BEYOND NARCISSISM: DEVELOPING A COMPREHENSIVE MODEL OF MOTIVATIONS FOR SELFIE-TAKING AND SELFIE-POSTING ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Ruonan Zhang
A Dissertation
Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
August 2019
Committee:
Louisa Shu Ying Ha, Advisor
Salim A Elwazani, Graduate Faculty Representative
Frederick Busselle
Ilyoung Ju
© 2019
Ruonan Zhang
All Rights Reserved iii
ABSTRACT
Louisa Ha, Advisor
As a new and prevalent image genre, selfies have gained both media and academic attentions in recent years. Some associate selfies with intentions to show off and excessive fondness of selves. Some view them as a handy tool for digital communication. This dissertation is designed to investigate the motivations behind people’s selfie-taking and selfie-posting behaviors on social media. By incorporating Self-Affirmation Theory and Uses and
Gratifications Theory, the examined motivations of this research for taking and posting individual selfies and group selfies include: narcissism, extraversion, affirming self-worth, need for preservations, need for communication, need for entertainment, and need for popularity.
Through Structural Equation Modeling analysis of online survey data (N = 539), models revealed that need for preservation, need for entertainment, and need for popularity mediated the influence of aspects of narcissism and extraversion on variables selfie-related behaviors. In addition, affirmation on different aspects of self-worth were found as important predictors and mediators across all models predicting the taking and posting of individual and group selfies.
This finding supported the conceptualization of selfies as self-affirming digital tools for people to gain positive psychological gratification and the strength to combat stresses in lives. The study also revealed that the frequency selfie-taking and posting and the number of selfies taken and posted on social media are two important dimensions of selfie-related behaviors that deserves separate attention in examinations. Finally, the study revealed that people have different motivations in determining taking and posting individual selfies and group selfies. iv
Theoretical significance is discussed as the study applies and extends Self-Affirmation
Theory and Uses and Gratification Theory into the study of prevalent and growing selfie phenomenon. For college students, selfie-posting on social media is an important compensatory behavior for people lacking family support or not having high academic performance. Methodological contributions and practical implementations are also discussed for future research on selfies and self-affirming social media behaviors, public education on positive functions of social media and selfies, and potential application on social media public relations and advertising campaigns. The limitation of the research is also discussed followed by suggestions for future research.
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To my father, mother, and brother.
Thank you for your love and support.
I love you.
Forever. vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are many people without whom this dissertation will never be completed. I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Louisa Ha, for guiding my academic path, for offering me helpful suggestions whenever needed, and for understanding and supporting me in my lowest moments.
I want to thank Dr. Rick Busselle, with whom I had a lot of inspiring and interesting discussions that influenced my thoughts on social media. I also want to thank Dr. Ilyoung Ju, for offering me advice on the dissertation and showing me the process of brainstorming new research ideas. I also want to thank Dr. Salim Elwazani for giving me really helpful suggestions and being supportive to my research. Many people who are and were in the School of Media and
Communications at Bowling Green State University selflessly provided me help and guidance even though they are not in my dissertation committee. They set great examples for me as great scholars and great people: Drs. Alberto Gonzalez, Gi Woong Yun, Tom Mascaro, and Sung-
Yeon Park. I also would like to thank Nicky Chang Bi, Xiaoli Wen and Kisun Kim for being awesome friends, especially Nicky, who’s like a big sister that I never had.
I would like to thank my father, mother, and brother, for their unconditional love, for always being supportive and positive about whatever I do, for being great people to whoever around them, and for giving me the best family in the entire world.
This dissertation, as the ending note for my Ph.D. program, marks both my professional achievement and personal growth. Within these four years, my eyes are opened by so many interesting readings and discussions about media and communication, I had experienced the joy and struggle of conducting social scientific research, I endured the pain of losing two of my most important family members, and I had tasted the bitterness and excitement of being on the job vii market. Most importantly, after these four years, I know who I am, what I am capable of, and how I can be a reliable person to take care of the people I love.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION: OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH ...... 1
A History of Selfies ...... 1
The Study of Selfies ...... 4
Statement of Research Problem ...... 5
Purpose of This Study ...... 6
Theoretical Significance ...... 6
Methodological Significance ...... 8
Practical Significance ...... 8
CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 10
Self-Affirmation Theory ...... 10
Self-Affirmation Consciousness ...... 13
Self-Affirmation through Social Media ...... 15
Effects of Self-Affirmation ...... 16
Uses and Gratification Theory ...... 17
Uses and Gratifications of Selfies ...... 18
Conceptualization of Selfie in Scholarly Research ...... 20
Online Photo Sharing Research and Selfie Research...... 20 ix
Prior Research on the Selfie Phenomenon ...... 20
Motivation of Image-Posting on Social Media ...... 22
Photo-sharing as Social Presence in Digital Realm ...... 24
Photo-taking as Materialization of Everyday Memory ...... 24
Motivations of Selfie-Related Behaviors ...... 25
Personality Traits: Narcissism and Extraversion ...... 25
The Need for Popularity in Selfie Posting ...... 28
Individual Selfies and Group Selfies ...... 29
CHAPTER III. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ...... 31
Research Questions and Hypotheses ...... 34
CHAPTER IV. METHODOLOGY ...... 42
Sampling Procedure and Survey Implementation ...... 42
Questionnaire Design ...... 43
Measures ...... 44
Independent Variables ...... 44
Narcissism ...... 44
Authority ...... 44
Superiority ...... 44
Exhibitionism ...... 44 x
Exploitativeness ...... 44
Vanity ...... 45
Extraversion ...... 44
Mediators ...... 45
Self-Worth ...... 45
Self-Worth on Other’s Approval ...... 46
Self-Worth on Appearance ...... 46
Self-Worth on Competition ...... 46
Self-Worth on Academic Performance ...... 46
Self-Worth on Family Support ...... 46
Need for Self-Preservation ...... 46
Need for Entertainment ...... 47
Need for Communication ...... 47
Need for Popularity ...... 47
Dependent Variables ...... 48
Individual Selfie-Taking ...... 48
Individual Selfie-Posting ...... 49
Group Selfie-Taking ...... 50
Group Selfie-Posting ...... 50 xi
Control Variables ...... 51
Gender ...... 51
Income ...... 51
Photography Skill ...... 51
Statistical Techniques Used in the Study ...... 51
CHAPTER V. RESULTS ...... 53
Demographic Profile of Sample ...... 53
Descriptive Analysis of the Variables ...... 53
Construct Validity ...... 58
Construct Reliability ...... 63
Structural Equation Model Results ...... 63
Correlations of Measured Constructs ...... 64
Control Variable Results ...... 64
Model 1: Motivations of Individual Selfie-Taking ...... 67
Model 2: Motivations of Individual Selfie-Posting ...... 72
Model 3: Motivations of Group Selfie-Taking ...... 76
Model 4: Motivations of Group Selfie- Posting ...... 81
Testing Alternatives ...... 88
CHAPTER VI. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ...... 89 xii
Selfie Behaviors as a Self-Affirming Process ...... 89
Self-Worth based on Appearance ...... 89
Self-Worth based on Competition ...... 90
Self-Worth based on Other’s Approval ...... 91
Self-Worth based on Academic Performance and Family Support ...... 92
Aspects of Narscissism as Indirect Motivations ...... 93
Exhibitionism ...... 94
Vanity ...... 94
Exploitativeness ...... 95
Superiority ...... 96
Extraversion as Direct and Indirect Motivation ...... 97
Quantitative Evidence for Uses and Gratifications of Selfies ...... 98
Need for Entertainment ...... 98
Need for Self-Preservation ...... 99
Need for Communication ...... 100
Need for Popularity ...... 100
Differences between Motivations of Behaviors on Individual and Group Selfies ...... 101
Differences in Motivations between Intensity and Indulgence of Selfies Behaviors .. 103
Mediation of Need for Popularity for Frequency of Selfie Usage ...... 104 xiii
Theoretical Implementations ...... 106
Self-Affirmation Theory and Selfie-Related Behaviors ...... 106
Quantitative Confirmation of Previous Uses and Gratification Studies ...... 107
Methodological Implementations ...... 108
Practical Implementations ...... 109
Limitations of This Study ...... 111
Suggestions for Future Research ...... 111
REFERENCES ...... 113
APPENDIX A. APPROVAL LETTER OF HUMAN SUBJECT REVIEW BOARD ...... 125
APPENDIX B. CONSENT LETTER ...... 126
APPENDIX C. QUESTIONNAIRE ...... 127
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1 Research Model 1: Motivations of Taking Individual Selfies ...... 37
2 Research Model 2: Motivations of Posting Individual Selfies ...... 38
3 Research Model 3: Motivations of Taking Group Selfies ...... 39
4 Research Model 4: Motivations of Posting Group Selfies ...... 41
5 Initial Model for Motivations of Number of Taken Individual Selfies ...... 68
6 Modified Model for Motivations of Number of Taken Individual Selfies ...... 69
7 Initial Model for Motivations of Frequency of Taking Individual Selfies ...... 70
8 Modified Model for Motivations of Frequency of Taking Individual Selfies ...... 72
9 Initial Model for Motivations of Number of Posted Individual Selfies ...... 73
10 Modified Model for Motivations of Number of Posted Individual Selfies ...... 74
11 Initial Model for Motivations of Frequency of Posting Individual Selfies ...... 75
12 Modified Model for Motivations of Frequency of Posting Individual Selfies ...... 76
13 Initial Model for Motivations of Number of Taken Group Selfies ...... 77
14 Modified Model for Motivations of Number of Taken Group Selfies ...... 78
15 Initial Model for Motivations of Frequency of Taking Group Selfies ...... 79
16 Modified Model for Motivations of Frequency of Taking Group Selfies ...... 81
17 Initial Model for Motivations of Number of Posted Group Selfies ...... 82 xv
18 Modified Model for Motivations of Number of Posted Group Selfies ...... 83
19 Initial Model for Motivations of Frequency of Posting Group Selfies ...... 84
20 Modified Model for Motivations of Frequency of Posting Group Selfies ...... 86
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LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1 Demographic Profile of Sample ...... 54
2 Mean and Standard Deviation of Independent Variables ...... 55
3 Mean and Standard Deviation of Mediators ...... 56
4 Mean and Standard Deviation of Dependent Variables ...... 57
5 Mean and Standard Deviation of Photography Skill ...... 57
6 Descriptive Statistics of Selfie Behaviors ...... 58
7 Confirmatory Factor Analysis for Narcissism ...... 60
8 Confirmatory Factor Analysis for Self-Worth ...... 61
9 Confirmatory Factor Analysis for Motivation Model ...... 62
10 Reliability Test for Latent Variables ...... 63
11 Correlations Matrix of Measured Variables in Research Model ...... 65
12 Coefficients of Simple Linear Regression of Control Variables ...... 66
13 Model Fit for Models Using Composite of Frequency and Number of Selfie-Related
Behaviors as Dependent Variables ...... 67
14 Hypotheses Testing Results for All Models ...... 87
15 Model Fit for Models Using Narcissism and Extraversion as Dependent Variables ... 88 1
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION: OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH
Selfies are a common type of photos, especially on digital natives’ social media feeds.
Enabled by the front cameras equipped on modern smartphones, selfie-taking is unprecedentedly convenient. With the social media applications installed on smartphones, freshly taken selfies can be posted to an audience group with just a click of a button. Some people see selfies as a display of narcissism (Barry, Doucette, Loflin, Rivera-Hudson, & Herrington, 2017;
Charoensukmongkol, 2016; Halpern, Valenzuela, & Katz, 2016; Kim, Lee, Sung, & Choi, 2016;
Lee & Sung, 2016; Sung, Lee, Kim, & Choi, 2016). They view taking selfies as a juvenile, vain, and attention-seeking behavior. Some researchers view selfie-taking and -posting as behaviors driven more by exhibitionism than vanity (Maddox, 2017). However, others also view selfies as a common vernacular on social media as a good form of expression of presence and emotion
(Meese, Gibbs, Carter, Arnold, Nansen, & Kohn, 2015).
A History of Selfies
Self-taken digital portraits, or “selfies”, is a unique form of photos enabled by the technological development of lightweight digital camera. Having a portrait of oneself has long been a part of human desire. Before the birth of camera, the wealthy hired painters to create portraits of themselves and hang them on the wall. After the camera was invented, people went to professional photographers to take self-portraits to either keep them as record or give them to important others. With modern technology, digital cameras and smartphones have made taking and saving photos easy and convenient. Today, most cell phones have a camera lens on both sides. However, cell phones were not born like this. The first cell phones with a built-in camera,
Nokia 7650 and the Sanyo SPC-5300, were launched in 2002 (CBC, 2013). Both had a camera on one side, the other side of the keyboard and screen. It’s unclear who was the first one to use a 2 cell phone camera to take pictures of him or herself. But that collective consumer needs to take self-portraits on cell phone was significant enough for manufacturers to modify the design of their products. The smartphone nowadays has more and more advance cameras and storage ability, facilitating the taking, storage, and sharing of selfies.
