Self-monitoring, Covert Narcissism, and Sex as Predictors of Self-presentational Activities on Facebook
Keywords:
narcissism, self-monitoring, Facebook, photographs, social mediaAbstract
The popularity of photo sharing on social networking sites has steadily increased in the United States over the last decade. Some research suggests that this increase in photo sharing correlates to an increase in narcissism, or an excessive interest in oneself and one’s physical appearance. This study tested how self-monitoring, narcissism, and gender are related to photo-related activities on Facebook. Results revealed that high self-monitors engaged more often in the self-presentational opportunities on Facebook, including posting their own photographs and liking and commenting on other people’s photos. Similarly, people who scored higher on narcissism were more likely to engage in all those activities as well. However, compared to self-monitoring, narcissism could better explain photo-related activities on Facebook. In addition, sex differences emerged when it came to commenting on friends’ photos.
References
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Shavitt, S., & Nelson, M. R. (2002). The role of attitude functions in persuasion and social judgment. In J. P. Dillard & M. Pfau (Eds.), The persuasion handbook: Developments in theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Sheldon, P. (2008). The relationship between unwillingness to communicate and students’ Facebook use. Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications, 20, 67-75. doi: 10.1027/1864-1105.20.2.6
Sheldon, P. (2015). Social media: Principles and applications. Lexington Books.
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Snyder, M. (1974). Self-monitoring of expressive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 526-537. doi: 10.1037/h0037039
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Baron, R. A., & Greenberg, J. (1990). Behavior in organizations. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Baumeister, R. F. & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497-529.
Bond, B. J. (2009). He posted, she posted: Gender differences in self-disclosure on social networking sites. Rocky Mountain Communication Review, 6, 29–37.
Buffardi, L. E., & Campbell, W. K. (2008). Narcissism and social networking web sites. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 1303-1314. doi: 10.1177/0146167208320061
Cooper, A. M. (1998). Further developments in the clinical diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder. In E. F. Ronningstam (Ed.), Disorders of narcissism: Diagnostic, clinical, and empirical implications (pp. 53-74). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.
Dutta-Bergman, M. J. (2003). The linear interaction model of personality effects in health communication. Health Communication, 15, 101-116.
Eagly, A. H. (1987). Sex differences in social behavior: A social role interpretation. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
Eagly, A. H., Wood, W., & Diekman, A. B. (2000). Social role theory of sex differences and similarities: A current appraisal. In T. Eckes and H. M. Trautner (Eds.), The developmental social psychology of gender (pp. 123-174). Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ.
Eftekhar, A., Fullwood, C., & Morris, N. (2014). Capturing personality from Facebook photos and photo-related activities: How much exposure do you need? Computers in Human Behavior, 37, 162–170. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.04.048
Ellison, N., Heino, R., & Gibbs, J. (2006). Managing impressions online: Self-presentation processes in the online dating environment. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11, 415–441. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.00020.
Facebook. About. (2016, December 15). Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/facebook
Fuglestad, P. T., & Snyder, M. (2009). Self-monitoring. In M. R. Leary & R. H. Hoyle (Eds.), Handbook of individual differences (pp. 574-591). NYC: Guilford Press.
Gabbard, G. O. (1983). Further contributions to the understanding of stage fright: Narcissistic issues. Journal of American Psychoanalitical Association, 31, 423–441.
Gabriel, M. T., Critelli, J. W., & Ee, J. S. (1994). Narcissistic illusions in self-evaluations of attractiveness and intelligence. Journal of Personality, 62, 143–155.
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Anchor
Gogolinski, T. (2010). The effects of self-monitoring and public self-consciousness on perceptions of Facebook profiles. Colonial Academic Alliance Undergraduate Research Journal, 1. Retrieved from http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/caaurj/vol1/iss1/9
Greenwood, D. N. (2013). Fame, Facebook, and Twitter: How attitudes about fame predict frequency and nature of social media use. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 2, 222-236. doi:10.1037/ppm0000013
Hall, J. A. & Pennington, N. (2013). Self-monitoring, honesty, and cue use on Facebook: The relationship with user extraversion and conscientiousness. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 1556-1564. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.01.001
Hendin, H. M., & Cheek, J. M. (1997). Assessing hypersensitive narcissism: A re-examination of Murray's narcissism scale. Journal of Research in Personality, 31, 588-599.
