Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Relationship Between Social Media And Conspiracist Thinking On Covid-19 Vaccine Uptake, Gillianne Nugent

Senior Theses and Projects

Previous research has found a relationship between COVID-19 vaccine conspiracist beliefs, social media use, and COVID-19 vaccine uptake. The current study aimed to expand on previous findings to investigate the potential moderating effect of social media on the relationships between conspiracist beliefs, trust in experts, and political conservatism on vaccine uptake. Additionally, the current study examined two age groups (20-30 year olds and 50-60 year olds). Trust was measured using a Trust Scale (developed by researchers); Vaccine conspiracy beliefs were measured using an expanded version of the Vaccine Conspiracy Belief Questions (Shapiro et al., 2016); Frequency of social media use …

Creating Whole Inclusive Worlds: The Impact Of Social Media Usage On Black Gender Expansive Millennials’ Experiences Of Social Support And Identity Development Processes, Meredith J. Holmes

Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the processes of finding community and developing one’s own intersectional racial and gender identity through the social media (SM) experiences of 8 Black gender expansive (GE) adults located around the United States. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology and an intersectional theoretical framework, the research questions guiding the study were: “What is the relationship between Black gender expansive people, social media, and community?” and “What is the relationship between Black gender expansive people, social media, and identity development?” The researcher’s findings from in-depth interviews with participants included three major themes: A) Positive Resilience-Supporting Experiences on SM, …

Social Media Reliance And College Students' Tendency To Conform To Online Behaviors And Trends, Emily Grucello

Honors Theses

The importance of social media is undeniable among college students who frequently turn to online platforms as a form of recreation. While researchers have analyzed the influence of social media on emotional factors, fewer researchers have investigated if reliance on social media has an impact on public behavior and conformity habits. Therefore, the current study assesses if user reliance on two common platforms, TikTok and Instagram, are associated with conformity levels. Data collection came from a sample of 124 college-aged participants. Results found a significant correlation between conformity and Instagram reliance (r = .31, p < .001), as well as conformity and TikTok reliance (r = .32, p < .001), such that higher levels of conformity was associated with higher reliance on Instagram and TikTok. These findings highlight the importance of understanding how consumption of social media has the potential to alter the decisions and behaviors of young adults.

An Exploratory Research On The Sexualization Of Young Women On Tiktok, Grace Schmerz

Student Theses

This study adopts a mixed-method approach, utilizing both qualitative content analysis and quantitative metadata assessments to evaluate 1000 TikTok videos tagged under specific hashtags suggestive of youthful and sexualized themes. Qualitative findings highlighted the characteristics of sexualization through thematic content analysis, sorting behaviors, attire, and the context of music and speech within the videos. Themes such as sexualized postures, sexualized attire, sexualized dancing, sexualized speech, and sexualized gestures were categorized and quantified with the support of descriptive statistics. The study found a significant presence of sexualization in the sample, most prominently in post-pubescent women. Quantitatively, engagement metrics provided insight into …

Attachment (Avoidance And Anxiety) In Relation To Marital Satisfaction In Couples Born Between 1980 And 2000, Shevanthi Kanaganayagam

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This quantitative correlational study examined the relationship between attachment styles (Anxiety, Avoidance) correlated to marital satisfaction in heterosexual couples living in the U.S., born between 1980-2000, and the moderating role of social media use. Attachment styles develop during the infant stage through interactions with adult caregivers. It is apparent from research results that early attachment styles affect how a person interacts, impacting satisfaction in adult romantic relationships (Sandberg et al., 2015). The emergence of social media platforms, including Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, has given people new ways to communicate with each other, build networks, and share information. According to research, …

From The Outside Looking In: Transmasculine Narrative Identity, Experiences, And Larger Narratives On Social Media, Micah Roldan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Narrative identity development is an essential process in how individuals perceive themselves and the world around them. Often, narrative identity is studied in cisgender heterosexual individuals and applied to others without the acknowledgment of individuals that fall outside of these categories. Drawing upon existing literature and autoethnography, this thesis aims to meaningfully bridge this gap by studying the narrative identity development of transmasculine individuals through the lens of social media. This thesis proposes that the use of social media to share gender transition journeys has created a new digital trans and queer narrative for users and viewers. This narrative is …

Tiktok And Self-Diagnosing Mental Illnesses: Perceived Reliability Factors, Vulnerabilities, And Dangers, Micah Moulder

Undergraduate Honors Theses

TikTok’s popularity and ease of use with short-term consumption allow for greater access to online information. However, this information is not regulated nor fact-checked. Therefore, many users can acquire and spread the wrong messages, behaviors, and ideas surrounding mental illness. The purpose of this research was to examine the effects and factors of TikTok on self-diagnosing mental illnesses. A large literature was conducted to examine the effects of social media and the harms of self-diagnosing on users. Two studies were then developed and administered to determine the relationship between self-diagnosing and TikTok. Correlations, t-tests, and descriptive statistics were used to …