Unlike when selfies were first appearing online, nowadays taking or posting selfies on social media is no longer an absurd behavior that only belongs to people at certain age groups or in certain countries (Souza et al., 2015), potentially due to the increased smartphone ownership from 35% in 2011 to almost two-thirds in 2015 (Pew Research Center, 2015). Taking and posting selfies has become a more and more normal part of human life. As Saltz (2014) put it,
“Selfies have changed aspects of social interaction, body language, self-awareness, privacy, and humor (p. 71).” However, several questions remain unanswered. What is a selfie? How is it different from other types of self-portraits?
Synthesizing previous literature on selfies (Saltz, 2014; Sorokowska et al., 2016; Souza et al., 2015), I define a selfie as a photo of oneself or a part of oneself taken at an arm’s length or in a mirror with a camera or smartphone, or with the help of a tool like a selfie stick, tripod, and/or timer, often but not always shared on social media. Using this definition, the concept of selfie is both broadened and more refined. This definition of selfie includes pictures that may not appear to be selfies for some viewers, for example, a photo featuring the photo-taker’s hand holding a certificate of an award, or a photo that seems to be taken by others but is in fact a self-taken picture using a tripod and a remoter. The rationale behind this definition comes from the answer to this question: what makes a selfie “selfie”? If a selfie is defined as a self-portrait at a close distance in which 80 percent of the content is the photo-taker’s face, most likely the researcher will find selfies as a display of narcissism and physical attractiveness. Such definition would 3 overlook the ability of using selfies to transform one’s self-image wherever and whenever into a materialized, recordable, storable, and shareable object that characterize “selfies”. Therefore, this new definition of selfie proposed in this study is from the producer’s or selfie-takers’ perspective, highlighting the selfie takers’ ability to control their self-presentation, rather than defining selfie from viewers’ perspective which would narrow selfies into pictures that are either close-up headshots or self-portraits taken in front of mirrors. This definition also limits selfie to a capture of current state of the selfie-taker, stressing the immediacy and spontaneity of selfies.
Taking a photo of an old portrait of oneself would not be a selfie because it is a representation of previous self-image, rather than a fresh capture of current moment.
The major difference between a selfie and other types of digital portraits of oneself (ones taken by others, or ones taken by professional photographer) is the control, spontaneity, emotional expression of the self-takers. For example, selfies used in Snapchat functions similarly to interpersonal communication. Selfie-takers are in full control over when, where, and how to present themselves in their selfies. In addition, selfies are less formal, more spontaneous than photo taken by others (Saltz, 2014), since all it takes to make a selfie is a camera or a cell phone with camera (which almost all people carry with them all the time) and a hand holding it.
Compared with other types of pictures (self-portraits or not), selfies are more self-related, self- expressed, emotionally expressive, and controlled (Souza et al., 2015). As for communicative aspects of selfies, echoing Villi’s (2012) argument of viewing online photo sharing as a form of interpersonal communication, after researching on the use of selfie in UK, USA, and China, Katz and Crocker (2015) found that that selfies (particularly shared through Snapchat) served a conversational function for users.
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The Study of Selfies
The study of selfies in academia started in 2014 (Warfield, 2014). Selfies have been conceptualized in many ways. Rettberg (2014) argued that selfies are descendants of self- portraits, serving the function of tracking and logging selfie-takers lives. Saltz (2014) conceptualized selfies as a genre of art that is more accessible, spontaneous, and informal. Katz and Crocker (2015) saw selfies as a form of visual communication. However, the amount of research on the association between selfie-related behaviors, narcissism, and exhibitionism displayed many researchers’ assumption of selfies as pictures posted by people with higher level of narcissism (Barry et al., 2017; Charoensukmongkol, 2016; Halpern et al., 2016; Kim et al.,
2016; Lee & Sung, 2016; Sung et al., 2016). The connection found between narcissism and selfie-related behaviors in research studies did show that narcissistic people are more likely to engage in the selfie world, but it did not indicate that selfies are exclusively utilized by people with higher level of narcissism. People who have higher level of narcissism do lots of things that differentiate them from non-narcissists, like looking at their reflections in mirrors more often and bragging about things they own or did constantly. Posting selfies is only one of those narcissistic behaviors, but not all of them. Are there motivations other than narcissism behind selfie-related behaviors? This study is designed to identify different motivations of selfie-taking and selfie- posting with a comprehensive model by conceptualizing selfies as a tool for self-affirmation, self-preservation, entertainment, and communication, not just a display of narcissism as most previous selfie researchers presumed. In addition, it will examine the role of need for popularity in the posting of selfies.
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Statement of Research Problem
With the trend of taking and posting selfies sweeping across the global, the selfie phenomenon attracted more and more research attention in the recent years. I proposed to study this phenomenon for two reasons. First, selfies have become an important image genre that demands academic attention. Selfies changed the way people present themselves and communicate to each other in the digital world, since the technological advancement granted more and more people the access and convenience to take and post selfies. People’s visual expression of themselves on social media can be self-controlled without the help of a second person to take pictures for them. The selfies on social media can be seen as a visualization of the real “selves” of the users. Second, motivations of selfie-related behaviors are worth further studying, because many previous literature conceptualize selfies as either a display of narcissism, exhibitionism, and other negative personality characteristics (Barry et al., 2017;
Charoensukmongkol, 2016; Halpern et al., 2016; Kim et al., 2016; Lee & Sung, 2016; Sung et al., 2016), or a tool for social comparison (Chae, 2017; Mascheroni, Vincent, & Jimenez, 2015) and showing off things like appearance or purchases. Empirical evidence revealed that people of a wide range of ages took and posted selfies (Dhir, Pallesen, Torsheim, & Andreassen, 2016) and age did not moderate the relationship between narcissism and selfie-posting (Weiser, 2015).
Selfies are not limited to narcissistic and superficial teenagers, and selfies include more genres than those showing duck faces and pouty lips. Selfies include other forms like, for examples, group selfies taken with friends and family, selfies taken after receiving an award, selfies taken and posted through Snapchat as a photo message, and selfies taken with a loved pet. Hence a more comprehensive examination of the variety of selfie usage in terms of picture taking and picture posting is needed to explain the role of selfies in a society surrounded by social media 6 and smartphones. A more comprehensive study of selfies can contribute to the examination of online interpersonal and intrapersonal communication and digital self-presentation.
Purpose of This Study
Based on Self-Affirmation Theory and Uses and Gratifications Theory, this study is designed to investigate the motivations behind (1) selfie-taking behaviors for both individual and group selfies, (2) selfie-posting behaviors for both individual and group selfies, and (3) the relative importance of different motivations and factors in determining taking and posting individual and group selfies.
Theoretical Significance
Many previous examinations of selfies studied the associations between selfie-related behaviors and the personality traits of the selfie-takers and –posters (Barry et al., 2017;
Charoensukmongkol, 2016; Halpern et al., 2016; Kim et al., 2016; Lee & Sung, 2016; Sung et al., 2016). Although this approach has its merits, the sole emphasis on personality traits limited the understanding of the selfie phenomenon in today’s digital world. It positions selfies as manifestation of someone’s personality rather than a means of interpersonal or intrapersonal communication. While we cannot deny the influence of personality on selfie behavior, there are also more constructive use of selfies based on the situations. This study is the first study to incorporate Self-Affirmation Theory in explaining selfie-taking and posting behaviors. Selfies are conceptualized as a digitally self-produced products to enhance self-worth and achieve entertainment and communication goals by selfie-takers and –posters. This study is an attempt to shift the negative paradigm of selfies as a problematic narcissistic behavior to selfies as a communication tool with multiple purposes and positive psychological effect such as self- affirmation. It focuses on the utility of selfies to the selfie-takers. 7
Self-Affirmation Theory was proposed by Steele (1988). This theory was built on two premises. First, people have a fundamental need to maintain their sense of self-worth and see themselves as good, competent, consistent, stable, and virtuous. Second, when certain aspects of self-worth are threatened by outside information, people can regain a balanced self-worth by affirming other aspects of self-worth. Self-affirming process can be conducted both consciously and unconsciously. This study focuses on the conscious self-affirming process. Researchers have found that people use social media for self-affirmation (Toma & Hancock, 2013). However, to the best of this researcher’s knowledge, no researcher has empirically examined the degree of association between self-affirmation and selfie-related behaviors. Since selfies have the selfie- taker’s face or other body parts in them, from the takers’ perspective, selfies might better represent their identity than pictures taken by others. Selfies might be easier to control and managed than the real-life self-identity. Thus, if people can use selfies as a way of self- affirmation, then their self-worth in reality may be affirmed by selfie-related behaviors in digital realm or vice versa. Thus, this study advances Self-Affirmation Theory by applying it to examine relationship between self-affirmation need and selfie taking and posting behavior.
In addition, this study enriches the explanation of selfie-taking and selfie-posting behaviors by adding the uses and gratification perspective. Although some researchers have used qualitative research methods to explore the potential motivations of selfie-taking and - posting and identified the uses and gratifications of self-taking such as preservation, entertainment, social acceptance, and communication (Choi & Behm-Morawitz, 2016; Etgar &
Amichai-Hamburger, 2017; Holiday, Lewis, Nielsen, Anderson, & Elinzano, 2016; Sung, Lee,
Kim, & Choi, 2016), the results are mostly anecdotal and cannot be generalized or tested for statistical significance. The current study is a quantitative confirmatory study on the uses and 8 gratifications of selfies following the theory’s quantitative tradition to test the extent of association between motivations suggested in previous studies: preservation (Sheldon & Bryant,
2016), entertainment (Quan-Haase & Young, 2010), and communication (Whiting & Williams,
2013), and their relative importance to different types of selfies and selfie-taking and posting behaviors. These motivations were selected to be included in the current model because they have also been discovered through previous U&G research that used relatively small sample sizes.
Methodological Significance
This research will also contribute to research methodology advancement in the measurement of self-affirmation need by adapting self-worth scales into a scale to measure self- affirmation need. Most self-affirmation theory research adopted experimental research method, which observes self-affirmation indirectly through manipulation of certain factors of self-worth and observing behaviors of self-affirmation, like referring to Facebook profiles and affirming other factors of self-worth. Based on the measurement of self-worth developed by Crocker,
Luhtanen, Cooper, and Bouvrette (2003), this research adopts a measure of self-affirmation need which can be reported by the participants and can be used in future survey research and its validity and reliability will be rigorously tested through structural equation models. If the self- reported measure shown good validity and reliability, it can be very useful for future self- affirmation research when observation or manipulation is not feasible.
Practical Significance
This study also has several practical applications both to future examination of selfies in academia and to selfie-taker and posters. First, the conceptualization of selfies as self-affirming, self-preserving, communicative, and entertaining unleashes the examination of selfies from the 9 negative paradigm dominating selfie research. Researchers have found that selfies are different from other types of images on social media. However, while most attention has been given to the dark side of human motivation: narcissism, attention-seeking, and low self-esteem, this study proposes another look at the selfie phenomenon with positive contribution to people’s lives.
These positive functions can be used in media literacy education in teaching people how to use selfies positively to better their lives. Second, if the association of self-affirmation and selfie- related behaviors were found, selfies can be used as a boost to self-worth and self-esteem for people with low self-worth and self-esteem. Self-affirmation has been found to have positive influences on affirmers in coping with stress and dealing with threatening messages (Cohen,
Garcia, Purdie-Vaughns, Apfel, & Brzustoski, 2009; Martens, Johns, Greenberg, & Schimel,
2006; Sherman & Cohen, 2002). Self-affirming selfies might benefit the selfie-posters in terms of controlling one’s own image in modern society and digital world, boosting self-confidence, finding a way to gain social support (for group selfies), a way to initiate online communication, and an entertaining way to pass time similar to playing video games. For posting selfies that are unintended for self-affirmation, this study also examines the motivations in self-preservation, communication, and entertainment. These other uses and gratifications of selfies can explain the functions of selfies in the daily lives of people.
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CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Selfies can be viewed as a digital version of oneself on social media. This study aims to test whether people can affirm their self-worth by materializing selves into selfies and posting them into the virtual social arena. We will first review previous research on self-affirmation and uses and gratification theories to examine the motivations of taking and posting selfies. Self- affirmation is a behavioral process people employ to regain self-worth, especially under self- threatening situations. The Uses and Gratifications research paradigm offers insights for examination of other non-self-affirming motivations of selfie-related behaviors like entertainment, communication, and self-preservation which have been found in previous studies
(Choi & Behm-Morawitz, 2016; Etgar & Amichai-Hamburger, 2017; Holiday et al., 2016; Sung et al., 2016).
