Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Big Data In Social And Psychological Science: Theoretical And Methodological Issues, Lin Qiu, Sarah Hian May Chan, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Big data presents unprecedented opportunities to understand human behavior on a large scale. It has been increasingly used in social and psychological research to reveal individual differences and group dynamics. There are a few theoretical and methodological challenges in big data research that require attention. In this paper, we highlight four issues, namely data-driven versus theory-driven approaches, measurement validity, multi-level longitudinal analysis, and data integration. They represent common problems that social scientists often face in using big data. We present examples of these problems and propose possible solutions.

Weather Communication On Twitter: Identifying Popular Content And Optimal Warning Format Via Case Studies And A Survey Analysis, Joshua D. Eachus

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The use of Twitter as a channel for weather information inspires a deeper analysis of key information nodes during episodes of high impact weather, especially local meteorologists. To optimize communication on the channel, it is important to understand what kinds of messages produce exposure and attention among users—which translates to knowledge that could improve the reach of a warning. Literature identifies two key models that well describe the cognitive processing of tweets and warnings. The Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) describes risk perception and the factors that enable or disable one from acting on a warning. Particularly through environmental and …

Social Media Use And Media Literacy In Relation To Adolescents' Understanding Of The Internet, Kasey L. Powers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Digital media has permeated American culture among users of all ages. By early adolescence, youth are using and consuming media at unprecedented rates. While the majority of content consumed remains largely television and movies, often streamed through new channels like Amazon and YouTube, video games and apps also comprise a portion of the media diet. As youth enter adolescence, their usage of social media, defined as any platform that allows interactive communication in response to online posting, becomes more prevalent.

In this study, I explore Internet and social media use and its impact on adolescents’ understanding of media in three …

A Novel Surveillance Approach For Disaster Mental Health, Oliver Gruebner, Sarah R. Lowe, Martin Sykora, Karen Shankardass, S V. Subramanian, Sandro Galea

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Background

Disasters have substantial consequences for population mental health. Social media data present an opportunity for mental health surveillance after disasters to help identify areas of mental health needs. We aimed to 1) identify specific basic emotions from Twitter for the greater New York City area during Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall on October 29, 2012, and to 2) detect and map spatial temporal clusters representing excess risk of these emotions.

Methods

We applied an advanced sentiment analysis on 344,957 Twitter tweets in the study area over eleven days, from October 22 to November 1, 2012, to extract basic emotions, …

Do You “Like” Me?: Reassurance Seeking On Facebook And Depression, Callista Forchuk

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The objective of this study was to expand interpersonal theories of depression by incorporating online social behaviour. This study assessed the influence of Facebook reassurance seeking on concurrent depressive symptoms, as well as the moderating role of attachment anxiety in this relation. A sample of 458 undergraduates (68% female; mean age 18.54) completed self-report computer-based questionnaires of offline reassurance seeking, Facebook reassurance seeking, attachment style, and depression. Contrary to hypotheses, Facebook reassurance seeking was not associated with depressive symptoms. However, there was an interaction whereby, for those higher in attachment anxiety, more Facebook reassurance seeking was associated with lessened depressive …

The Influence Of Social Media On Teens' Self-Esteem, Shannon Murphy Gallagher

Theses and Dissertations

Social media has made it incredibly easy to connect the world. One can check Twitter and see what their favorite celebrity is up to, log onto Facebook to find out when a friend's birthday is, or use Instagram to advertise a new business. However, is social media doing more harm than good? The purpose of this study was to conclude if there is a relationship between social media and self-esteem, especially among teenagers. 130 participants from two high schools completed two different surveys: one to assess their social media use and the second to measure their self-esteem. Each social media …

How Social Media Is Perceived To Affect Romantic Relationship Satisfaction, Hannah S. Shockley

