are related to cyberbullying perpetration. In this study, how personality traits related to online bullying behavior is examined. Researchers clearly showed that personality is a crucial factor in cyberbullying behavior. As cyberbullying behavior is complex, there is a need for further studies.
TopBackground
Cyberbullying and Online Harassment
The explanation of cyberbullying is derived from the term bullying by adding ‘electronic forms of conduct’ to its definition (Baldry, Farrington, Sorrentino, & Blaya, 2018). Though some of the researchers argue about whether cyberbullying is the ‘same wine’ in an old bottle (Li, 2007), studies showed that bullying and cyberbullying differ from each other (Jaishankar, 2007). Main differences between two types of bullying are anonymity, publicity, connection between bully and victim, and the time and space limit (Slonje & Smith, 2008). Since publicity and anonymity worsen the effect of bullying (Sticca & Perren, 2013), cyberbullying can be considered as a more severe form of bullying.
On the other hand, online harassment is defined as the offensive behaviours conducted through electronic mediums to intentionally harm and embarrass another person (Jones, Mitchell, & Finkelhor, 2013; Ybarra & Mitchell, 2004). Online harassment behavior is seen as a form of verbal or sexual aggression. In addition, victims also experience cyber stalking, receiving inappropriate and/or pornographic messages as well as threating ones (Burke Winkelman, Oomen-Early, Walker, Chu, & Yick-Flamagan, 2015). Online harassment differs from cyberbullying in that most of the harassment incidents are not repetitive, they only happen once (Wolak, Mitchell, & Finkelhor, 2006). Even though terms are used interchangeably, statistics showed that the number of people suffering from cyberbullying and/or online harassment increases every day (Pew Research, 2018). Besides, some of the research found out that many youth are victims of both traditional and cyber bullying (Waasdorp & Bradshaw, 2015).
There is growing literature on the cause and effect of cyberbullying. Personality is among the factors that are related to cyberbullying and online harassment.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Big Five Personality: Trait theory of personality that composed of traits openness to experience, extroversion, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and agreeableness.
Narcissisms: Personality trait that is characterized with grandiose sense of self.
Psychopathy: Personality trait that characterized with antisocial behavior, lack of empathy and remorse.
Biological Theory: One of the approaches in personality psychology that focus on biological determinants of behaviour.
Psychoanalytic Theory: Personality theory introduced by Freud that mainly focus on conflict of drives and unconscious mind.
Trait Theory: One of the approaches in personality psychology that suggests personality is composed on traits which are patterns of behavior, thoughts, and emotions.
Dark Triad Personality Theory: Personality theory that is composed of traits of narcissisms, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.
Personality Psychology: One of the sub areas of psychology that study personality.
Machiavellianism: Personality trait that represents manipulative behaviours of people.