Self-Affirmation Theory
Although narcissism and uses and gratifications have been used to explain motivations to take and post selfies, how taking and posting selfies affect the well-being and self-perception of the selfie takers has not been studied beyond narcissism. To survive evolutionary adaptation and life challenges to avoid extinction, people need the biological immune system to fight against virus and to heal wounds. Researchers have argued that people also have “psychological immune system” to defend their ego and self-integrity when threats are received, or potentially threatening information is perceived (Gilbert, Pinel, Wilson, Blumberg, & Wheatley, 1998). Ego defensive system can be helpful in maintain self-esteem and positive self-regard. However, if done wrong, it might blind people from actually threatening information that are important and needs urgent solutions. Researchers argued that people’s ego defense system works in two ways when exposed to threats (Sherman & Cohen, 2006). First, people can maintain the intactness of 11 self-integrity by discrediting the threatening information thus ignore it without taking any preventive actions. Ego defensive system can make people view themselves in a biased way by exaggerating their contribution in producing positive group outcomes, underestimating their faults in generating negative outcomes, and selectively remembering their successes over defeats
(Greenwald, 1980). Another way of ego defense is self-affirmation, which is to affirm other aspects of self-integrity rather than the aspect that is being threatened. With self-integrity affirmed, people can be more open-minded in accepting threatening information without being overly biased.
Self-affirmation theory is based on the belief that people have the fundamental need to perceive themselves as competent, coherent, stable, valuable, good, worthy etc. (Steele, 1988).
When this perception is being threatened, a self-affirming process will be activated. Self- affirmation is defined as an explanative, rationalizing, and/or behavioral process of reminding oneself of one’s positive characteristics, good social relationships, and previous achievements as a way to restore one’s sense of self-worth and self-integrity (Steele, 1988). Self-affirmation is a coping method in response to threats through an increased self-perception, rather than a direct defense to the issue that caused the threats. As Sherman (2003, p.834) put it, “self-affirmation theory proposes that individuals possess a flexible self-system, such that they can respond to threats in one domain of life by affirming self-worth in other domains.” For example, Bergstrom,
Neighbors, and Malheim (2009) found that participants whose perceived body image were threatened by thin model images in media advertisements tend to affirm other aspects of their self-worth that were unrelated to appearance. According to Crocker, Luhtanen, Cooper, and
Bouvrette (2003), self-worth has seven factors: others’ approval, appearance, competition, academic competence, family support, virtue, and God’s love. When one or several aspects of 12 self-worth is threatened, people can regain a balanced sense of ego by affirming, enhancing, and highlighting other aspects of their self-worth.
Unlike self-deception and some other types of ego defense, self-affirmation is not considered as unhealthy or negative by academics. Instead, it is conceptualized as a positive coping method for problems or threats. Research has found that people tend to devalue the information that contradicts their preexisting beliefs (Lord, Ross, & Lepper, 1979). When threats or problems occur, people might turn on their self-defense system to discredit the threats to avoid making changes to deal with them. Self-affirmation process can be considered as a protective instinct for people to maintain psychological well-being and positive evaluation of themselves in times when their ego is threatened. With a balanced perception of oneself, one can focus on dealing with the problem at hand without the internal struggles about one’s self-worth or self- integrity. Sherman and Cohen (2002) have found that self-affirmed subjects were less likely to resort to defensive bias and more likely to accept threatening information. Self-affirmation was also found to reduce ideological closed-mindedness and to facilitate flexible negotiation in political issues (Cohen, Sherman, Bastardi, Hsu, McGoey, & Ross, 2005). Self-affirmation not only helps individuals recognize the threats, but also assists the problem-solving process.
Researchers have found that self-affirmation can improve subjects’ response to laboratory stressors (Creswell, Lam, Stanton, Taylor, Bower, & Sherman, 2007), academic stressors in natural settings (Sherman, Bunyan, Creswell, & Jaremka, 2009), and chronic stress on problem- solving (Creswell, Dutcher, Klein, Harris, & Levine, 2013).
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Self-Affirmation Consciousness
Although this dissertation is designed to examine how conscious self-affirmation need motivates people’s selfie-related behaviors, it is appropriate to also discuss the unconscious self- affirming process, its empirical evidence and differences with conscious affirming behaviors.
Self-affirmation experimental research typically adopts value-ranking and essay-writing as a manipulation of self-affirmation, which is considered as a conscious self-affirmation.
Researchers let participants rank ten characteristics from most valued to least, and then write essays (or provide examples) on the values that ranked the top (e.g. Cohen, Aronson, & Steele,
2000). Researchers assume that after writing or talking about their most valued characteristics, people’s overall self-image will be affirmed. This technique works in improving self-control
(Schmeichel, & Vohs, 2009), accepting threatening information (Sherman & Cohen, 2002), improve academic performances despite ethnical stereotype (Cohen, Garcia, Purdie-Vaughns,
Apfel, & Brzustoski, 2009), and complete tasks that is against gender stereotype (Martens, Johns,
Greenberg, & Schimel, 2006). The value-ranking and essay-writing technique is considered as a conscious self-affirmation. Sherman and colleagues proposed that self-affirming process can also be unconscious, and unconscious self-affirmation might be more beneficial (Sherman, Cohen,
Nelson, Nussbaum, Bunyan, & Garcia, 2009). They used a value-ranking and sentence- unscrambling technique as an implicit self-affirmation. After ranking their most valued characteristics, participants were asked to unscramble certain words of sentences to make them grammatically correct. For experimental group, the sentences are related to their most valued characteristics. For control group, the sentences were neutral and unrelated to values.
Researchers assume that participants are unware of the affirming effects of the sentences they unscrambled. From participants’ open-ended response to the factors they thought contributed to 14 their score of dependent variables, most participants didn’t mention the self-affirming manipulation.
Sherman and colleagues proposed researched on three aspects of unconsciousness in self- affirmation process. First, people might or might not be aware that when dealing with threats, affirming certain aspects of self-worth that is not directly related to the threat can improve their overall self-image. Second, people might or might not be aware that the laboratory manipulation of self-affirmation can improve their perceived self-worth. Third, people might or might not be aware that an improved self-image can change the way they cope with the threat, perhaps with a more open mind, rather than initiating ego-defense and ignoring or discrediting the threatening information. Research results revealed that implicit affirmation without awareness (sentence- unscrambling techniques) could exert beneficial effects. Participants were generally unaware of the relationship between self-affirmation and its influence on subsequent measures. When some participants were made aware of the effects of affirmation, the self-esteem boosting effect was larger among unaware participants compared with aware participants, and bias-reducing effect was not found among explicitly affirmed participants. (Sherman, Cohen, Nelson, Nussbaum,
Bunyan, & Garcia, 2009)
Why would self-affirmation exert more beneficial effects when people are unaware of this psychological process? First, people can pursue their goals without consciously knowing so.
Research had shown that participants could react to subliminal primes (every subtle environmental trigger like verbal stimuli, objects, scents, observation of others pursuing a goal) and unconsciously pursue certain goals (see Sheeran, Gollwitzer, & Bargh, 2013 for a review).
Second, when people are consciously and actively pursuing high self-worth, it might lead to less happiness. Researchers argued that conscious pursuit of high self-esteem to maintain a sense of 15 self-worthiness might have many high costs to autonomy of one’s behavior, learning and competence, social relationships, self-regulations, and physical health. When people are fully aware of the psychological benefits of doing something, the beneficial effects of the task might be reduced (Crocker & Park, 2004). When unconsciously self-affirmed, people gain short-term satisfaction of overall self-image, which might counteract the costs of pursuing high self- worthiness.
Self-Affirmation through Social Media
Before the age of social media, self-affirmation theory was mainly studied through laboratory experiments by letting subjects self-report their values or writing essays assigned by experimenters. However, as Toma and Hancock (2013) put it, people are very unlikely to spontaneously adopt these experimented self-affirming methods to regain their self-worth and self-integrity. Rather, they might repair their ego on their own by surfing the Internet, which is a safe and controlled media environment without the unpredictable risks of interpersonal interactions. After the development of social media, sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. can offer users a virtual platform of social connection and self-presentation (Papacharissi, 2010), making it possible for people to gain self-worth in this online social arena.
Researchers have tested whether people can use social media for self-affirmation and increase self-esteem. Valkenburg, Peter, and Schouten (2006) found that adolescents’ social self- esteem and well-being were indirectly impacted by usage of social networking sites through positive peer response. In addition, negative response led to decreased self-esteem and social well-being. This finding indicates that social networking sites are considered as a social arena by adolescents. The feedback they get from SNS is considered similarly to feedback received in real life, which can exert impact on their self-esteem. Kim and Lee (2011) found that college-aged 16 participants who have higher number of Facebook friends and used positive self-presentational strategies on Facebook tend to have higher levels of perceived happiness. The author suggested that participants might gain affirmed and enhanced self-worth through imagined social connections on Facebook. Toma and Hancock (2013) found that people use Facebook profiles to satisfy their self-worth and self-integrity. Moreover, they found that when subjects received negative feedback about their performances, people would go to their Facebook profiles as a self-affirming process to regain their self-esteem.
Effects of Self-Affirmation
Self-affirmation is a process to regain self-worth. Thus, an increase in self-worth is a direct effect of self-affirmation, as discovered by the manipulation check of many experimental research (e.g. Bergstrom, Neighbors, & Malheim, 2009). Apart from increased self-worth, researchers also found secondary effects of self-affirmation through an increased perception of self-worth, like decreased defensive bias when facing threatening information, increased intellectual performance, and positive health-related perceptions and behaviors.
Sherman and Cohen (2002) argued that self-affirmed people are more likely to treat threatening information in an open-minded manner. Threatening information was less likely to trigger the defense system of an affirmed individual than a self-protective individual. Martens,
Johns, Greenberg, and Schimel (2006) found that self-affirmed women (those who were in experimental groups and wrote essays about their most valued characteristics) who were under gender stereotype threats had better intellectual performance than non-affirmed women. Cohen,
Garcia, Purdie-Vaughns, Apfel, and Brzustoski (2009) found that students who received self- affirming intervention achieved higher GPA than those who did not. Falk and colleagues (2015) 17 found neural scientific results indicating that self-affirmation altered brain’s response to health- related messages and subsequently led to positive health-related behaviors.
Uses and Gratification Theory
Uses and Gratification (U&G) Theory was built on the premise that people are goal- oriented in their media consumption and they purposively select and consume media content for psychological or practical satisfactions (Katz, Blumler, & Gurevitch, 1974). Researchers employed this research framework to study traditional media usage and gratification, for example, on television consumption (Rubin, 1983), on magazine readership (Payne, Severn, &
Dozier, 1988), on newspaper consumption (Elliott & Rosenberg, 1987) etc. With more and more
Internet access to the general public, researchers have adopted the U&G research framework to study Internet uses. For example, Papacharissi & Rubin (2000) have found that people use internet for information-seeking and for interpersonal utility.
While social media is gaining explosive popularity on a global scale, research that used
U&G framework also generated valuable findings. Quan-Haase and Young (2010) found that people use Facebook to pass time, seek affection, seek fashion-related information, share problems, increase sociability, seek social information, and seek entertainment. From 25 in-depth interviews, Whiting and Williams (2013) found the following uses and gratifications of social media consumption: social interaction, information seeking, passing time, entertainment, relaxation, communicatory utility, convenience utility, expression of opinion, information sharing, and surveillance/knowledge about others. A factor analysis revealed four need to participating in Facebook groups: socializing, entertainment, self-status seeking, and information
(Park, Kee, & Valenzuela, 2009). Cheung, Chiu, and Lee (2011) found that group behavior on
Facebook was motivated mainly by social presence, entertainment value, social enhancement, 18 and group norms. Sheldon and Bryant (2016) found that people use Instagram mainly for surveillance/knowledge about others, documentation, displaying “coolness,” and “creativity.”
College students are the heavy users of social media and smartphones. A national study by Experian Simmon reported that 98% of college students in America use social media
(Macale, 2011). Previous U&G scholars have also focused on the motivations behind college students’ social media and smartphone use for their social and campus life (e.g., Ha, Joa, Gabay
& Kim, 2018). Social media is an important platform for college students to seek information and gain social involvement, social influence, and social support. Fang and Ha (2011) found that heavy social media users use them for news, information, and maintain and develop social network. Park and Lee (2014) studied the motivation behind college students’ usage of Facebook and found the main motivations include entertainment, relationship maintenance, self-expression, and communication. Alt (2015) found that fear of missing out is an important motivation behind students’ social media engagement. Researchers also found that college students use social media with the desire to be connected (Ahn & Shin, 2013).
