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Social Media, Social Exclusion, and Narcissism

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2015, Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.), Xavier University, Psychology.
Social acceptance and exclusion are integral aspects of using Social Network Sites (SNS). The current study investigated two main questions: 1) do prior findings concerning affective and behavioral responses to acceptance/exclusion obtained in real-world contexts generalize to the virtual world? and 2) what influence does trait narcissism have on the response to acceptance or exclusion within a virtual context? Using a psychology department participant pool, 209 participants (87 men; mean age = 20.19) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: acceptance, exclusion, and control. Treatment condition was one independent variable (IV). The second IV was high vs low trait narcissism (based on NPI score median split). Dependent variables (DV) were negative affect and displaced aggression. A single 3 x 2 MANOVA was conducted to determine the main and interaction effects of the two IV's and two DV's. Main effects for condition emerged for negative affect and displaced aggression, F(2, 203) = 8.09, p < .001; F(2, 203) = 5.12, p = .01, respectively. Participants led to believe they had been socially excluded showed significantly more negative affect compared to participants in the accepted condition, p = .001, and were significantly less likely to display displaced aggression compared to participants in the accepted condition, p = .006. Trait narcissism was not related to outcome, Wilks's lambda = .98, F(4, 404) = 1.03, p = .39, partial eta-squared = .01. The findings are inconsistent with past real-world research linking social exclusion with a neutral or numbed affective response and an aggressive behavioral response. Future research should investigate if the interpersonal distance provided by SNS can account for the differential affective outcomes, as well as if exposure to social media attenuates aggressive responding, while facilitating a more affiliative response.
Susan Kenford, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Janet Schultz, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Karl Stukenberg, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
59 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Creech, R. S. (2015). Social Media, Social Exclusion, and Narcissism [Doctoral dissertation, Xavier University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=xavier1437385385

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Creech, Ryan. Social Media, Social Exclusion, and Narcissism. 2015. Xavier University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=xavier1437385385.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Creech, Ryan. "Social Media, Social Exclusion, and Narcissism." Doctoral dissertation, Xavier University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=xavier1437385385

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)