The role of personality traits in Facebook and Internet addictions: A study on Polish,Turkish, and Ukrainian samples

Although the relationships between Facebook addiction, Internet addiction and personality have already been investigated. The aim of the present study was to explore whether there were personality traits associated with Facebook addiction and Internet addiction across three different cultures. The participants were 1011 Facebook users from Poland, Turkey, and Ukraine. We administered the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale, the Internet Addiction Test, and the Ten Item Personality Inventory. We found that in the total sample Facebook addiction was positively associated with Internet addiction, while Internet addiction was negatively associated with emotional stability, conscientiousness, and extraversion. The lack of invariance across the countries indicates that the tested links are not the same in each of them, which may suggest the role of cultural factors in this phenomenon. The results are discussed in the light of Facebook addiction and personality literature. The application of culturally sensitive intervention programs in dealing with Facebook addiction is encouraged.     

Misery rarely gets company: The influence of emotional bandwidth on supportive communication on Facebook

This study introduces the concept of emotional bandwidth to describe a communicator’s ability to use technological features to disclose personal affect online. Strategic use of emotional bandwidth was expected to correspond with interpersonal rewards, specifically the willingness of others to provide social support. Participants (N = 84) viewed hypothetical Facebook profiles that contained manipulated levels of emotional bandwidth and were asked how much support they would provide to the person in the profile. Participants who viewed profiles portraying high emotional bandwidth were less willing to provide social support; however, this finding was qualified by personal qualities. Females, people who perceived a sense of community, and people who had a preference for online social interaction indicated a greater willingness to provide support in the high emotional bandwidth condition. Implications for designing affective affordances in technologies and their psychological effects are discussed.     

Extent of private information disclosure on online social networks: An exploration of Facebook mobile phone users

The present study adopts the Communication Privacy Management theory and investigates the factors that influence the extent of private information disclosure of Facebook mobile phone users. Using a sample size of 488 adult mobile phone users, the study further investigates the differential impact of age on the extent of private information disclosure. Results from the logistic regressions run reveal that use of smartphones to access social networking sites, use of multiple social networks, and being female decrease the likelihood of private information disclosure. In addition, usability problems increase the likelihood of information disclosure by older adults. The analyses show no association between perceived benefit and private information disclosure.     

The impact of daily stress on adolescents’ depressed mood: The role of social support seeking through Facebook

This study examined relationships among daily stress (i.e., school- and family-related stress), social support seeking through Facebook, perceived social support through Facebook, and depressed mood among adolescents (N = 910). Structural equation modeling showed that daily stress positively predicted adolescents’ seeking of social support through Facebook. In addition, when social support was sought on Facebook and subsequently perceived, social support seeking through Facebook decreased adolescents’ depressed mood. However, when social support was sought on Facebook, but not perceived, social support seeking through Facebook increased adolescents’ depressed mood. When comparing these relationships with similar relationships in a traditional social support context, results showed that the exacerbating impact of social support seeking on depressed mood exclusively transpires in a social networking site context. The discussion focuses on the understanding and explanation of these findings, and directions for future research.     

The influence of personality on Facebook usage, wall postings, and regret

The Five Factor Model of personality has been used extensively in the management and psychology fields to predict attitudes and behaviors. Only recently have researchers begun to examine the role of psychological factors in influencing an individual’s use of technology platforms, such as Facebook. This study uses both a survey of Facebook users and actual Facebook data to uncover why some individuals are more involved in Facebook than others. 219 undergraduate students participated in a survey that assessed their personality and their reported usage of Facebook. Of these, 143 voluntarily befriended the investigator, which gave her access to their actual Facebook sites and objective data on their number of friends, photos, and wall postings. Results showed personality to explain significant amounts of variance over and above gender and Facebook experience in terms of actual number of Facebook friends, the nature of their wall postings and on their level of regret for inappropriate Facebook content.     

A study of negative emotional disclosure behavior in social network media: Will an unexpected negative event and personality matter?

Why would people feel the need to disclose their negative emotions? Using the theory of conservation of resources, we hypothesize disclosure intention and behavior would be influenced by duration and severity of the negative emotional state. Moreover, we predict the effect of unexpected events and “the Big Five” personality traits on disclosure intention. Besides disclosure intention, we also tapped if the respondents have disclosed their negative emotions on their Facebook profile. In this study, we surveyed 255 Facebook users on their experiences from negative life events under four categories – social relationship, work, health and monetary issues. The results support all of our hypotheses. In particular, our post-hoc analyses show differences between females and males on the influence mechanism behind their disclosure intention. Females are more likely to disclose their problems relating to social relationship, work and health problems on Facebook than males.     