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

This research discusses the perceived effects of social media on relationship satisfaction. It was hypothesized that social media is perceived to affect romantic relationships in a negative way, especially in the form of jealousy and mistrust, with increased usage. Past research about monitoring romantic partners on social media, the fear of missing out in relation of social media, social media addiction, and mental and psychological effects of social media were explored in relation to the research being presented. Participants took an online survey through Qualtrics which resulted in statistically significant data that partially supported the hypothesis. The perceived effects of …

Retrieval-Induced Forgetting Via Social Media: The Mnemonic Consequences Of Posting Pictures On Instagram, Chi Lap Wong

Student Theses

Social media has become a common tool for individuals to selectively offload personal memories to the internet. Such selectivity may reinforce the posted “memory” but induce forgetting for related “memories” (Anderson, Bjork, & Bjork, 1994). To explore this possibility, the present study adopted the retrieval-induced forgetting paradigm to the context of social media, Instagram. Participants were required to write a diary attached with pictures relevant to the events and then post pictures to the Instagram, followed by the final recall test. The results indicated that posting personal pictures online induced forgetting in related memories but not pictures, and posting …

Fitspiration: Social Media's Fitness Culture And Its Effect On Body Image, Makenzie Norton

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Social media’s largest platforms, especially Facebook and Instagram, has revolutionized the average American’s accessibility to new subcultures, usurping the societal influence of traditional media forms while retaining many of their marketing methods. The following capstone research discusses how the fitness subculture and fitness-related content on social media affects male and female body image and body ideals. Through a content analysis of current literature, I provide connections between the marketing of fitness in American media and its influence on men and women’s body image. Using social comparison theory, I analyze prior research that explains the causes of body dissatisfaction and explain …

Misleading Information In Social Media News: How Bias Affects Perceptions, Amber Jackson

Honors Theses

Correcting misinformation is challenging because of the difficulty in changing biases (Ecker et al., 2013). Biased decisions are learned behaviors. People choose information that they are more frequently exposed to and from which they gather rewards (Sali, Anderson, & Courtney, 2016). Social media has become a new reward system for biased information (Neubaum et al, 2016). The difficulty of correcting misinformation multiplies as people have begun choosing social media as their preferred news platform. Social media news has recently focused its reporting on police (Sela-Shayovitz, 2015). Among participants who saw a misleading clip before a longer video of a police/suspect …

Presentation Of True­-Self, Motive And Life Satisfaction On Instagram Among College-­Aged Females, Jocelyn Apodaca

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

With more than 300 million daily users, Instagram has rapidly become one of the most widely used social networking apps worldwide. This study investigates relationships between motivations for using Instagram, whether users are portraying their true­selves and how their usage affects life satisfaction and well­being. A quantitative survey was used to collect data from 200 students at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas students. Participants were asked to provide answers regarding their habits for using Instagram, whether their online portrayal of self reflected their true self and determine overall life satisfaction. The motives studied in this research include: interpersonal …

The Lonely Scroll: The Impact Of Social Media On Loneliness In Introverts And Extroverts, Jessie D'Amico, Sarah E. Taylor, Elizabeth Hansford

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

This study examined the impact that social media had on feelings of loneliness in introverts and extroverts. Each participant received a survey based off of the NEO Personality Inventory, the UCLA Loneliness Scale and the Internet Behaviors Scale. The survey aimed to assess the relationship between social media and feelings of loneliness on different personality types. Social Media is a prevalent aspect of modern day culture. Therefore, this study aims to teach individuals how to prevent social media from negatively affecting them. The results supported our hypotheses that both loneliness and internet use, as well as, personality type and loneliness …

Loneliness In Pepperdine Students, Brandon Vandyke, Haley St Martin, Ayelen Lee

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

No abstract provided.