Uses and Gratifications of Selfies
Although the selfie phenomenon is a new area of research in academia, several studies have been conducted to find out what motivates people to take and post selfies. These studies, as exploratory research, used relatively small sample to reveal the potential motivations behind people’s behaviors on selfies. Holiday, Lewis, Nielsen, Anderson, & Elinzano (2016) used Q- sort method and asked 46 participants between the age of 18 and 45 to rate 48 statements on motivations regarding selfie-posting from “least like I believe” to “most like I believe”. Based on the Q-sort result, they found that people post selfies for preservation, communication, and entertainment. Choi and Behm-Morawitz (2016) conducted an online survey among 205 19 millennials and found that they take selfies for capturing a memorable moment (preservation), interaction with others (communication), and entertainment. Sung, Lee, Kim, and Choi, (2016) conducted an online survey on 315 Korean participants who were aged between 19 and 39. The researchers found that they post selfies for attention seeking, communication, archiving
(preservation), and entertainment. Etgar and Amichai-Hamburge (2017) conducted a two-stage study on 117 communications undergraduate volunteers for first stage, and 191 psychology students on second stage. The study found that college students take selfies for self-approval, belonging, and documentation.
Summing up from the above findings on uses and gratification on social media and selfie- related behaviors, selfie-taking and posting might be related to self-preservation
(documentation), need for entertainment, and need for communication. Selfies are photos in the first place, and photos are digital footprints of where the photo-takers have been and what they have seen. Photos that include the photo-taker itself in them can serve as self-documentation or self-preservation of moments that deserve to cherish. Selfie-taking can be a fun process as entertainment for people who wants to explore how to portrait themselves in photos. Researchers have found a special category of selfie: “uglies” (Butterworth, 2016). People intentionally make ugly selfies as a way to entertain themselves and to show their friends “I am comfortable being around you and I trust you enough to show you an ugly picture of me.” In addition, need for communication can be a motivation of selfie posting, because posting a photo of oneself heightens the social presence of the poster. It can be a way to initiate communication.
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Conceptualization of Selfie in Scholarly Research
Online Photo Sharing Research and Selfie Research
Online photo sharing cannot become a widely-received practice without the technological development in digital camera especially smartphone with camera lenses and social media.
Selfie, a thriving category of online photos, also gain its phenomenal proliferation by benefitting from the continuous advancement in smartphone camera technology and social media features.
Cameras lenses that used to be bulky and heavy are now installed at both sides of lightweight cell phones. Manufacturers compete on camera quality and storage capacity to attract consumers.
Social media platforms are updating constantly to include newer features for users to virtually connect with each other at a more intimate level. These developments contributed to the global popularity of taking, sharing, and viewing selfies. Hence, selfie is a category of online photo emerged from the continuous development of digital camera and social media. Selfie research, similarly, shares the same roots with online photo taking and sharing literature. From the current selfie literature, major similarities can be found with previous examinations on the production and distribution of online photos. The following section will be focused on how the conceptualization and empirical examination of the selfie phenomenon have been guided by and can be further inspired by previous literature on online photo sharing.
Prior Research on the Selfie Phenomenon
The conceptualization of motivations behind selfie-related behaviors should be broader than just treating selfies as a display of certain negative personality traits of the selfie-posters.
Many scholarly studies on selfies focused on how selfie-takers’ personality traits influence their selfie-related behaviors, while online photo sharing, as argued by many scholars (Nov, Naaman,
& Ye, 2010; Oeldorf-Hirsch & Sundar, 2016; Van House et al., 2005), contains more factors to 21 analyze, like its functions in social connection, personal and social preservation of memories, and entertainment. Selfies can also be a way to socially connect with others. Selfies can function as a technological tool to initiate and maintain communication, a form of self-expression and self-presentation, and a virtual substitute of face-to-face interpersonal communication in mediated settings with facial images. In addition, with the increasing ownership of modern smartphones and access to the Internet, communication through selfies can be convenient and immediate, releasing people from the need of help from others to take or pass along pictures for them. In line with these conceptualizations, the motivation of engaging in selfie-related behaviors, therefore, might be the fundamental social needs, for example, to belong to a social group, to communicate with members of community, and to inform and be informed of social updates. Echoing Villi’s (2012) analysis of photo-taking and –sharing as a form of visual communication and social interaction, selfies, potentially featuring communicators’ facial expression more frequently, can be viewed as a better tool to initiate mediated interpersonal communication. Katz and Crocker (2015) found that selfies are not adopted by users with a singular purpose, but with various intentions, influenced by many factors like audience, subject matter, and platforms. One major finding was the conversational function of selfies, which implies that the selfie phenomenon might be able to be investigated using the interpersonal communication framework and theories, such us relationship development model and interpersonal judgments (social attraction, task attraction, perceived homophile, uncertainty reduction etc.).
Apart from the psychological and social motives driving people to take and post selfies more frequently, the technological convenience should also be considered. The prevalence of smartphone and relatively affordable internet access have made taking and sharing selfies no 22 more than just several clicks on a digital screen. Smartphone access to social media has made sharing of selfies almost a seamless process after taking selfies. This convenience further facilitates the communicative (compared with presentational) function of selfie interaction.
Motivation of Image-Posting on Social Media
Through academic investigations, scholars have discovered some motivations behind people’s online photo sharing behaviors: social communication (creation of social relationship)
(Oeldorf-Hirsch & Sundar, 2016; Van House, 2005; Villi, 2012), maintenance of social relationship (Oeldorf-Hirsch & Sundar, 2016; Van House, 2005), recording and reminding personal and group memory (Van House, 2005), self-expression (Oeldorf-Hirsch & Sundar,
2016; Van House, 2005), and self-presentation (Van House, 2005).
These photo-sharing studies have revealed that the motivations that drive people to share photos online are social in nature, rather than purely driven by personalities. By analyzing 1,500 personal photos taken by participants, Van House and colleagues (2005) identified purposes for photo-taking and –sharing: creating and maintaining social relationships, recording and reminding personal and group memory, self-expression (“giving voice to one’s unique view of the world” p. 1855), and self-presentation (“about influencing others’ view of oneself” p. 1855), and functional uses such as replacing writing, scanning, and copying etc. Nov, Naaman, and Ye
(2010) examined the motivations of participation in Flicker, an online photo-sharing community.
The authors found both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. Extrinsic motivations are goal- oriented, aiming to achieve an outcome which is separable from the activity, like improvement of skills, reputation, and professional status. Intrinsic motivations, like enjoyment and reciprocity, are more about psychological gratification gained during the process of the behavior rather than enjoying the consequences of it. Villi (2012) examined photo-taking and –sharing from an 23 interpersonal communication perspective, conceptualizing this form of visual communication as a social interaction, which allows users to maintain interpersonal connections despite physical distances. Because of visual communication, social relationships can be maintained in a form closer to face-to-face communication than textual communication when physical proximity isn’t allowed. The author also argued that compared with verbal interpersonal communication and nonverbal interpersonal communication (body language, gestures, and facial expressions), visual interpersonal communication didn’t receive much scholarly attention. Oeldorf-Hirsch and Sundar
(2016) designed a study to explore the reasons for viewing and uploading photos online
(motivations for the two behaviors weren’t separated though): Seeking and Showcasing
Experiences, Website Affordances/Technological Reasons, Social Connection/Bonding, and
Reaching Out/Bridging. The authors argued that the nature of the motivation was to gratify social, rather than personal needs.
Researchers argued that online photo sharing signals a change about the nature of photo- taking from a formal record of special events into an immediate capture of everyday lives.
Murray (2008) argued that the online photo-sharing is a social use of digital photography. By being able to share, comment, and discuss images on platforms like Flickr, people become less concern about the boundary between professional photographers and amateurs. Also, the social perspective of photo-sharing signals a change in the nature of photo-taking as less a formal behavior to record the special events in life, but a more immediate and spontaneous capture of the small and mundane moments of everyday life. Grace (2010) critically pointed out two societal effects of digital photo-taking and -sharing: mutation of memory and general anesthesia.
Mutation of memory refers to the immediately historicized presence by digital images. By taking digital images, people are able to store selected memories of the moments they want to preserve. 24
General anesthesia refers to the societal emphasis on the tools of digital photography and platforms of digital photo-sharing, rather than the content of the image. The technological development behind digital photography industry might distract people’s attention from making better content to owning better cameras and become more technological savvy.
Photo-sharing as Social Presence in Digital Realm
Photos being shared online often represent a sense of online presence of the people being featured. Counts and Fellheimer (2004) explored how photo-sharing through mobile phones facilitates online social interaction through an experimental research. The study was conducted before the widespread of Internet access and proliferation of social media use. Therefore, the control setting was sharing photos through traditional method, email, and the experiment setting was sharing photos to friends and family using a built-in software on mobile phones. Researchers found that sharing photos via mobile phones was a more fun, simplified, convenient, and group- centric way of enhancing social presence of people being featured in the photos.
Photo-taking as Materialization of Everyday Memory
With the proliferation of smartphone adoption, more people are able to use their personal devices to capture live moments of life and store them digitally at their fingertips. With fewer and fewer people print photos out and put them into albums, cell phones or tablets becomes a physical storage of the memories captured within the digital photos. The photos become a personal or collective storage of memories. In the old days, grandparents carry out a thick photo album after family dinner to relish the past, while families nowadays get together around the sofa doing so by looking into cell phones or tablets, or projection on smart TVs and large monitors for group viewing. Enabled by technology, the easy production and distribution of digital photography and videography has made the co-ownership of group memories a bit more 25 convenient. Creation and circulation of aesthetically pleasing visual content is no longer an expertise of the privileged few, as in the time before digital cameras were born. As Grace (2010, p.263) put it, “everyone’s creativity capacity has been extended.” In the age of selfies, the spontaneity and full control of taking and sharing selfies with minimum limit has facilitated this process.
Motivations of Selfie-Related Behaviors
This section we analyze previous research findings on the motivations for taking and sharing individual and group selfies, especially the relationship between selfie-related behaviors and personality traits like narcissism and extraversion. The need for popularity and the influence of “likes” on selfie-posting behaviors is also discussed.
Personality Traits: Narcissism and Extraversion
One of the most researched area within selfie literature is the relationship between certain personality traits like narcissism and extraversion and selfie-related behaviors. Researchers empirically tested whether there is truth in the stereotypical view that selfie-takers are attention- seeking millennials who overly adore themselves and excessively show off what they did and own online. The dominance of personality paradigm within the selfie literature revealed a potential simplification of the conceptualization of the selfie phenomenon as a behavioral display of certain personality traits, while selfie and selfie usage require more complex examination of motivations.
Empirical examinations of the connection between selfie usage and narcissism have been conducted under numerous settings. Charoensukmongkol (2016) examined the personality traits of people who like to take selfies. Using survey data on 300 Thai college students, the researcher found people who are more narcissistic, attention-seeking, self-centered, and lonely are 26 significantly more likely to take selfies. Halpern and colleagues (Halpern, Valenzuela, & Katz,
2016) conducted a two-wave cross-lagged panel analysis of the relationship between narcissism and selfie-posting revealed a self-reinforcing effect between the two elements: people with higher level of narcissism have higher frequency of taking and posting selfies and such behavior increased the level of narcissism over time. The dimensions of narcissism include authority/superiority, exhibitionism, exploitativeness, and vanity. Kim, Lee, Sung, and Choi
(2016) designed a study to test the theory of planned behavior in selfie-posting contexts, plus a test of narcissism as predictor of behavioral intention. Results suggest that attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and narcissism significantly predicted behavioral intention of selfie-posting. Lee and Sung (2016) conducted research to see whether narcissism is linked with other selfie-related behaviors such as the relationship between selfie-posters’ level of narcissism and their involvement in others’ feedback. Results reveal that people with higher level of narcissism are more likely to view others’ feedback to as more important, useful, interesting, and entertaining. They are also more likely to positively evaluate selfie-posting behavior and observe others’ selfies. Using qualitative interview with heavy selfie posters, Sung, Lee, Kim, and Choi (2016) constructed scales of measuring intentions of selfie-posting: attention-seeking, communication (relationship building and management), archiving, and entertainment. Using the scale constructed from the in-depth interviews, the researchers continuingly conducted an online survey with 314 Korean participants (age=19-39) and found that narcissism and all other measured intentions except entertainment significantly predicted selfie-posting intention.
Specifically, narcissism significantly predicted selfie-posting frequency.
Selfies that are posted out of psychological motivation to show off and grab attention are only one part of the selfies circulating on social media. To find out what kind of selfies exactly is 27 more associated with narcissism, Barry, Doucette, Loflin, Rivera-Hudson, and Herrington (2017) designed a study to examine the relationship between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, self- esteem, and selfie-posting on Instagram. Grandiose narcissism includes factors Grandiose
Fantasy (fantasy of gorgeousness of self), Self-sacrificing, Self-enhancement (a biased perception of the self), and Exploitativeness (perceived ability to take advantages of others).