Understanding civic engagement behaviour on Facebook from a social capital theory perspective

This paper applies the social capital theory to construct a model for investigating the factors that influence online civic engagement behaviour on Facebook. While there is promising evidence that people are making concerted efforts to adopt Facebook to address social issues, research on their civic behaviour from a social capital viewpoint in the social media context remains limited. This study introduces new insights into how Facebook is shaping the landscape of civic engagement by examining three dimensions of social capital – social interaction ties (structural), trust (relational), and shared languages and vision (cognitive). The study contends that these dimensions will influence individuals’ online civic engagement behaviour on Facebook. We also argue that social interaction ties can engender trust, and shared languages and vision among its members, and that shared languages and vision can increase trust among Facebook members. Empirical data collected from 1233 Facebook users provide support for the proposed model. The results help in identifying the motivation underlying the online civic engagement behaviour of individuals in a public virtual community. The implications for theory and practice and future research directions are discussed.     

Who uses Facebook? An investigation into the relationship between the Big Five, shyness, narcissism, loneliness, and Facebook usage

The unprecedented popularity of the social networking site Facebook raises a number of important questions regarding the impact it has on sociality. However, as Facebook is a very recent social phenomenon, there is a distinct lack of psychological theory relating to its use. While research has begun to identify the types of people who use Facebook, this line of investigation has been limited to student populations. The current study aimed to investigate how personality influences usage or non-usage of Facebook. The sample consisted of 1324 self-selected Australian Internet users (1158 Facebook users and 166 Facebook nonusers), between the ages of 18 and 44. Participants were required to complete an online questionnaire package comprising the Big Five Inventory (BFI), the Narcissistic Personality Inventory - 29-item version (NPI-29), the Revised Cheek and Buss Shyness Scale (RCBS), and the Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults - Short version (SELSA-S). Facebook users also completed a Facebook usage questionnaire. The results showed that Facebook users tend to be more extraverted and narcissistic, but less conscientious and socially lonely, than nonusers. Furthermore, frequency of Facebook use and preferences for specific features were also shown to vary as a result of certain characteristics, such as neuroticism, loneliness, shyness and narcissism. It is hoped that research in this area continues, and leads to the development of theory regarding the implications and gratifications of Facebook use.     

The stress-buffering effect of self-disclosure on Facebook: An examination of stressful life events,social support,and mental health among college students

Stressful life events are viewed as the leading cause of psychological distress. Self-disclosure, however, could buffer the deleterious impact of stress on mental health. Recent studies show that college students are likely to engage in self-disclosure on social network sites (SNSs), but it is unclear to what extent they benefit from doing that. This study examined the effect of self-disclosure on SNSs on young adults’ mental health. Survey data were collected from a probability sample of 560 university students. The results show that people tend to open up on Facebook when in times of stress and that self-disclosure on Facebook moderates the relationship between stressful life events and mental health. Facebook disclosure was also positively associated with enacted social support on Facebook, which led to increased perceived social support, enhanced life satisfaction, and reduced depression. SNSs, therefore, serve as a promising avenue for delivering health care and intervention.     

Disclosures about important life events on Facebook: Relationships with stress and quality of life

The current study examined the relationship between general perceived levels of stress, quality of life, social networking usage, and disclosing important life events on Facebook in order to better understand the complex relationship between online disclosure and individual well-being. An online survey was completed by adult Facebook users aged 18–70. Results indicate that the more time spent on and the more social network memberships, the higher stress and lower quality of life; Facebook-specific usage was unrelated to either well-being variable. Together, these findings suggest that the current increase in social media variety and usage may be detrimental to user well-being. Users who shared important, bad health news on Facebook had higher stress and lower quality of life than those who did not, with no significant differences for sharing good health news. The more that users did not share important news on Facebook for self-protection and friend unresponsiveness reasons, the greater their stress. The self-protection reason was also negatively related to quality of life. These inconsistent findings can likely be partially explained by the nature of the information that is shared. These findings are discussed in light of disclosure and relationship patterns on social networks.     