Identifying Youth Appeals In Alcohol Alternative Social Media Content Through Framing, Melina Oneal

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Proposed regulations for alcohol advertising prevent beverage companies from targeting people under the legal drinking age. However, similar regulations for alcohol alternative beverages are less explored, which could allow alcohol alternative products to create awareness for alcoholic beverages among youth. Alcohol alternatives beverages, including no-alcohol and low-alcohol products, are increasing in popularity and can function as compliments to alcoholic products to decrease the total alcohol volume consumed or as substitutes for alcoholic products. Framing theory can be operationalized through the Content Appealing to Youth Index, an index of content elements found in research literature to be appealing to youth, to …

The Influence Of Tiktok And Social Media On Body Dissatisfaction And Disordered Eating Behavior In College-Aged Women, Ariana R. Faraci

Senior Theses

This thesis aims to evaluate the impact of social media, especially TikTok, on body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behavior in college-aged women. Previous research established connections between increased social media usage and body dissatisfaction and between the type of content viewed on social media and body dissatisfaction. In addition, several studies showed a connection between body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behavior. To investigate the impact of social media on body image and body dissatisfaction in college-aged women at the University of South Carolina, I collected data using a self-report survey that asked participants questions about which social media platforms they …

Psychophysiological Impacts Associated With Social Media Use, Lindsey Hieber

Theses and Dissertations

Social media has become increasingly relevant to everyday life since its inception, with new social media applications being created regularly. There has been some research regarding social media use and mental health; with studies finding both negative and positive mental health effects possible. TikTok, one of the newest and fastest growing social media applications has not been studied thoroughly to investigate potential mental health effects. The psychophysiological impacts of social media use have not been explored at all. An initial survey was done to investigate personality and mental health effects of social media use as well as if the reasonings …

Does Twitter User Activity Promote Gambling-Related Content?, Marcos Lerma, Rory A. Pfund Ph.D, Adrianna J. Valencia, E. Halle Smith, James Whelan Ph.D

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Social media has provided gambling operators with access to millions of individuals and novel ways to promote gambling. Research has suggested that exposure to gambling advertisements on social media platforms is associated with increased gambling in individuals at-risk for problem gambling. These findings bring into question whether social media platforms are sensitive to differences in user account activity (e.g., tweets, likes, accounts visited) when displaying advertisements and gambling-related content.

To assess for these differences, four Twitter accounts were created and assigned to send out tweets containing pro-wagering versus safe-wagering-related messages. Additionally, one of each account was assigned to interact with …

The Impact Of Social Media Use On Social Isolation And Mental Health Among Young Adults, Mariana Romo

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Social media use has become part of the everyday routines of society. It is very common to see people, especially young adults, be involved in more than one social media platform. It is also known that because of the features of social media less in-person interactions are required, which brings up the question of whether people feel more lonely or socially isolated with the increased use of social media platforms. Due to this increasing attachment to the use of social media and its possible relationship with social isolation and loneliness it is important to understand if there are any implications …

Problematic Phone Use As An Emerging Risk To The Comorbidity Of Social Anxiety And Depression, Haley O'Dwyer

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The co-occurrence of social anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder is among the most
prevalent of all mental health comorbidities. Social Anxiety has many negative effects on a
person’s life, including impaired functioning in a relationship or occupation. Depression greatly
affects individuals, making people feel low self-esteem among peers and feelings of isolation.
Developmental theories have begun to recognize that disengagement from social interaction is a
common feature of SAD and MDD and may play an important role in SAD/MDD comorbidity.
Problematic phone use is an emerging risk factor for the comorbidity of social anxiety and
depression. High social media …

The Impact Of Instagram Usage On Body-Esteem In Young Women In College, Kirsten Etzinger

Honors Projects

Instagram as a platform is increasing in popularity, especially among young women. Young women may use Instagram to keep up with their peers, follow trends, or as a way to express themselves. However, it is evident that young women can be negatively affected by the content they are exposed to on Instagram. This study examines the impact that increased Instagram usage can have on body-esteem in young women in college by evaluating their degree of Instagram usage, motivation to use social media for body comparison, and feelings of body-esteem. An online survey was conducted with BGSU college-age female students and …

Project Avatar: Utilizing The Power Of Social-Media To Share Stories Of Hope, Elizabeth Cremins