Vulnerable narcissism includes factors Contingent Self-esteem (perceived ability of the self to achieve things at certain times), Devaluing Others/ Need for Others, Hiding the Self, and
Entitlement Rage (perceived entitlement to be tolerated by others). Selfies were coded into these categories: physical appearance, activity/event/location, affiliation with others, collage, other/undifferentiated. Both narcissism and self-esteem are not significantly related to general selfie-posting regardless of the types of selfies. Vulnerable narcissism and posting of selfies featuring physical appearance are significantly related but posting of selfies is not related to
Grandiose narcissism. Hence posting of selfies seems only related to Vulnerable narcissism but not Grandiose narcissism.
Apart from narcissism, psychology researchers also found other personality traits like extraversion that were associated with selfie takers and posters. Sorokowska, Oleszkiewicz,
Frackowiak, Pisanski, Chmiel, & Sorokowski (2016) found that self-exhibitionism and extraversion significantly predicted selfie posting regardless of gender. Exhibitionism is a factor of narcissism, according to Halpern and Katz (2016). Self-esteem, however, was found unrelated to selfie-posting among women and weakly related to selfie-posting among men. Qiu, Lu, Yang,
Qu, and Zhu (2015) investigate the how selfies reflect posters’ personality and how well naïve observers can identify the personality of posters from selfies. The results indicate four of the Big
Five personality traits can be identified by coders from the selfies: agreeableness, 28 conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. However, naïve observers were only able to identify openness from the selfies. Kim and Chock (2017) also found that extraversion significantly predicted frequency of posting group selfies. Although narcissism and extraversion are two distinct personality traits, they are found to be correlated in a study examining adolescents’ self-presentation behaviors on social media (Ong, Ang, Ho, Lim, Goh, Lee, &
Chua, 2011)
The Need for Popularity in Selfie Posting
Need for popularity is an important aspect in the development of self-identity for many adolescents. Need for popularity was found to be the strongest predictor to adolescent social media use compared with narcissism and Big Five personality traits (Utz, Tanis, & Vermeulen,
2012). Need for popularity was also found as an important factor in selfie-related behaviors that people collect peer feedback to their selfies in the forms of “likes”, “favorites”, and positive comments. These feedbacks can be seen not only by the selfie-posters, but also their social media
“friends”. Thus, how much the selfies are “liked” is somewhat an indication of how popular the people in the selfies are. In-depth interviews with teenagers conducted by Mascheroni, Vincent, and Jimenez (2015) revealed that “to get likes” was viewed as an important motivation to post selfies. Siblings will compete over the number of “likes” they got on Facebook, and girls will take selfies and edit them together to get more “likes” as a way to have fun. Chua and Chang
(2016) found that people use selfies as a way to collect peer feedback in the form of “likes”,
“favorites”, and comments. Zhang, Bi and Ha (2017) discovered through in-depth interviews of college students that because pictures with faces such as selfies are easier to get more likes than pictures without the faces, participants chose to post selfies on their social media. The researchers also found that some college students, particular female students, see whether their 29 posts were “liked” by many SNS friends as an important indicator of their popularity. One participant even reported that she would delete a post if no one clicked the “like” button within
15 minutes.
Receiving “likes” on social media seem to be able to make the posters happy and the number of likes display a visualization of social popularity in online realm. However, an overly emphasis on “likes” might result in negative outcomes. Nesi and Prinstein (2015) have found that feedback-seeking is associated with depressive symptoms. Gender and popularity were found as moderators, which indicated that female adolescents with low popularity were particularly vulnerable to the maximize their “likes” to build their popularity online.
Individual Selfies and Group Selfies
An individual selfie is a selfie that features the selfie-taker only. A group selfie (groupie) is a selfie that apart from featuring the selfie-taker, also includes other people. Several studies have differentiated the two categories of selfies in the examination of motivations. Findings revealed both overlapped and distinct motivations of taking and posting individual and group selfies.
Based on previous research, the potential predictors for taking and posting individual selfies are higher level of narcissism, social exhibitionism, peer comparison, need for peer belongingness and social connections (among loose ties), and need for social popularity (among strong ties).
Sorokowska et al. (2016) found that posting individual selfies is correlated with extraversion and social exhibitionism (defined as willingness to be noticed, seen, and heard by others). Posting selfies featuring physical appearance was found correlated with self-hiding, self-enhancement, and devaluation of others (Barry et al., 2017). Chae (2017) conducted a longitudinal survey among South Korean female smartphone users and discovered that selfie-posting or viewing was associated with social comparison with friends, instead of with influencers or celebrities. 30
Taking and sharing group selfies require both physical intimacy and relationship intimacy.
Groupies are good for displaying relational intimacy, trust, and confidence in social relationship through physical intimacy. Motivations of taking and sharing groupies can be the need for peer belonging and desire for social popularity. Sorokowska et al. (2016) found that posting both selfies with romantic partner and group selfies are correlated with extrovert personality and social exhibitionism. Posting group selfies was found correlated with exploitativeness (a factor of narcissism indicating one’s perceived ability to manipulate others) and self-enhancement
(Barry et al., 2017). With such documented difference between individual selfies and group selfies in the literature, it is necessary to examine them separately for the taking and posting motivation in this dissertation study.
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CHAPTER III. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The conceptual framework of this study is developed based on past research on the association between personality traits (narcissism and extraversion) and selfie-related behaviors
(Charoensukmongkol, 2016; Halpern, Valenzuela, & Katz, 2016; Lee & Sung, 2016; Kim &
Chock, 2017), research on self-affirming social media use (Toma & Hancock, 2013), and Uses and Gratification research on motivations of selfie-related behaviors (Choi & Behm-Morawitz,
2016; Etgar & Amichai-Hamburger, 2017; Holiday, Lewis, Nielsen, Anderson, & Elinzano,
2016; Sung, Lee, Kim, & Choi, 2016).
Self-affirmation is one strategy of human beings to satisfy the fundamental need of self- worth. It is defined as a process to remind oneself of its valued characteristics, recognized strength, cherished social relationships or previous achievements (Steele, 1988). Toma and
Hancock (2013) found that people construct Facebook profiles in a self-affirming way to satisfy their need for self-worth and self-integrity. They also found that when people experience low sense of self-esteem, they unconsciously refer to their Facebook profile as a self-affirming way to regain self-worth. Because self-affirmation is a behavioral process to regain sense of self- worth, it is studied indirectly through the measure of self-worth (Bergstrom, Neighbors, &
Malheim, 2009) or self-integrity (Sherman et al., 2009). Thus, this construct is defined in this study as the conscious need to which people take or post selfies to regain their self-worth. We recognize that the unconscious (or subconscious) self-affirmation is also an important aspect to study in future experimental research. This study is dedicated to research on the conscious side of selfie usage as self-affirmation.
Self-worth has seven dimensions: others’ approval, appearance, competition, academic competence, family support, virtue, and God’s love (Crocker et al., 2003). Apart from the last 32 two dimensions of virtue and God’s love, the other five dimensions of self-worth can be affirmed by taking or posting selfies. Specifically, by taking and posting selfies, people can fully control their appearance in these digital images. By pairing selfies with intended texts, people can design their own way of self-presentation on social media to gain others’ approval. For appearance, it has been found that selfie-takers view themselves as more attractive in selfies than in pictures taken by others, because of the photo-taking angle and the complete full control (Zhang, Bi, &
Ha, 2017). Like other types of picture, selfies can be used to showcase achievements and enhance one’s perceived competence in competitions. Group selfies with families can be helpful in displaying and gaining family’s support.
The Uses and Gratifications perspective offers insights on why people use social media.
Social media provide a space for users to post photos to either document the world that they have seen or document the moments they have with their friends and family, even just a moment of themselves. Sheldon and Bryant (2016) found that documentation is one of the four main motivations of Instagram usage. Researchers have found that self-preservation is one of the motivations for selfie-taking or -posting (Choi & Behm-Morawitz, 2016; Etgar & Amichai-
Hamburger, 2017; Holiday, Lewis, Nielsen, Anderson, & Elinzano, 2016; Sung, Lee, Kim, &
Choi, 2016). Uses and gratifications research revealed entertainment-seeking as one of the major motivations of media consumption (Cheung, Chiu, & Lee, 2011; Park, Kee, & Valenzuela, 2009;
Quan-Haase & Young, 2010; Whiting & Williams, 2013). Researchers have also found entertainment as one of the driving reasons for people to take and post selfies (Butterworth,
2016; Choi & Behm-Morawitz, 2016; Etgar & Amichai-Hamburger, 2017; Holiday, Lewis,
Nielsen, Anderson, & Elinzano, 2016; Sung, Lee, Kim, & Choi, 2016). In the examination of whether people use computer mediated communication as functional alternative of face-to-face 33 communication, researchers have found that the main motivations behind computer mediated communication and interpersonal communication were similar (Flaherty, Pearce, & Rubin,
1998). Initiating and maintaining social interactions have been found one of the main reasons people use social media (Whiting & Williams, 2013). For selfie-related behaviors, research also revealed that people post selfies to communicate with others (Choi & Behm-Morawitz, 2016;
Holiday, Lewis, Nielsen, Anderson, & Elinzano, 2016; Sung, Lee, Kim, & Choi, 2016).
Researchers have discovered that whether posts would receive “likes” and other responses was an important factor for selfie-posters to decide whether or not to post selfies (Chua & Chang,
2016; Mascheroni et al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2017). Thus, need for popularity was examined as a mediator between need for self-affirmation and selfie-related behaviors.
Selfie-related behaviors can be understood from three dimensions: 1) frequency of and number of selfies taken and posted, 2) number of people featured in selfies (individual selfies and group selfies), and 3) differentiation between selfie-taking and selfie-posting behaviors.
These three dimensions are essential in selfie research. First, frequency of a behavior and indulgence in the behavior are two different things. Higher frequency of selfie-taking and posting might indicate intensity on this behavior, while larger number of selfies taken and posted might indicate indulgence and higher level of gratification due to the indulgence. A person who takes selfies every hour has a different purpose of using selfies than a person who takes selfies once a week but takes one hundred selfies at a time. Thus, both frequency and amount of selfies-related behaviors should be measured separately. Second, previous research has indicated the difference between the motivations of taking and posting individual selfies and group selfies (Sorokowski et al., 2016; Wang, Yang, & Haigh, 2017), demonstrating the need to differentiate the two in this study. Third, selfie-taking and selfie-posting are two different behaviors. Not all selfies taken by 34 the selfie-takers will end up being posted on social media. Taking and posting selfies might derived from different motivations, which is one of the hypotheses this study is designed to test.
A factorial combination of the three dimensions results in eight selfie behavior indicators: 1) frequency of taking individual selfies, 2) frequency of taking group selfies, 3) frequency of posting individual selfies, 4) frequency of taking group selfies, 5) the number of individual selfies taken, 6) the number of group selfies taken, 7) the number of individual selfies posted, and 8) the number of group selfies posted.
According to multiple psychology studies, people’s personality becomes stable only after the age 30 (Terracciano, Costa Jr, & McCrae, 2006), specifically at the age between 40 to 60
(Specht, Egloff, & Schmukle, 2011). Therefore, narcissism and extraversion are personality traits that may change for young people in this study, making it unsuitable to be treated as antecedents, because antecedents should occur before independent variables in time and influence the relationship between independent variables and dependent variable. So, it would be more appropriate to conceptualize narcissism and extraversion as independent variables in the research model, exerting influence on selfie-related behaviors either directly or indirectly through the mediation of various psychological needs of using selfies.
Research Questions and Hypotheses
Based on the conceptual framework and past research of motivations of taking and posting individual and group selfies, four models were designed to investigate the following research questions and hypotheses. The model examines the direct relationship between personality traits (narcissism and extraversion) and taking and posting individual selfies and group selfies and indirect relationships via needs and motivations. Since narcissism was found as a predictor of posting individual selfies and extraversion was found as a predictor of posting 35 group selfies (Kim & Chock, 2017), direct predicting links were drawn from narcissism to individual selfie-taking and -posting and from extraversion to group selfie-taking and -posting.
The model also examines how the needs for self-preservation, self-affirmation, entertainment, communication, and popularity mediate the relationship between personality traits and selfie behaviors based on the Self-Affirmation Theory and Uses and Gratifications perspective. As there are multiple motivations for taking and posting selfies, we would like to examine the relative importance of the motivation for each type of selfie behavior.
RQ1: What is the most important motivation for taking individual selfies?
RQ2: What is the most important motivation for posting individual selfies?
RQ3: What is the most important motivation for taking group selfies?
RQ4: What is the most important motivation for posting group selfies?
