Narcissists, Insecure People Flock To Facebook 280
Posted
by
CmdrTaco
from the nobody-likes-this dept.
from the nobody-likes-this dept.
Meshach writes "A study out of Canada claims that Facebook is a magnet for narcissists and people with low self-esteem. The theory is that these people use the site as a means of self promotion or to feel important."
Bad summary (Score:5, Informative)
Re:...what ? (Score:5, Informative)
It's called the scientific method. Maybe you've heard of it. It requires you to not believe something just because everyone knows it.
Re:Time for the followup (Score:1, Informative)
Whom regularly engage in psuedo-intellectual dialogs.
_Who_ regularly engage in psuedo-intellectual dialogs :-)
Re:HOLY CRAP!! (Score:5, Informative)
Plus, we have no idea how they ranked the narcissism and self-esteem listed in TFA.
You just need to find a better article [thestar.com]:
The more prolific the Facebook activity, the lower they rated on the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the higher in the Narcissism Personality Inventory.
Or from the published research itself [liebertonline.com]:
After agreeing to participate in this research study, Facebook owners were administered a brief four-part questionnaire. The first section required demographic information, including the participant's age and gender. The second section addressed Facebook activity; it required respondents to indicate the number of times they check their Facebook page per day and the time spent on Facebook per session. The remaining sections assessed two psychological constructs: self-esteem and narcissism.
The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale was used to measure participant self-esteem. This 10-item test measured self-esteem using a 4-point Likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Example items include “On the whole, I am satisfied with myself” and “I take a positive attitude toward myself.” The original reliability of this scale is 0.72. This measure has gained acceptable internal consistency and test–retest reliability, as well as convergent and discriminant validity.
Narcissism was assessed using the Narcissism Personality Inventory (NPI)-16. The NPI-16 is a shorter, unidimensional measure of the NPI-40. While the 40-item measure revealed an =0.84, the NPI-16 has an =0.72. Despite this discrepancy, the two measures are correlated at r=0.90 (p
And now you know.
Yaz.
Re:Among others... (Score:2, Informative)
the reply you're looking for is: "correlation does not imply causation", and fairly obvious.
not looking good today canadian theorists.
Really? Did you actually read the paper in question before making such an accusation?
As predicted, there was a significant positive correlation between individuals who scored higher on the NPI-16, the number of times Facebook was checked per day, and the time spent on Facebook per session. This result is consistent with the findings presented in another study that examined narcissism and Facebook activity.
Given these findings, it was hypothesized that narcissists would present a similar opportunity for self-promotion on Facebook. Results partially supported this hypothesis. Significant positive correlations were found between scores on the NPI-16 and self-promotion in the following areas: Main Photo, View Photos (20), Status Updates, and Notes. However, a Pearson correlation analysis failed to show a significant correlation between narcissism and About Me self-promotion.
(Emphasis added).
Indeed, the researcher spends her entire time pointing out in her paper that she found a variety of interesting correlations, and acknowledges the limitations of her research methodology. She doesn't once draw any definitive conclusions that the research means anything.
I'd say it's looking significantly better for Canadian theorists (well, in this case, a student) than it is for armchair /. posters who can't even be bothered to read the research as presented before commenting on it.
Yaz.
Re:You're kidding me... (Score:3, Informative)
There's this thing where you can block people or even entirely remove them from your 'friends'...
Meta Meta, who's got the Meta? (Score:3, Informative)
Oh, and I have a sig line, too! Gary Numan is cool!