Honors Theses

Addiction affects everyone and the stigma around addiction and its’ recovery makes it exponentially harder for individuals to heal. Today, adolescents are exposed to drugs, alcohol, and related substances from younger ages than ever before and the age of first consumption of these substances is continually decreasing. Further, social media makes it easier than ever for these young people to see substance-related content. Most teens and young adults today check their social media daily—if not hourly. Due to the young age of first exposure to substances coupled with the near-constant exposure that social media provides, addiction is an ever-present problem …

Linguistic Predictors Of Engagement On Anti-Incel Forums, Daniel Beutler

Student Theses

This thesis examines the determinants of social media engagement with extremist views in general and misogynistic ones in particular. The study, which is a part of an ongoing, large-scale examination of online hate, examined posts from r/IncelTears, a sub-forum in the long-form social media Reddit dedicated to attacks on the Involuntary Celibate (‘Incel’) digital communities. Previous research on engagement – and by extension virality – of online posts has broadly implicated linguistic markers of affect, morality, extremism, and social identity. This exploratory study correlated metrics of online engagement such as the number of Upvotes and Comments that each post garnered …

Researching How Excess Social Media Use And Filters Affect Trust, Ula J. Mccarthy

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In the present day, excessive social media use has become synonymous with the younger generation. Prolonged social media interaction has resulted in new terminology describing the compulsive need for internet and social media use: internet addiction. This is a new term, and while it has not been defined as a clinical addiction used in acute care settings (Zahrai et al., 2022), it is important to understand its symptoms, like excessive social media use. Given the rapid speed of social media integration in modern society, it is important to investigate how excessive social media use (ESMU), as defined by Zahrai et …

Personality And Social Media Use, Joshua Pearson

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study seeks to examine the connection between social media usage and the Enneagram personality model. This connection will aid in a better understanding of what motivates individuals to use social media. The information found in this study will be applied to understanding behavioral addiction. This understanding will allow more personalized treatment for individuals already subject to these behaviors and preventive treatment for those more susceptible to behavioral addiction to social media. In order to find the connection between social media use and the Enneagram personality model, a survey including an Enneagram personality inventory, a social media use inventory, and …

Examining Social Media Use, Connectedness, And Depression In Graduate Students, Marisa Gretz

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between social media use, sense of connectedness, and depression among graduate students. Graduate students are at risk of depression and often disconnect from their social supports due to their program's demands. Literature on the impact of social media on depression is discrepant. The relationship between a sense of connection, the use of social media, and depression in a graduate student population is a novel area of research. Graduate students at The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) and other universities, including healthcare and non-healthcare-related disciplines, were included. Participants were recruited via social media or email. …

Perceptions Of Active Social Media Adults’ Mental Health After Participating Online With Uncivil Political Discourse With Out-Group Members, Bridgette Eastman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Online incivility that occurs in the comment sections of social media sites has become increasingly prevalent. Much of this incivility occurs in the context of political debate. Previous research has indicated that heated political debates online can lead to increased levels of emotional distress and that individuals have the capacity to become addicted to a variety of activities that take place on the internet. Using the theoretical lens of the social identity model of individuation effects, this study explored the impact of online political incivility on the mental health of individuals who engage in this type of behavior. This study …

Scrolling Through The Years: Social Media's Effects Of Self-Esteem In Younger And Older Adults, Ryan Brown

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The detrimental impact social media has had on self-esteem in younger adults is well documented. However, this same approach to studying social media’s impact has not been applied to older generations, who were already well into adulthood as social media as we know it today began to emerge. Due to this, my project proposes to examine an interaction between the variables of three different social media categories (interactive, image/video, and informational) across younger and older adults. The results of this study could provide further insight into the effects social media has on self-esteem, specifically, the effect of different types of …

The Relationship Between Young Adult Attachment And Loneliness Factors With Their Childhood Social Media Usage Patterns, Kenneth Walter Mark

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Social media use has become an integral and often ignored part of children’s lives because it is rationalized not to be detrimental to their future development. However, childhood social media use was associated with insecure attachment styles and possible loneliness issues emerging in young adulthood. Past research examined social media use and secular attachment in the present only, without examining spiritual attachment or loneliness levels. This is the first research study to explore longitudinally the relationship between past childhood social media use and current young adult (aged 18-24) secular attachment, spiritual attachment, and loneliness levels. The population (N = 149) …

The Impacts Of Problematic Social Media Use On Youths: Evaluation And Treatment Recommendations, Carianne Archer

Dissertations

Youths’ frequency and time spent on social media continues to increase over the years parallel to the growing concern of the status of the mental health of youth. This critical literature review project focuses on the impacts that social media use has on youth (ages 8 to 18 years) and what methods of evaluation and treatment are being used clinically, with recommendations provided to clinicians based on the available literature. The questions that guided this review included: What are the impacts of social media on the self-concept and interpersonal functioning of youths?; What clinical presentations are associated with youths who …