Four research models were constructed for clear examination of the motivations for selfie-related behavior. Research model 1 is for individual selfie-taking and Hypotheses 1 to 4 were constructed to examine the motivations of taking individual selfies. Research model 2 is for posting selfies and Hypotheses 5 to 8 were constructed to examine the motivations of posting individual selfies. Research model 3 and Hypotheses 9 to 12 were constructed to examine the motivations of taking group selfies. Research model 4 and Hypotheses 13 to hypotheses 16 were constructed to examine the motivations of posting group selfies.
Scholars have found an association between narcissism and selfie-taking (Barry et al.,
2017; Charoensukmongkol, 2016; Halpern et al., 2016). Preservation was also found as an important motivation behind people’s behavior of taking photos (Grace, 2010; Murray, 2008;
Sung et al., 2016). Need for popularity was found as a strong predictor to adolescent social media use (Utz et al., 2012). It was also found as an important motivation behind posting selfies 36 to collect peer feedback in the form of “likes” and positive comments (Chua & Chang 2016;
Mascheroni et al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2017). Previous studies have revealed the linkage between social media usage and self-affirmation (Kim & Lee, 2013; Toma & Hancock, 2013; Valkenburg et al., 2006;). To further detangle the relationship of the motivations, various needs were conceptualized as mediators between personality traits and selfie-related behaviors. People’s need of preservation and popularity might be driven by narcissism, thinking they are important people that need to be documented and surrounded by people. Need for popularity might also be driven by people’s need for self-affirmation because one important aspect of self-worth is based on others’ approval (Crocker et al., 2003). Scholars have found that people use social media to seek entertainment (Park et al., 2009; Quan-Haase & Young, 2010; Whiting & Williams, 2013), seek social interaction (Park et al., 2009; Whiting & Williams, 2013), and documentation
(Sheldon & Bryant, 2016). Based on previous research, the following hypotheses (H1-H4) were proposed for research model 1: motivations of taking individual selfies (see Figure 1).
H1: The higher the level of narcissism, the more participants will take individual selfies
H2: (a) Need for self-preservation, (b) self-worth, and (c) need for popularity mediate the relationship between narcissism and taking individual selfies.
H3: (a) Need for popularity and (b) need for entertainment mediate the relationship between extraversion and taking individual selfies.
H4: Need for popularity mediates the relationship between self-worth and taking individual selfies.
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Figure 1 Research Model 1: Motivations of Taking Individual Selfies
In terms of selfie-posting, previous research has found selfie-posting and online photo- sharing is associated with narcissism (Kim et al., 2016), extraversion (Sorokowska et al., 2016), preservation (Grace, 2010; Murray, 2008; Sung et al., 2016), communication (Villi, 2012; Sung et al., 2016), entertainment (Choi & Behm-Morawitz, 2016), and need for social popularity
(Chua & Chang 2016; Mascheroni et al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2017). To further explain the relationship of the motivations, various psychological needs were conceptualized as mediators between personality traits and selfie-posting behaviors. People might post selfies to preserve memories and to gain social popularity because of their narcissistic perception of themselves.
Extraverts are more likely to seek social attentions and communication with others. Need for popularity might also be driven by people’s need for self-affirmation because one important aspect of self-worth is based on others’ approval (Crocker et al., 2003). In addition, previous research has found that social media usage is significantly related to self-affirmation (Kim &
Lee, 2013; Toma & Hancock, 2013; Valkenburg et al., 2006). Thus, the following hypotheses
(H5-H8) were proposed for research model 2: motivations of posting individual selfies (see
Figure 2). 38
H5: The higher the level of narcissism, the more participants will post individual selfies
H6: (a) Need for self-preservation, (b) self-worth, and (c) need for popularity mediate the relationship between narcissism and posting individual selfies.
H7: (a) Need for popularity and (b) need for entertainment mediate the relationship between extraversion and posting individual selfies.
H8: Need for popularity mediates the relationship between self-worth and posting individual selfies.
Figure 2 Research Model 2: Motivations of Posting Individual Selfies
Fewer studies have been dedicated to research on group selfies than individual selfies.
However, previous research has discovered the association between selfie-taking and preservation of memorable moments (Choi & Behm-Morawitz, 2016; Hamburge, 2017), interaction with others (Choi & Behm-Morawitz, 2016), entertainment (Choi & Behm-Morawitz,
2016), and social belonging (Hamburge, 2017). Previous research also found the association between group selfie-related behaviors and extraversion and different aspects of narcissism, including exhibitionism (Sorokowska et al., 2016), exploitativeness, and self-enhancement 39
(Barry et al., 2017). Narcissism and extraversion, as personality traits, might be the driving force behind people’s psychological needs, which are conceptualized as mediators between personality traits and group selfie-taking. Thus, the following hypotheses (H9-H12) were proposed for research model 3: motivations of taking group selfies (see Figure 3).
H9: The higher the level of extraversion, the more participants will take group selfies
H10: (a) Need for self-preservation, (b) self-worth, and (c) need for popularity mediate the relationship between narcissism and taking group selfies.
H11: (a) Need for popularity and (b) need for entertainment mediate the relationship between extraversion and taking group selfies.
H12: Need for popularity mediates the relationship between self-worth and taking group selfies.
Figure 3 Research Model 3: Motivations of Taking Group Selfies
In previous study of motivations behind posting group selfies, it was also found correlated with extraversion (Kim & Chock, 2017) and different aspects of narcissism, including 40 exhibitionism (Sorokowska et al., 2016), exploitativeness, and self-enhancement (Barry et al.,
2017). For selfie-usage, scholars have found that people take selfies to preserve memorable moments (Choi & Behm-Morawitz, 2016; Hamburge, 2017), interact with others (Choi & Behm-
Morawitz, 2016), entertainment (Choi & Behm-Morawitz, 2016), and social belonging
(Hamburge, 2017). In addition, researchers have found the association between self-affirmation and social media usage (Kim & Lee, 2013; Toma & Hancock, 2013; Valkenburg et al., 2006).
Various needs were conceptualized as mediators between personality traits and group selfie- posting. Need for popularity might be driven by people’s self-worth based on others’ approval
Thus, the following hypotheses (H13-H16) were proposed for research model 4: motivations of posting group selfies (see Figure 4).
H13: The higher the level of extraversion, the more participants will post group selfies
H14: (a) Need for self-preservation, (b) self-worth, and (c) need for popularity mediate the relationship between narcissism and posting group selfies.
H15: (a) Need for popularity and (b) need for entertainment mediate the relationship between extraversion and posting group selfies.
H16: Need for popularity mediates the relationship between self-worth and posting group selfies. 41
Figure 4 Research Model 4: Motivations of Posting Group Selfies
Previous research has discovered the influence of gender on selfie-related behaviors, thus gender is included in the model as control variables. Gender has been found to influence selfie- related behaviors (e.g. Chae, 2017; Nesi & Prinstein, 2015), and income might also facilitate or limit people’s selfie-taking and –posting through ownership of smartphones and access to the
Internet, the gender and income will also be measured as control variables. People’s photography skills might also influence their behaviors on selfies. Thus, it is included in the model.
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CHAPTER IV. METHODOLOGY
Selfie-related behaviors are closely dependent on the access of smartphones, the Internet, and social media. Compared to other formats of data collection like traditional survey and content analysis, web-based survey has the advantages of reaching to selfie-users and collect self-reported anonymous data. Through online surveys, multiple variables can be studied at one time. Due to all the reasons mentioned above, to study the motivations of self-taking and selfie- posting behaviors, an online survey is deemed most appropriate. The target population is U.S. college students who have high Internet access and use smartphones all the time. The questionnaire was designed on Qualtrics, an online questionnaire design website that provides questionnaires in both computer version and smartphone version simultaneously, making it convenient for participants who use different devices to answer the questions.
Sampling Procedure and Survey Implementation
The desired sample size for this study is 384, because it is the minimum sample size to conduct statistical tests with adequate power. Since this study aims to study people who take and post selfies, college students are appropriate as the target population because of the high internet access, social media usage, and higher frequency of selfie usage among younger adults (Dhir,
Pallesen, Torsheim, & Andreassen, 2016). Due to cost constraint, a convenience sample was used in the study. Participants were recruited through the Sona program, which is a participant pool of about six hundred students from psychology and communication departments of Bowling
Green State University collaborated with Sona Systems, a company specialized in subject pool management. Although the sampling method is convenience sampling, not probability sampling, it can help the researcher to secure the needed sample size of 384. A larger sample size is needed to do a multivariate analysis such as this study. As the focus of the study is the strength 43 of relationships among the variables rather than descriptive characterization to represent college population, it is acceptable to use convenience sample. A pretest was conducted in an undergraduate class taught by the researcher to fine tune the wording of the questionnaire. The actual study was implemented in November to December 2018 after the Institutional Review
Board approved the project.
Through the SOMA program, 330 participants were recruited, which were below the target sample size of 384. Since the desired sample demographic is undergraduate students from
Bowling Green State University, the researcher also invited three colleagues to help recruiting participants by giving students a small amount of extra credit from courses they were teaching.
An additional 80 participants were recruited using this method. The researcher also encouraged the students of her own class to help recruiting their classmates of other classes of the same university to participate in this study with extra credits. A total of 230 participants were recruited using this method. Hence the grand total number of participants was 640.
Questionnaire Design
The questionnaire begins with a consent form introducing the research and asking for participants’ consent to continue with the study. If consented, participants will start from answering questions about their selfie-related behaviors, i.e. the dependent variables. Then participants will answer questions about their needs for self-affirmation, entertainment, self- preservation, and communication, and need for popularity. To minimize social desirability bias, the questions used in these constructs do not specify they are for the investigation of motivations of selfie-related behaviors. Following the motivational measures, participants will answer questions about their personality traits: narcissism and extraversion. Finally, participants will answer questions about their demographics. 44
Measures
Independent Variables
Narcissism
Narcissism was examined using the classic Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI)
(Raskin & Terry, 1988). Previous research has argued that not all dimensions of narcissism are related to the examination of selfies (Barry et al., 2017), thus, with guidance of previous literature (Halpern & Katz, 2016), five dimensions of narcissism will be examined in this study: authority, superiority, exhibitionism, exploitativeness, and vanity. All items are inquired on a 7- point Likert Scale from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”, led by a question: “do you agree with the following statements?”.
Authority. Items measuring authority are: “I would prefer to be a leader”, “I see myself as a good leader”, “I will be a success”, “People always seem to recognize my authority”, and “I have a natural talent for influencing people”.
Superiority. Items measuring authority are: “I am an extraordinary person”, “I know that
I am good because everybody keeps telling me so”, “I like to be complimented”, “I think I am a special person”, and “I wish somebody would someday write my biography”.
Exhibitionism. Items measuring authority are: “I am apt to show off if I get the chance”,
“Modesty doesn't become me”, “I get upset when people don't notice how I look when I go out in public”, “I like to be the center of attention”, and “I would do almost anything on a dare”.
Exploitativeness. Items measuring authority are: “I can read people like a book”, “I can make anybody believe anything I want them to”, “I find it easy to manipulate people”, “I can usually talk my way out of anything”, and “Everybody likes to hear my stories”. 45
Vanity. Items measuring authority are: “I like to look at my body”, “I like to look at myself in the mirror”, “I like to display my body”, “I think I am a good-looking person”, and “I think appearance is of some importance to a person’s success”. The last two statements are constructed by the researcher of this study.
Extraversion
Extraversion is measured by five items on a 7-point Likert scale from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”, adapted from John and Srivastava’s research (1999). The items will be asked followed by a statement: “I see myself as someone who…”. The items are “is talkative”, “is full of energy”, “generates a lot of enthusiasm”, “has an assertive personality”, and “is outgoing and sociable”.
Mediators
Self-Worth
Self-affirmation is a process to gain confidence by affirming certain aspects of self- worth. To study the linkage between selfie-related behaviors as self-affirmation, a measure of self-worth is adopted. The measure is adapted from the study by Crocker, Luhtanen, Cooper, and
Bouvrette (2003). Crocker and colleagues operationalized self-worth into 7 factors with five items for each factor: others’ approval, appearance, competition, academic competence, family support, virtue, and God’s love. The last two factors are unrelated to selfie behaviors since typically selfies are not able to show a person’s devotion to God nor his or her virtue. Thus, they are taken out of the measure. The following five dimensions of self-worth are measured on 7- point scales from “extremely unimportant” to “extremely important”. The items will be led by a question: “do you think it is important to…”. 46
Self-Worth on Others’ Approval. This construct is examined by the following items: “to let other people think highly of you”, “to let people have positive opinion about you”, and “to let people respect you”.
Self-Worth on Appearance. This construct is examined by the following items: “to feel that you are attractive”, “to feel good about the way your body looks”, and “to feel confident about the way you look”.