Kapidzic, S. (2013). Narcissism as a predictor of motivations behind Facebook profile picture selection. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 16, 14-19. doi: doi:10.1089/cyber.2012.0143.
Lennox, R. D., & Wolfe, R. N. (1984). Revision of the self-monitoring scale. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46(6), 1349-1364. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.46.6.1349
Ljepava, N., Orr, R. R., Locke, S., & Ross, C. (2013). Personality and social characteristics of Facebook non-users and frequent users. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 1602-1607. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2013.01.026
Marshall, T. C., Lefringhausen, K., & Ferenczi, N. (2015). The Big Five, self-esteem, and narcissism as predictors of the topics people write about in Facebook status updates. Personality and Individual Differences, 8535-40. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2015.04.039
Martey, R. M., & Consalvo, M. (2011). Performing the looking-glass self: Avatar appearance and group identity in Second Life. Popular Communication, 9, 165-180. doi: 10.1080/15405702.2011.583830
Mendelson, A., & Papacharissi, Z. (2010). Look at us: Collective narcissism in college student Facebook photo galleries. In. Z. Papacharissi (Ed.), The networked self:Identity, community and culture on social network sites. Routledge.
Mesch, G. S., & Beker, G. (2010). Are norms of disclosure of online and offline personal information associated with the disclosure of personal information online?, Human Communication Research, 36, 570–592. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.2010.01389.x
Michener, H. A., DeLamater, J. D., Schwartz, S. H., & Merton, R. K. (1986). Social psychology. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Murray, H. A. (1938). Explorations in personality. New York: Oxford University Press
Nadkarni, A., & Hofmann, S. G. (2012). Why do people use Facebook? Personality and Individual Differences, 52, 243-249. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2011.11.007
Peluchette, J., & Karl, K. (2010). Examining students’ intended image on Facebook: “What were they thinking?! Journal of Education for Business, 85, 30-37.
Robinson, T. G. (2006). Not so private lives. CED, 32(9), 45-46.
Raskin, R., & Novacek, J. (1989). An MMPI description of the narcissistic personality. Journal of Personality Assessment, 53, 66–80.
Shavitt, S., & Nelson, M. R. (2002). The role of attitude functions in persuasion and social judgment. In J. P. Dillard & M. Pfau (Eds.), The persuasion handbook: Developments in theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Sheldon, P. (2008). The relationship between unwillingness to communicate and students’ Facebook use. Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications, 20, 67-75. doi: 10.1027/1864-1105.20.2.6
Sheldon, P. (2015). Social media: Principles and applications. Lexington Books.
Smock, A. D., Ellison, N. B., Lampe, C., & Wohn, D. (2011). Facebook as a toolkit: A uses and gratification approach to unbundling feature use. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(6), 2322-2329. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2011.07.011
Snyder, M. (1974). Self-monitoring of expressive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 526-537. doi: 10.1037/h0037039
Socialbakers. (2013). Photos make up 93% of the most engaging posts on Facebook. Retrieved from http://www.socialbakers.com/blog/1749-photos-make-up-93-of-the-most-engaging-posts-on-facebook
Vazire, S., Naumann, L. P., Rentfrow, P. J., & Gosling, S. D. (2008). Portrait of a narcissist: Manifestations of narcissism in physical appearance. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 1439–1447.
Winter, S., Neubaum, G., Eimler, S. C., Gordon, V., Theil, J., Herrmann, J., Meinert, J., & Kramer, N. C. (2014). Another brick in the Facebook wall: How personality traits relate to the content of status updates. Computers in Human Behavior, 34, 194-202. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2014.01.048
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