The Case for Projective Techniques in the Clinical Study of the Adult Bully Chris Piotrowski

        A search of the mental health literature confirms the fact that while there is extensive extant research on children or adolescents who bully, there is limited investigatory focus on the adult bully. Two diagnostic domains that shed some light on adults who bully are the Dark Triad and the Adult Bully Syndrome, where personality features such as narcissism, Machiavellianism, sub-clinical psychopathy, callousness, and dominance inform the clinical profile. Based on this conceptualization, the current article proffers that projective measures are ideally suited in the assessment of intrapsychic dynamics and overt behaviors of adults who harbor bullying tendencies. The author presents bibliometric evidence and cites research studies which show that projective tests have the potential to tap the key personality features of adult bullies. Hence, projective assessment can guide both clinical research or psychological evaluation/treatment of the adult bully.

Introduction:

        While there has been an extensive research focus on the effects of bullying and cyberbullying on victims (Kerzner, 2013; Piotrowski, 2012; Roland & Munthe, 1989; Sourander et al., 2007), there has been diminutive investigatory interest on the psychological characteristics of bullies per se. This has been particularly evident for the study of the adult bully, although research on latent psychological features and overt behaviors of adults who bully has been reported in the recent literature (Glaso et al., 2009; Vaughn et al., 2010). In the area of organizational psychology, workplace bullying by adults has been an active area of research over the past decade (Kowalski et al., 2018; Paludi, 2015; Piotrowski, 2012). Interestingly, there has been academic interest in understanding the dynamics of bullying of faculty and staff by administrators in higher education (see King & Piotrowski, 2015; Piotrowski & King, 2016).

        In order to advance our understanding of the psychological nature of the adult bully, researchers have focused on the study of personality characteristics of adult bullies (e.g., Fossati et al., 2012; Gini et al., 2011; Goodboy & Martin, 2015; Linton & Power, 2013). Moreover, several prominent characteristics of adult bullies are concordant with the central dynamism of the „Dark Triad‟ (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism, and sub-clinical psychopathy; see Lyons, 2019 for a review). Indeed, prior research has shown that „Dark Triad‟ personality traits are linked to bullying styles in adults (Baughman et al., 2012; Piotrowski, 2018; van Geel et al., 2017). Recently, Balakrishnan et al. (2019) found strong empirical support on the association between personality traits such as the Dark Triad and cyberbullying.

        In this conceptual framework, Piotrowski (2015) synthesized research findings from the scholarly literature on breadth of mental health aspects in relation to bullying behavior and introduced the term „Adult Bully Syndrome‟ to reflect the pervasive constellation of pathological traits that depicts bullying behavior in adulthood. This designation features several salient and key clinical aspects that are concordant with common personality disorder traits, such as Machiavellianism, narcissism, dominance, self-centeredness, and lack of empathy.

        The central thesis of the current study proposes that projective techniques could play a key diagnostic role regarding the propensity to bully by adults via the identification of the constellation of personality features noted in the Adult Bully Syndrome. To that end, this study reports on a bibliometric analysis of the mental health literature to examine the extent and breadth of research studies with a focus on various projective tests and malevolent, dysfunctional personality characteristics.

Method:

The repository of extant mental health scholarly literature for this analysis was the database PsycINFO. In order to target studies with a major focus on personality characteristics specific to the Adult Bully Syndrome, the online procedure limited the search output based on these terms appearing in the Abstract of references. Each projective measure was subjected to a Boolean procedure that linked each test with the specific personality characteristic. Table 1 presents the number of peer-reviewed articles for each test across 6 key personality traits.

Table 1. Number of Peer-Reviewed Articles in PsycINFO

Findings:

        Observation of the results in Table 1 shows there has been and continues to be a moderate level of investigatory focus on the issue of narcissism related to the Rorschach and TAT, and to a lesser extent with Sentence Completion measures. Interestingly, there was tepid scholarly interest using these 3 projective techniques on aspects of personality such as Machiavellianism, ruthlessness, dominance, coercion, and self-centeredness. However, these findings confirm that select projective tests could be used as a diagnostic , screener‟ regarding the propensity to exhibit bullying in adult populations, particularly related to the personality trait of narcissism.

