Instrument review: MMPI-2 Balducci, C., Alfano, V., & Fraccaroli, F. (2009). Relationships between mobbing at work and MMPI-2 personality profile, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and suicidal ideation and behavior. Violence and Victims, 24(1), 52-67. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/208557482?accountid=10901

The article "Relationships between mobbing at work and the revised Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventor (MMPI-2) personality profile, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and suicidal ideation and behavior" examines 'mobbing' or bullying at work and the relationship of mobbing to workers' personality profiles, as measured on the MMPI-2. One controversial question surrounding the phenomenon is the degree to which the victim's measured personality traits are the consequence of victimization or the cause. Traditionally, victims have been said to manifest a personality profile typical of a victim of PTSD (such as flashbacks, social withdrawal, nightmares) and thus their symptoms and scores on personality test were seen caused by the mobbing. Previous studies suggested that mobbing caused PTSD in 92% of cases of mobbing (Balducci, Alfano, & Fraccaroli, 2009). However, many of these studies were inherently problematic because of limited numbers and also overrepresentation of females of Northern European extraction, despite the lack of evidence that this demographic group is disproportionately 'mobbed.'

The primary factors that other studies suggest tend to lead to mobbing include "social-organizational factors and the victim's personality" and to a lesser degree "role conflict and ambiguity and a laissez-faire...

A consensus is emerging "that personality differences among victims and non-victims are more likely causes rather than consequences of mobbing" (Balducci, Alfano, & Fraccaroli, 2009). More recent studies indicated that victims of harassment were more likely to have a clinical profile of neurotic type characterized by somatitization of psychological complaints and depression, along with a significantly higher rating of paranoia than a control group. With this in mind, the researchers hypothesized that mobbing victims would show a similar MMPI-2 personality profile, along with "a clinically significant elevation on the scale assessing symptoms of PTSD" and symptoms of neurosis would be strongly correlated with the severity of the mobbing behavior to which they were exposed (Balducci, Alfano, & Fraccaroli, 2009).
Participants in the study were selected from three different mental health counseling clinics of three central Italian towns between October 2004 and June 2007, numbering 107 subjects in total. The MMPI-2 was chosen because of its widely accepted and comprehensive nature, which could be used to screen for a variety of complaints, spanning from the neurotic personality traits the researchers believed were strongly linked to being elected as targets for bullying and the PTSD which had previously been alleged was the result of being selected to be a target of bullying. This allowed the researchers to examine both their hypothesis that neurotic personality traits tended to 'cause' bullying, rather than the idea that PTSD negative symptoms were solely the result…