When your Second Life comes knocking: Effects of personality on changes to real life from virtual world experiences

A survey study (N = 223) of participants in the social virtual world, Second Life, examined the relationship between Big Five personality factors, experiences in the virtual world and reports of changes to real life resulting from the virtual world experiences. Hypotheses about direct and indirect effects of personality on real life changes were tested with structural equation modeling. Results showed that the strength of users’ relationship to the virtual environment, identification with and similarity to their avatars positively predicted reports of changes to real life, and that these three factors mediated effects of Agreeableness, Extraversion, Intellect, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability, on real life changes. Conscientiousness also had a direct negative relationship with real life changes. Implications are discussed for the potential of virtual social media features for activating facets of personality traits.     

Students’ self-presentation on Facebook: An examination of personality and self-construal factors

The present research seeks to extend existing theory on self-disclosure to the online arena in higher educational institutions and contribute to the knowledge base and understanding about the use of a popular social networking site (SNS), Facebook, by college students. We conducted a non-experimental study to investigate how university students (N = 463) use Facebook, and examined the roles that personality and culture play in disclosure of information in online SNS-based environments. Results showed that individuals do disclose differently online vs. in-person, and that both culture and personality matter. Specifically, it was found that collectivistic individuals low on extraversion and interacting in an online environment disclosed the least honest and the most audience-relevant information, as compared to others. Exploratory analyses also indicate that students use sites such as Facebook primarily to maintain existing personal relationships and selectively used privacy settings to control their self-presentation on SNSs. The findings of this study offer insight into understanding college students’ self-disclosure on SNS, add to the literature on personality and self-disclosure, and shape future directions for research and practice on online self-presentation.     

Computational personality recognition from Facebook text: psycholinguistic features,words and facets

ABSTRACT

Advances in the Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning fields have led to the development of automated methods for the recognition of personality traits from text available from social media and similar sources. Systems of this kind exploit the close relation between lexical knowledge and personality models – such as the well-known Big Five model – to provide information about the author of an input text in a non-intrusive fashion, and at a low cost. Although now a well-established research topic in the field, the computational recognition of personality traits from text still leaves a number of research questions worth further exploration. In particular, this paper attempts to shed light on three main issues: (i) whether we may develop psycholinguistics-motivated models of personality recognition when such knowledge sources are not available for the target language under consideration; (ii) whether the use of psycholinguistic knowledge may be still superior to contemporary word vector representations; and (iii) whether we may infer certain personality facets from a corpus that does not explicitly convey this information. In this paper these issues are dealt with in a series of individual experiments of personality recognition from Facebook text, whose initial results should aid the future development of more robust systems of this kind.     

College students and risk-taking behaviour on Twitter versus Facebook

The propensity of college students to post content that they know may be unacceptable to future employers or other authority figures has been well established. Yet research on this topic has tended to focus exclusively on Facebook, which is problematic for two reasons. First, many young social media users are shifting away from Facebook and towards Twitter and other services. Second, college students have changed their use of social media over time and may now be more cautious about what they post on Facebook. To address this issue, a survey-based field study was conducted to compare student comfort levels with authority figures viewing their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Specifically, undergraduate business students attending a large university in the midwest of the USA were surveyed about their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Findings indicate that college students are markedly less comfortable with authority figures viewing their Twitter accounts. Paradoxically, a great majority of the study respondents were found to have public Twitter accounts, while only a very small minority have public Facebook accounts. This finding suggests that students perceive less risk on Twitter versus Facebook or that they are writing to different imagined audiences on the two platforms. Implications include the need for further inquiry and an awareness of educators and human resources professionals about students’ current social media practices.     

Facebooking for health: An examination into the solicitation and effects of health-related social support on social networking sites

The current study investigates people’s use of social networking sites for health purposes and its impact on their perception of social support and their health self-efficacy. A structural model was fitted to test hypothesized relationships between having a health concern, seeking online health information, seeking health-related social support on Facebook, perceived social support from Facebook friends, and health-related self-efficacy. The study also looks at the relative significance of social support dimensions including: emotional, informational, tangible, and esteem dimensions. An analysis of 291 respondents revealed a positive relationship between having health concerns and seeking health-related social support. Seeking support was significantly associated with all four social support dimensions. Among the four support dimensions, emotional support was the only significant predictor of health self-efficacy. Also, emotional support was the dimension that was most prevalent in Facebook contexts. Health information seeking was also positively associated with health self-efficacy but was not significantly related to having a health concern.     