        Table 2 presents several key studies that support usage of projective measures in both research and practice regarding bullying characteristics. Very recently, researchers have developed assessment instruments to target bullying behavior in adults (e.g., McLoughlin et al., 2021). Mental health professionals, as well as researchers, should consider relying on established measures and clinical tools as part of the assessment armamentarium, including projective techniques. At the same time, clinicians need to be cognizant of the fact that adult bullies are qualitatively different from the child or adolescent bully (see Ireland & Power, 2004; Schulz-Kraszewski, 2018). Hence, findings from projective tests may reveal psycho-diagnostic patterns and/or dynamics that can guide both comprehensive assessment and therapeutic intervention.

Table 2. Select Studies Using Projective Tests & Bullying Styles

Adult Bully Syndrome: 17

References:

Balakrishnan, V., et al. (2019). Cyberbullying detection on Twitter using Big Five and Dark Triad features. Personality and Individual Differences, 141, 252-257.

Baughman, H.M., et al. (2012). Relationships between bullying behaviors and the Dark Triad: A study with adults. Personality and Individual Differences, 52(5), 571-575.

Fossati, A., et al. (2012). Bullying as a style of personal relating: Personality characteristics and interpersonal aspects. Personality and Mental Health, 6, 325-339.

Gini, G., et al. (2011). Bullies have enhanced moral competence to judge relative to victims, but lack moral compassion. Personality and Individual Differences, 50, 603-608.

Glaso, L., et al. (2009). Interpersonal problems among perpetrators and targets of workplace bullying. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 39, 1316-1333.

Goodboy, A.K., & Martin, M. (2015).The personality profile of a cyberbully: Examining the Dark Triad. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 1-4.

Ireland, J.L., & Power, C.L. (2004). Attachment, emotional loneliness, and bullying behavior: A study of adult and young offenders.

Aggressive Behavior, 30(4), 298-312.

Kerzner, S. (2013). The crucial role of the “third” in bully/victim dynamics. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 33(2), 116-123.

King, C., & Piotrowski, C. (2015). Bullying of educators by educators: Incivility in higher education. Contemporary Issues in Educational Research, 8(4), 257-262.

Kowalski, R.M., et al. (2018). Bullying and cyberbullying in adulthood and the workplace. Journal of Social Psychology, 158(1), 64-81.

Linton, D.K., & Power, J.L. (2013). The personality traits of workplace bullies are often shared by their victims. Personality and Individual Differences, 54, 738-743.

Lyons, M. (2019). The Dark Triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy in everyday life. San Diego, CA: Elsevier.

McLoughlin, L.T., et al. (2021). The Cyberbullying Picture Series (CyPicS). Psychological Reports, 124(3), 1370-1383.

Paludi, M.A. (Ed.). (2015). Bullies in the workplace: Seeing and stopping adults who abuse their co-workers and employees. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.

18: Piotrowski

Piotrowski, C. (2018). The Dark Triad in leadership research: The Adult Bully Syndrome in action. Psychology & Education, 55(3), 101-110.

Piotrowski, C. (2016). Adult Bully Syndrome: An integrative conceptualization based on personality disorders framework. Psychology & Education, 53(2), 91-98.

Piotrowski, C. (2015). Adult Bully Syndrome: A bibliometric analysis on concordance with personality disorder traits. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 42(1), 1-3.

Piotrowski, C. (2012). From workplace bullying to cyberbullying: The enigma of e-harassment in modern organizations. Organization Development Journal, 30(4), 44-53.

Piotrowski, C., & King, C. (2016). The enigma of adult bullying in higher education: A research-based conceptual framework.

Education, 136(3), 299-306.

Roland, E., & Munthe, E. (Eds.). (1989). Bullying: An international perspective. London: Fulton.

Schulz-Kraszewski, S. (2018). Schemes, well-being, and bullying in young adults. Dissertation Abstracts International, 78 (11-BE), na.

Sourander, A., et al. (2007). What is the early adulthood outcome of boys who bully or are bullied in childhood? Pediatrics, 120, 397-404.

Van Geel, M., et al. (2017). Which personality traits are related to traditional bullying and cyberbullying? A study with the Big Five, Dark Triad, and sadism. Personality and Individual Differences, 106, 231-242.

Vaughn, M.G., et al. (2010). Psychiatric correlates of bullying in the United States: Findings from a national sample. Psychiatric Quarterly, 81, 183-195.