Self-Worth on Competition. This construct is examined by the following items: “to feel that you are better than others in some respects”, “to feel good about how well you are doing compared to others”, and “to feel that you can do well in competitions”.
Self-Worth on Academic Competence. This construct is examined by the following items: “to have good academic performance”, “to know that you are doing well academically”, and “to have a sense of self-respect because you are doing well in school”.
Self-Worth on Family Support. This construct is examined by the following items: “to feel well supported by your family”, “to let your family members be proud of you”, and “to let your family members care about you”.
Need for Self-Preservation
To measure participants’ needs for self-preservation, a scale is adapted from Sheldon and
Bryant’s (2016) examination of documentation motives of using Instagram. The following items are measured on 7-point scales from “extremely unimportant” to “extremely important”. The items will be led by a question: “do you think it is important to…”. The items are “to depict my life through photos”, “to remember special events by taking picture and videos”, “to document the world around me”, “to remember something important by taking pictures and videos”, and
“to commemorate an event by taking pictures and videos”. 47
Need for Entertainment
The measure on need for entertainment was adapted from the research of Papacharissi and Rubin (2000) and Kim, Sohn, and Choi (2011). The following items are measured on 7-point scales from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. The items will be led by an unfinished sentence: “I use social media because…”. The items are “it’s entertaining”, “it is enjoyable”, “it helps me forget about school or work”, “it’s relaxing”, and “it’s exciting”.
Need for Communication
The measure on need for communication for using social media was developed and adapted from Sung, Lee, Kim, and Choi’s research (2016). The following items are measured on
7-point scales from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. The items will be led by an unfinished sentence: “I use social media to…”. The items are “keep in touch with friends”,
“communicate with family and relatives”, “communicate with friends and acquaintances”, “build intimacy with friends and acquaintances”, and “communicate with others through comments”.
Need for Popularity
The measure on the need for popularity was adapted from Santor, Messervey, and
Kusumakar’s research (2000). The original scale has 12 items. To shorten the questionnaire and to make the measure more conform with research on selfies, only four items were chosen to be included in the current study. On 7-point scales from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”, participants will rate the following statements: “at times, I’ve hung out with some people, so others wouldn’t think I was unpopular”, “at times, I’ve changed the way I dress in order to be more popular”, “it’s important that people think I’m popular”, and “I’ve neglected some friends because of what other people might think”.
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Dependent Variables
A previous study has found a need to distinguish selfies on Snapchat and other direct message platforms from examination of selfies on used on other platforms because of its temporariness and privacy of viewing (Katz & Crocker, 2015). Selfies posted on social media, different from selfies through direct messages, have a less defined but generally larger amount of audience. Those selfies might be sources to affirm self-worth, gain social feedback, and seek virtual communication. Since this study is designed to investigate the motivations of selfie- taking and selfie-posting on social media instead of through direct messages, dependent variables only measures selfie-related behaviors intended for posting on social media. Selfies posted on social media includes selfies posted on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and selfies posted on Snapchat Story and Instagram Story. Although both Snapchat and Instagram have built-in direct messaging system, they offer a unique function called “story” for people to post temporary posts that, unlike regular social media posts, will disappear automatically after 24 hours of posting. People who follow the posters’ Snapchat and Instagram accounts will be able to see the posters’ “Stories” and provide feedback in various forms. The “story” serves a social media function on Snapchat and Instagram. Hence, for selfie-taking, the measures include selfies taken not for direct messages nor for Snapchat/Instagram story and selfie-taking for
Snapchat/Instagram story. For selfie-posting, the measures include selfies posted on social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (not Instagram story) and selfies posted on
Snapchat/Instagram story.
Individual Selfie-Taking
Both frequency of individual selfie-taking and number of taken individual selfies were measured. Measurement of individual selfie-taking was adapted from Sung, Lee, Kim, and 49
Choi’s research (2016): “How many selfies would you say that you TAKE within one typical week for Snapchat story and Instagram story? - INDIVIDUAL selfies - Please insert a number”,
“How many selfies would you say that you TAKE within one typical week NOT for direct messages nor Snapchat/Instagram Story? - INDIVIDUAL selfies - Please insert a number”, and
“How often would you say that you TAKE the following type of selfies NOT for direct messages nor for Snapchat/Instagram Story? - INDIVIDUAL selfies. - Never/Once a month/Once every other week/Once a week/Several times a week/Once a day/Several times a day”.
Individual Selfie-Posting
Both frequency of individual selfie-posting and number of posted individual selfies were measured. Measurement of individual selfie-posting was adapted from Sung, Lee, Kim, and
Choi’s research (2016): “How many selfies would you say that you POST on SNSs like
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (not Instagram Story) within one typical week? -
INDIVIDUAL selfies (Selfies with only you in them, no other people) - Please insert a number”,
“How many selfies would you say that you POST within one typical week on Snapchat story and
Instagram story? - INDIVIDUAL selfies - Please insert a number”, “How often would you say that you POST the following type of selfies on your Snapchat Story or Instagram Story? -
INDIVIDUAL selfies. - Never/Once a month/Once every other week/Once a week/Several times a week/Once a day/Several times a day”, and “How often would you say that you POST the following types of selfies on SNSs like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (Instagram posts, not
Instagram story)? - INDIVIDUAL selfies. - Never/Once a month/Once every other week/Once a week/Several times a week/Once a day/Several times a day.”
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Group Selfie-Taking
Both frequency of group selfie-taking and number of taken group selfies were measured.
Measurement of group selfie-taking was adapted from Sung, Lee, Kim, and Choi’s research
(2016): “How many selfies would you say that you TAKE within one typical week for Snapchat story and Instagram story? - GROUP selfies - Please insert a number”, “How many selfies would you say that you TAKE within one typical week NOT for direct messages nor
Snapchat/Instagram Story? - GROUP selfies - Please insert a number”, and “How often would you say that you TAKE the following type of selfies NOT for direct messages nor for
Snapchat/Instagram Story? - GROUP selfies. - Never/Once a month/Once every other week/Once a week/Several times a week/Once a day/Several times a day.”
Group Selfie-Posting
Both frequency of group selfie-posting and number of posted group selfies were measured. Measurement of group selfie-posting was adapted from Sung, Lee, Kim, and Choi’s research (2016): “How many selfies would you say that you POST on SNSs like Facebook,
Twitter, and Instagram (not Instagram Story) within one typical week? - GROUP selfies (Selfies with only you in them, no other people) - Please insert a number”, “How many selfies would you say that you POST within one typical week on Snapchat story and Instagram story? - GROUP selfies - Please insert a number”, “How often would you say that you POST the following type of selfies on your Snapchat Story or Instagram Story? - GROUP selfies. - Never/Once a month/Once every other week/Once a week/Several times a week/Once a day/Several times a day”, and “How often would you say that you POST the following types of selfies on SNSs like
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (Instagram posts, not Instagram story)? - GROUP selfies. - 51
Never/Once a month/Once every other week/Once a week/Several times a week/Once a day/Several times a day.”
Control Variables
Gender
Participants’ gender was inquired with the question: “What's your gender?”. Participant can choose from “male”, “female”, “others (followed by a text entry box)”, and “I prefer not to disclose”.
Income
Participants’ income was inquired with the question: “What's your MONTHLY disposable income?”. Disposable income was used instead of net income because some students might depend on their parents for living expenses or have loans to pay. Participant can choose from “below $500”, “from $500 to $1000”, “from $1000 to $1500”, “from $1500 to $2000,”
“from $2000 to $2500,” “from $2500 to $3000,” “above $3000,” and “I prefer not to disclose”.
Photography Skill
Participants’ photography skill was measured with the following three questions: “How do you rate your photography skill? -Individual selfies/group selfies/non-selfie photos”
Participant can choose from a 7-point scale: “extremely bad”, “moderately bad”, “slightly bad”,
“neither good nor bad,” “slightly good,” “moderately good,” and “extremely good”.
Statistical Techniques Used in the Study
First, correlation tests will be conducted to examine the relationship among measures and check for potential multicollinearity. Then, a confirmatory factor analysis will be conducted to test the reliability of latent measures. To see whether the control variables significantly influenced the dependent variables, ANOVA will be conducted. If yes, multiple models 52 separated by the control variable(s) will be tested. The data will be analyzed using Structural
Equation Modeling (SEM) by SPSS AMOS, instead of multiple regression, since the research model contains both direct effects and indirect effects of personality traits on selfie-related behaviors. The direct and indirect effects of each independent variable on the dependent variables will be examined. If SEM model shows that particular dimensions of certain latent variables have strong loadings, the latent variable at question might be examined as multiple variables for more detailed examination.
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CHAPTER V. RESULTS
Demographic Profile of Sample
A total of 640 college students participated in this study, of which 101 cases were excluded because of severe incomplete responses without answering more than 20% of the questions. Thus, the final sample size of this study is 539. The demographic profile of the subjects is shown in Table 1.
Among the 539 participants, there were more female (67.0%) than male (32.5%). About half of the respondents (52.1%) had a monthly income lower than $500, and 22.8% had a monthly income between $500 and $1,000. In terms of ethnicity, majority of the sample were
White American (80.9%%), followed by African American (10.8%) and Asian American (2.2%).
Descriptive Analysis of the Variables
This section displays the mean and standard deviation of measured variables in this study, including independent variables (see table 2), moderators (see table 3), dependent variables (see table 4), and control variables (see table 5). Since the use of selfies include both on social media and through direct messages, a variety of selfie-usage was measured (see table 6). However, for the purpose of this study, only measures that are related to social media were selected into the research.
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Table 1 Demographic Profile of Sample
Variables N (Total N=539) Percentage Gender Male 175 32.5% Female 361 67.0% Others 3 .6% Monthly Income Below $500 281 52.1% From $500 to $1000 123 22.8% From $1000 to $1500 15 2.8% From $1500 to $2000 18 3.3% From $2000 to $2500 11 2.0% From $2500 to $3000 6 1.1% Above $3000 5 .9% I prefer not to disclose 80 14.8% Ethnicity White 436 80.9% African American 58 10.8% Asian 12 2.2% Hispanic 10 1.9% Native American 3 .6% Others 20 3.7%
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Table 2 Mean and Standard Deviation of Independent Variables
Construct Indicator Mean S.D. Authority AU1. I see myself as a good leader. 2.512 1.287 AU2. I would prefer to be a leader. 2.768 1.536 AU3. I will be a success. 2.282 1.274 AU4. People always seem to recognize my 3.334 1.392 authority. AU5. I have a natural talent for influencing people. 2.981 1.443 Superiority SU1. I am an extraordinary person. 3.061 1.433 SU2. I know that I am good because everybody 3.861 1.461 keeps telling me so. SU3. I like to be complimented. 2.566 1.335 SU4. I think I am a special person. 3.009 1.510 SU5. I wish somebody would someday write my 4.512 1.725 biography. Exhibitionism EXB1. I am apt to show off if I get the chance. 4.447 1.704 EXB2. Modesty doesn't become me. 4.341 1.396 EXB3. I get upset when people don't notice how I 5.106 1.525 look when I go out in public. EXB4. I like to be the center of attention. 4.685 1.716 EXB5. I would do almost anything on a dare. 4.770 1.773 Exploitativeness EXP1. I can read people like a book. 3.291 1.543 EXP2. I can make anybody believe anything I want 4.373 1.595 them to. EXP3. I find it easy to manipulate people. 4.401 1.696 EXP4. I can usually talk my way out of anything. 3.898 1.586 EXP5. Everybody likes to hear my stories. 3.963 1.469 Vanity VN1. I like to look at my body. 4.302 1.690 VN2. I like to look at myself in the mirror. 3.863 1.669 VN3. I like to display my body. 4.696 1.683 VN4. I think I am a good-looking person. 3.386 1.443 VN5. I think appearance is of some importance to a 4.449 1.513 person's success. Extraversion EXV1. I see myself as someone who is talkative. 4.030 1.590 EXV2. I see myself as someone who is full of 3.937 1.519 energy. EXV3. I see myself as someone who generates a lot 4.098 1.497 of enthusiasm. EXV4. I see myself as someone who has an 3.640 1.587 assertive personality. EXV5. I see myself as someone who is outgoing and 3.993 1.637 sociable.
