The Effects OF Social Media on Psychological Well-being

FERNANDO SALAZARUNIVERSITY OF DALLAS

PROBLEM

- The use of social media has increased dramatically (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, Zickuhr 2011). With the emergence of an “online self” how does social media effect things like psychological well-being, addictive tendencies, and academic performance?

PREVIOUS LITERATURE

Observed effects in personal factors like internet addiction and self esteem, as well as social factors such as peer relationships and online image.

Wilson, Forsier, & White (2010) found that self esteem positively predicted addictive social networking use and suggested its use as social stimulation.

Stefone (2011) found that amount of time spent managing profiles significantly regressed on contingency of self worth.

PREVIOUS LITERATURE

Shaw (2002) found that scores in self esteem significantly differed after an online chat session, suggested social communication could be beneficial.

Kalpidou, Costin, and Morris (2011) found negative correlations between number of Facebook friends and emotional/academic adjustment, but a positive correlation between social adjustment.

Kramer & Winter (2008) found people with high self efficacy significantly differed in number of friends, and number of words on profile, compared to those with low self efficacy.

HYPOTHESES

H1: Self esteem and GPA will negatively predict Facebook Compulsivity

H2: Differences between men and women in FB compulsivity, GPA, and Self Esteem

H3: Men and women differ in ranked FB activities

PROCEDURE

Non-probabilistic convenience sample 40 University of Dallas students Administered the Facebook Compulsivity

survey, Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem test, and a ranking of Facebook activities

Administered in two different classes

SURVEY

I measured Facebook compulsivity on a 5 point Likert scale.

Questions: “I feel anxious and upset when I cannot access my Facebook page” and“ I feel excited and energized when I access my Facebook page”.

Measured Self-Esteem on a 5 point Likert scale

Questions:“I feel I do not have much to be proud of” and “I feel that I have a number of good qualities”

SURVEY

Self reported GPA was measured on a 5 point interval scale

Ranked Facebook activities (most frequent/less frequent)

Ranked Examples: “Viewing profiles other than your own” and “Monitoring friends’ activity from your home page.”

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

Regression was conducted, with Facebook compulsivity as the dependent variable and GPA and self-esteem scores as the independent variables.

Independent samples t test was conducted to see if mean self esteem scores differed between men and women.

Wilcoxon test on ranked differences in FB activities between gender

RESULTS

ANOVA Model Sum of

Squares

df F Sig.

Regression

302.746 2 3.203 .032

Residual 1701.613

36Predictors: (Constant), SE, GPADependent Variable: FB

Coefficients

Dependent Variable: FB

GPA was a significant predictor of Facebook compulsivity:F(2,36)=3.203, p=.032GPA negatively predicted Facebook compulsivity R2=.151, β=-.350, t=-2.275, p=.029

Self-esteem was not a significant predictorβ=.161, t=1.050, p=.301

Model Std. Error

Beta t Sig.

GPA 1.960 -.350 -2.275 .029

SE .318 .161 1.050 .301

RESULTS

Model F Sig. t df Sig.(2 tailed)

GPA 16.093 .000 -1.828 31.18 .077

FB .043 .837 -1.540 38 .132

SE .255 .617 -1.082 38 .286

Independent Samples t-test

Men and Women did not differ on:

GPA, Self Esteem, or Facebook Compulsivity

Model Gender Mean Std. Dev.

GPA Male 4.1000 .31623

Female 4.3793 .62185

FB Male 19.1000 7.34015

Female 23.0667 6.96263

SE Male 31.9000 3.07137

Female 33.3000 3.67799

Wilcoxon Test

z p

0.23 0.81Men and Women did not differ on FB activities ranking

DISCUSSION

Studies like Shaw (2002) seem to point to online communication as supplemental to the need to communicate socially, while Kalpidou, Costin & Morris (2011) and Wilson, Fornasier & White (2010) seem to oppose to this as they found it had adverse effects emotionally.

Larger scope of studies conclude that internet and social networking use can be detrimental or beneficial to the user depending on the frequency and type of interaction the user engages in.

LIMITATIONS

I did not have a large representation of males in my sample.

My participants were all students of psychology

DIRECTION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Could there be a difference in FB compulsivity according to major?

T-test on FB compulsivity and major Greater diversity of major in participants Better representation of males and females Kalpidou, Costin & Morris(2011) found

differences in Facebook use between upper and lower classmen

Since GPA was the only significant finding, investigate differences in FB activities ranking between high/low GPA to see how these groups differed

OVERVIEW

My study succeeded in finding an association between compulsive Facebook tendencies and academic performance, but failed to reproduce findings in psychological well-being

Adds to the body of literature that highlights the association between this new medium and our personal lives.