Fear Of Missing Out: A Moderated Mediation Approach To Social Media Use, Brynn M. Huguenel

Master's Theses

This study explores whether fear of missing out (FOMO) mediates the relation between social networking site (SNS) use and negative mental health outcomes, with moderators of Facebook activities and individual-level characteristics included. Short-term longitudinal data was collected from undergraduate students (N=296). Mediation analyses indicated that intensity of Facebook use did not predict anxiety or depression, as mediated by FOMO. Further, Facebook activities did not moderate the relation between intensity of Facebook use and FOMO, and social comparison and social connectedness did not moderate the relations between FOMO and negative mental health outcomes. Post-hoc analyses showed that social connectedness moderated the …

A Case Study On American Social Media Privacy: Facebook And Government Oversight, Sarah Fink

Commonwealth Review of Political Science

As we move further into the age of technology, there is no reason to expect the use of social media and the internet will decline. The government's inability to create a uniform technological landscape across offices and departments around the nation along with the shifting view of privacy in America has created openings for non-governmental companies, like Facebook, to collect the information freely given by citizens. This makes the privacy policies of social media companies civil rights and liberties issues for individual citizens as well as a national security concern. This paper argues that until the public, and policy makers, …

Eating Attitudes And Perception Of Peer Social Media, Sharon Smith

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

There is evidence that social factors influence eating-disordered behaviors through social modeling and social comparison. One way that researchers examine social comparison and perceptions of individuals with disordered eating behaviors is through vignette studies, but these studies may lack the nuance of how these behaviors are displayed outside of the lab, and therefore lack external validity. The current study examined how individuals who score high and low on the EAT-26 (a measure of eating behavior) perceive the eating behaviors of a fictional peer and possible social comparison target, presented in the form of a social media profile. Participants with higher …

The Role Of Media-Induced Secondary Traumatic Stress On Perceptions Of Distress, Casey Comstock, Judith Platania

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

The occurrence of Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) is well documented among helping professionals working with trauma clients. These individuals, such as nurses, social workers, rescue workers and mental health counselors, are at risk to succumb to STS after repeatedly hearing or learning of others’ traumas. The primary risk factor for STS is exposure to others’ traumas. Empirical studies have confirmed the presence of STS in the helping professions. However, few researchers have examined whether STS can also occur in laypersons exposed to secondary trauma by media coverage. In the current study, we used a modified version of the Secondary Traumatic …

Gender Differences In Social Media Use And Cyberbullying In Belize, Grace Mariko Kasahara

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Intro: Cyberbullying is a global issue that usually occurs with increased social media usage. A number of studies have found significant gender differences in social media use and cyberbullying, although gender differences are not consistent across studies. Despite the increase in access to cellphones and Internet in Belize, no studies have investigated how adolescents are using these resources. The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences involving how adolescents in Belize are using social media and if cyberbullying is a problem. Methods: A written 25 question survey was created based on previous cyberbullying and social media surveys. It …

Using Technologies To Support The Social And Academic Engagement Of Young People With Cancer, Owen Michael Donovan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Situated in the larger questions of how to support the educational engagement and positive psychosocial development of young people with cancer, the purpose of this exploratory study was to address gaps in the literature and build understanding of how young people use digital and Internet-connected technologies in ways that support their social and academic engagement. Through a multiple case-design, I examined the school-based and everyday (outside of school) technology uses of five young people. This study found that the cancer experience changed or reframed a young person’s motivational engagement with school. Doing well academically was a sign of a normalcy …

The Effect Of Social Media On College Students' Descriptive Norms Of And Intentions To Engage In Risky Sexual Behaviors, Gabrielle Groth Hoover

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Risky sexual behavior (RSB; i.e., behavior that increases the risk of contracting an STI and/or unplanned pregnancy) is common on college campuses and poses serious health risks to students. Yet, little research has examined the factors impacting students’ engagement in RSB. The current study examined the role of gender and social media in college students’ peer norms of and intentions to engage in RSB. An experimental design was used in which participants were exposed to one of four conditions (i.e., neutral or RSB content, within and without a social media platform) and then asked to report on peer norms of …