The Negative Effects Of Social Media Sites On Adolescents And The Benefits Of Evoking Empathy Through Reading, Lindsay Everson

Honors Program Theses and Projects

This thesis describes the rise in narcissistic behaviors, cyberbullying, and mental health issues in adolescents ages 13-19 due to frequent social media usage on sites such as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. The rise in narcissistic behavior, cyberbullying, and mental health issues among teens places prominence on the need for adolescents to engage in activities that evoke empathy. To combat the issues that come with an adolescent’s frequent social media usage this paper reveals the benefits of reading when it comes to evoking empathy in teens. The paper concludes that evoking empathy in adolescents through reading encourages them to contribute to …

Evaluating Privacy Adaptation Presentation Methods To Support Social Media Users In Their Privacy-Related Decision-Making Process, Moses Namara

All Dissertations

Several privacy scholars have advocated for user-tailored privacy (UTP). A privacy-enhancing adaptive privacy approach to help reconcile users' lack of awareness, privacy management skills and motivation to use available platform privacy features with their need for personalized privacy support in alignment with their privacy preferences. The idea behind UTP is to measure users' privacy characteristics and behaviors, use these measurements to create a personalized model of the user's privacy preferences, and then provide adaptive support to the user in navigating and engaging with the available privacy settings---or even implement certain settings automatically on the user's behalf. To this end, most …

Distress And Growth In The Black Community, Devin A. Noel-Harrison

Research Psychology Theses

Racial discrimination is an unfortunate reality that people of color regularly experience. This leaves lasting impacts on the health of individuals and communities. With the increased use of social media, videos depicting violence against black bodies are widely circulated. The consequences of being exposed to these race related traumatic events online (TEO) can be damaging to the mental health of the black community, maybe even more so if one’s racial identity is important and salient to their overall wellbeing. Though witnessing these race related TEO often lead to posttraumatic stress, positive change may also be possible known as posttraumatic growth.

The Effect Of Brief Exposures To Fitspiration Images On Motivation To Exercise And Body Image Concerns In Latinx College Students, Roberto Sagaribay

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Social media is used by three quarters of the population; however, the literature has suggested its potential adverse impact on mental health. Social media behaviors are associated with body image dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviors. Fitspiration is an extension of social media that consists of photos and messaging aimed toward motivating users to exercise. Studies have demonstrated how these posts impact body image concerns and unhealthy weight management behaviors to achieve the thin and toned body ideal. Thus, the aim of this study was to experimentally assess motivations to exercise, body image concerns, and negative mood after brief exposures to …

The Effects Of Twitter Posts Regarding Covid-19 Information On The Viewer’S Perception Of Credibility: A Study On Misinformation, Grace T. Long

Honors Theses

In the current age, social media plays a large role in daily life. Although there have been massive advancements through social media, there have also been disadvantages due to its prominence. One such disadvantage is the dissemination of misinformation through social media platforms, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are many aspects affecting the social media posts we find credible. This study investigated the different evaluations of COVID-19 credibility ratings in groups with varying political affiliations (conservative and liberal) and primary news sources (social media and newspaper). Misinformative posts along with true posts were used to garner credibility ratings and …

The Effect Of Viewing Appearance-Based And Self-Compassion Social Media Content On Body Image, Emma J. Sullivan, Jennifer A. Harriger Phd, Janet P. Trammell Phd

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

The present study investigated the impact of viewing appearance-focused body-positive content versus non-appearance focused self-compassion content on a person’s self-image. Previous studies have demonstrated that viewing body-positive content improves body self-esteem. Additionally, self-compassion content may be a protective factor against body dissatisfaction. Although body-positive content is associated with increased body self-esteem, some question remains whether the continued focus on appearance is an effective strategy. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to examine whether non-appearance based content provides benefits above and beyond those provided by body positivity. It was hypothesized that those who viewed non-appearance based content would report …

An Investigation Of The Personality Traits That Could Identify Vulnerable Young People Who Will Be Susceptible To Undue Influence By Social Media Influencers (Smis) - Edi Research And Practice Showcase 2022 Presentation, Charles Alves De Castro, Isobel O'Reilly, Aiden Carthy

Other Resources

The annual EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) Research & Practice showcase is a platform for researchers and practitioners at TU Dublin to present and discuss their work on EDI related issues. Supported by the AIB Research Centre on Inclusive and Equitable Cultures (RINCE), this event aims to provide a forum for exchanging knowledge and experiences of EDI in research and in higher education institutions, to promote interdisciplinarity and to encourage future collaborations.