Giving and receiving emotional support online: Communication competence as a moderator of psychosocial benefits for women with breast cancer

This study examines the moderating role of emotional communication competence in the relationship between Computer-Mediated Social Support (CMSS) group participation, specifically giving and receiving emotional support, and psychological health outcomes. Data were collected as part of randomized clinical trials for women diagnosed with breast cancer within the last two months. Expression and reception of emotional support was assessed by tracking and coding the 18,064 messages that 236 patients posted and read in CMSS groups. The final data used in the analysis was created by merging (a) computer-aided content analysis of discussion posts, (b) action log data analysis of system usage, and (c) baseline and 6-month surveys collected to assess change. Results of this study demonstrate that emotional communication competence moderates the effects of expression and reception of emotional support on psychological quality of life and breast cancer-related concerns in both desired and undesired ways. Giving and receiving emotional support in CMSS groups has positive effects on emotional well-being for breast cancer patients with higher emotional communication, while the same exchanges have detrimental impacts on emotional well-being for those with lower emotional communication competence. The theoretical and practical implications for future research are discussed.     

Facebook self-disclosure: Examining the role of traits,social cohesion,and motives

Facebook has been shown to be the most popular social network in the United States. Facebook not only has implications in the online world, but face-to-face connections are also affected by this medium. This study explores the uses of Facebook for self-disclosure behavior utilizing the uses and gratifications perspective. Using a convenience sample of Facebook users, this study examines individual and sociological factors as well as Facebook motives to discover the impact on depth, breadth, and amount of user self-disclosure. Path analyses showed that the Big Five personality factors, self-esteem, social cohesion, and motives contribute to self-disclosure dimensions. However, demographic variables did not impact disclosiveness. Limitations are discussed and directions for future research are proposed.     

Don't Judge a (Face)Book by its Cover: Exploring judgement accuracy of others' personality on Facebook

With interaction across social networking sites (SNSs) becoming more prominent, the ability to accurately judge another's personality through these digital platforms is an important area of investigation. A number of studies demonstrate that SNSs can be an effective means of communicating information on personality (Evans, Gosling & Carroll, 2008). Much less research has examined the online cues that people use when forming their impressions of another's personality. The current research adopted a mixed methods approach to examine 1) accuracy of first impressions formed on the basis of viewing a person's Facebook behaviour and 2) how judgements are formed. Findings suggested that the traits of openness and conscientiousness can be judged most accurately through observing Facebook behaviour. To explore the cues used in forming personality judgements, thematic analysis was undertaken. This revealed six information ‘cues’ including; (1) vocabulary of target, (2) photographs, (3) written online interactions, (4) relationships with others, (5) health status and, (6) occupational status. Findings are discussed in terms of Funder's Realistic Accuracy Model (1995, 1999) along with limitations and suggestions for future research.     

Late adolescent identity definition and intimate disclosure on Facebook

During the last decade, online social networks such as Facebook™ (Facebook) grew rapidly in popularity and this was due in no small measure to use of these media by adolescents. For many teenagers and young adults, Facebook represents a social institution that can be used by adolescents not only for sharing basic information and for connecting with others, but also as a platform for exploring and divulging information about their identities. To examine issues related to questions about the formation and disclosure of identity-related information by late adolescents, this study investigates the relationship between disclosures of intimate information by late adolescents through Facebook and their stage of psychosocial development. To examine disclosure behaviors of young college students on Facebook, we conducted focus groups in conjunction with a content analysis of Facebook profiles. Findings point to an extended adolescence period resting on the identity construction dilemma posed by digital social networks.     

Exploring Privacy Management on Facebook: Motivations and Perceived Consequences of Voluntary Disclosure

This study examined the perceived motivations and consequences of voluntary disclosure of Facebook active users using a survey administered to college students in a public‐speaking course. College‐age students who took the survey were motivated to use Facebook because they perceived their relationships improved with friends and family, although using Facebook could become negatively habit forming. The research suggests that users of Facebook use it more for disclosing to distant friends rather than to close friends, which is divergent from most early disclosure research that equates disclosure with intimacy. This research utilizes Communication Privacy Management Theory for the theoretical framework.