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Table 3 Mean and Standard Deviation of Mediators
Construct Indicator Mean S.D. Need for EN1. I use social media because it's entertaining. 5.935 1.044 Entertainment EN2. I use social media because it is enjoyable. 5.586 1.151 EN3. I use social media because it helps me forget about school or 5.093 1.543 work. EN4. I use social media because it's relaxing. 4.738 1.495 EN5. I use social media because it's exciting. 4.835 1.426 Need for Self- SP1. It is important to depict my life through photos. 4.312 1.499 Preservation SP2. It is important to remember special events by taking pictures 5.401 1.213 and videos. SP3. It is important to document the world around me. 4.741 1.377 SP4. It is important to remember something important by taking 5.370 1.203 pictures and videos. SP5. It is important to commemorate an event by taking pictures 5.204 1.202 and videos. Need for CM1. I use social media to keep in touch with friends. 5.789 1.182 Communication CM2. I use social media to communicate with family and 5.115 1.550 relatives. CM3. I use social media to build intimacy with friends and 4.781 1.487 acquaintances. CM4. I use social media to communicate with friends and 5.644 1.201 acquaintances. Need for PO1. At times, I've hung out with some people, so other wouldn't 2.993 1.814 Popularity think I was unpopular. PO2. At times, I've changed the way I dress in order to be more 3.494 1.905 popular. PO3. It's important that people think I'm popular, so I've neglected 2.605 1.633 some friends because of what other people might think. Self-Worth on SAOP1. It is important to let other people think highly of you. 5.039 1.521 Others’ Approval SAOP2. It is important to let people have positive opinion about 5.312 1.383 you. SAOP3. It is important to let people respect you. 5.965 1.339 Self-Worth on SAA1. It is important to feel that you are attractive. 5.247 1.402 Appearance SAA2. It is important to feel good about the way your body looks. 5.631 1.411 SAA3. It is important to feel confident about the way you look. 5.768 1.366 Self-Worth on SAC1. It is important to feel that you are better than others in 4.473 1.652 Competition some respects. SAC2. It is important to feel good about how well you are doing 4.462 1.610 compared to others. SAC3. It is important to feel that you can do well in competitions. 5.114 1.368 Self-Worth on SAAPC1. It is important to have good academic/professional 6.010 1.252 Academic performance. Competence SAAPC2. It is important to know that you are doing well 5.951 1.218 academically/professionally. SAAPC3. It is important to have a sense of self-respect because 5.852 1.279 you are doing well in school/at work. Self-Worth on SAFS1. It is important to feel well supported by your family. 6.035 1.337 Family Support SAFS2. It is important to let your family members be proud of 5.924 1.333 you. SAFS3. It is important to let your family members care about you. 5.969 1.383
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Table 4 Mean and Standard Deviation of Dependent Variables
Variable Items Mean S.D. Individual Selfie- Number of Individual Selfie-Taking not for 4.945 20.811 Taking Snapchat/Instagram Story nor for Direct Message Number of Individual Selfie-Taking for 7.247 31.285 Snapchat/Instagram Story Frequency of Individual Selfie-Taking not for 2.812 1.779 Snapchat/Instagram Story nor for Direct Message Individual Selfie- Number of Individual Selfie- Posting on Social Media 1.253 5.214 Posting Number of Individual Selfie- Posting on 2.122 6.339 Snapchat/Instagram Story Frequency of Individual Selfie-Posting on Social 2.013 1.206 Media Frequency of Individual Selfie-Posting on 2.450 1.588 Snapchat/Instagram Story Group Selfie- Number of Group Selfie-Taking not for 2.392 5.071 Taking Snapchat/Instagram Story nor for Direct Message Number of Group Selfie-Taking for 3.218 7.893 Snapchat/Instagram Story Frequency of Group Selfie-Taking not for 2.823 1.410 Snapchat/Instagram Story nor for Direct Message Group Selfie- Number of Group Selfie- Posting on Social Media 1.071 1.989 Posting Number of Group Selfie- Posting on 1.680 2.680 Snapchat/Instagram Story Frequency of Group Selfie-Posting on Social Media 2.221 1.133 Frequency of Group Selfie-Posting on 2.841 1.395 Snapchat/Instagram Story
Table 5 Mean and Standard Deviation of Photography Skill
Construct Indicator Mean S.D. Photography Individual selfies 4.492 1.489 Skill Group selfies 4.609 1.401 Non-selfie photos 5.360 1.339
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Table 6 Descriptive Statistics of Selfie Behaviors
Construct Variable Mean S.D. Other Individual Selfie- Number of Individual Selfie-Taking for 34.169 104.538 Taking Measures Direct Message Other Individual Selfie- Frequency of Individual Selfie-Posting 3.421 1.619 Posting Measures through Direct Message Number of Individual Selfie- Posting 15.417 65.180 through Direct Message Other Group Selfie- Number of Group Selfie-Taking for Direct 6.840 16.597 Taking Measures Message Other Group Selfie- Frequency of Group Selfie-Posting through 4.053 2.258 Posting Measures Direct Message Number of Group Selfie- Posting through 3.279 9.906 Direct Message
Construct Validity
Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is critical for researchers to understand the validity of their measurement in studies involves Structural Equation Modeling (Holbert & Grill, 2015).
CFAs were executed to check construct validity of measured variables in the study by examining the indicator loadings and their significance value in SPSS AMOS. Three CFAs were executed to examine narcissism (see table 7), self-worth (see table 8), and all other motivations (see table
9) separately, since the first two are latent variables with five indicators for each of them. The maximum-likelihood estimator (ML) was used, and the goodness-of-fit (GOF) of the model was evaluated using the chi-square test statistic, the comparative fit index (CFI), the Tucker-Lewis index (TLI), and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). Good model fit was indicated by values larger than 0.90 for CFI and TLI, and 0.08 or lower for RMSEA (Hu and
Bentler, 1999). Loadings that are lower than .500 are dropped from the model.
Based on the factor loadings, five items were dropped among the items measuring narcissism. The items “I like to be complemented” and “I think appearance is of some 59 importance to a person's success” had lower loadings, potentially they are more about perceived importance of physical appearance and desire to receive support rather than narcissism as loving oneself. The item “I can read people like a book” was dropped, because it is more a perceived skill rather than feeling good about oneself and also participants might not be able to understand the idiom of this statement.
In the CFA test for self-worth, the item “It is important to let people respect you” resulted in a regression weight of over 1, and the standardize process alleviated the loading a little above one, which is uncommon, but not wrong in SEM, since it is coefficient based, not correlation based (Jöreskog, 1999). When the loading for the item is forced to be 1 in the model, the standardized process will change the loading number and, in some cases, resulting in making the coefficient higher than 1. Other than this, the self-worth scale shown good construct validity with the five dimensions discussed in the literature.
For motivations, only one item in need of communication: “I use social media to communicate with family and relatives” was dropped in the analysis due to its low loading. The reason might be that college students predominantly use social media not to communicate with family and relatives, but to seek friends, social support, information, entertainment, and convenience (Kim, Sohn, & Choi, 2011).
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Table 7 Confirmatory Factor Analysis for Narcissism
Construct Indicator Loading Authority AU1. I see myself as a good leader. .783 AU2. I would prefer to be a leader. .694 AU3*. I will be a success. .615 AU4. People always seem to recognize my authority. .779 AU5. I have a natural talent for influencing people. .801 Superiority SU1. I am an extraordinary person. .602 SU2*. I know that I am good because everybody keeps telling .677 me so. SU3. I like to be complimented. dropped SU4. I think I am a special person. .580 SU5. I wish somebody would someday write my biography. .697 Exhibitionism EXB1. I am apt to show off if I get the chance. .774 EXB2. Modesty doesn't become me. dropped EXB3*. I get upset when people don't notice how I look when .633 I go out in public. EXB4. I like to be the center of attention. .775 EXB5. I would do almost anything on a dare. dropped Exploitativeness EXP1. I can read people like a book. dropped EXP2. I can make anybody believe anything I want them to. .862 EXP3*. I find it easy to manipulate people. .817 EXP4. I can usually talk my way out of anything. .782 EXP5. Everybody likes to hear my stories. .595 Vanity VN1. I like to look at my body. .790 VN2. I like to look at myself in the mirror. .883 VN3*. I like to display my body. .845 VN4. I think I am a good-looking person. .745 VN5. I think appearance is of some importance to a person's dropped success. χ²(141) = 328.569, χ²/df = 2.330, CFI = 0.964, TLI = 0.952, RMSEA = 0.050; Estimator = MLM; n = 539; all standardized coefficients are significant (p < 0.001); * path constrained to 1 for model identification
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Table 8 Confirmatory Factor Analysis for Self-Worth
Construct Indicator Loading Self-Worth on SAOP1. It is important to let other people think highly of .792 Others’ Approval you. SAOP2. It is important to let people have positive opinion .830 about you. SAOP3*. It is important to let people respect you. 1.083 Self-Worth on SAAP1. It is important to feel that you are attractive. .736 Appearance SAAP2. It is important to feel good about the way your .887 body looks. SAAP3*. It is important to feel confident about the way .914 you look. Self-Worth on SACP1. It is important to feel that you are better than .552 Competition others in some respects. SACP2*. It is important to feel good about how well you .501 are doing compared to others. SACP3. It is important to feel that you can do well in .870 competitions. Self-Worth on SAAPC1. It is important to have good .887 Academic academic/professional performance. Competence SAAPC2. It is important to know that you are doing well .927 academically/professionally. SAAPC3*. It is important to have a sense of self-respect .882 because you are doing well in school/at work. Self-Worth on SAFS1. It is important to feel well supported by your .900 Family Support family. SAFS2. It is important to let your family members be .880 proud of you. SAFS3*. It is important to let your family members care .894 about you. χ²(76) = 238.605, χ²/df = 3.140, CFI = 0.974, TLI = 0.964, RMSEA = 0.063; Estimator = MLM; n = 539; all standardized coefficients are significant (p < 0.001); * path constrained to 1 for model identification
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Table 9 Confirmatory Factor Analysis for Motivation Model
Construct Indicator Loading Extraversion EXV1. I see myself as someone who is talkative. .820 EXV2. I see myself as someone who is full of energy. .776 EXV3. I see myself as someone who generates a lot of .799 enthusiasm. EXV4. I see myself as someone who has an assertive personality. .640 EXV5*. I see myself as someone who is outgoing and sociable. .861 Need for EN1. I use social media because it's entertaining. .697 Entertainment EN2. I use social media because it is enjoyable. .821 EN3. I use social media because it helps me forget about school .608 or work. EN4. I use social media because it's relaxing. .665 EN5*. I use social media because it's exciting. .743 Need for Self- SP1. It is important to depict my life through photos. .605 Preservation SP2. It is important to remember special events by taking .844 pictures and videos. SP3. It is important to document the world around me. .618 SP4. It is important to remember something important by taking .794 pictures and videos. SP5*. It is important to commemorate an event by taking pictures .838 and videos. Need for CM1. I use social media to keep in touch with friends. .842 Communication CM2. I use social media to communicate with family and dropped relatives. CM3*. I use social media to build intimacy with friends and .586 acquaintances. CM4. I use social media to communicate with friends and .898 acquaintances. Need for PO1. At times, I've hung out with some people, so other wouldn't .877 Popularity think I was unpopular. PO2. At times, I've changed the way I dress in order to be more .689 popular. PO3*. It's important that people think I'm popular, so I've .817 neglected some friends because of what other people might think. χ²(174) = 391.232, χ²/df = 2.248, CFI = 0.961, TLI = 0.953, RMSEA = 0.048; Estimator = MLM; n = 539; all standardized coefficients are significant (p < 0.001); * path constrained to 1 for model identification
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Construct Reliability
The internal consistency of the scales was tested by generating Cronbach’s α on SPSS. A reliability higher than .7 (Cronbach’s α > .7) was used as a standard for suggesting good internal consistency of the measurements in the model (Chin, 1998). All latent measures of the study had
Cronbach’s α higher than .7, which suggest good internal consistency. Please see table 10 for
Cronbach’s α of the latent variables measured in this study.
Table 10 Reliability Test for Latent Variables
Variables Cronbach’s α Narcissism_Authority .869 Narcissism_Superiority .768 Narcissism_Exhibitionism .779 Narcissism_ Exploitativeness .841 Narcissism_ Vanity .855 Extraversion .889 Self-Worth on Others’ Approval .821 Self-Worth on Appearance .882 Self-Worth on Competition .766 Self-Worth on Academic Competence .925 Self-Worth on Family Support .920 Need for Entertainment .821 Need for Self-Preservation .863 Need for Communication .793 Need for Popularity .831
Structural Equation Modeling Results
Before determining the final research models of the study using Structure Equation
Modeling (SEM), a series of tests were performed to see the correlation of measured variables, the influence of control variables on dependent variables.
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Correlations of Measured Constructs
Correlations of the measured constructs were examined using SPSS. Composites were computed for latent variables. None of the variables are highly correlated to be potentially causing multicollinearity. The higher correlations were only found in the different dimensions of self-worth. Please see table 11 for correlation results.
Control Variable Results
Simple Linear Regression tests were performed to see the influence of gender and ethnicity, on participants’ selfie-related behaviors. See Table 12 for results. Control variables that significantly predicted the dependent variables were included in the SEM model. For example, in individual selfie-taking, only individual selfie-taking skill was included in the SEM model.
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Table 11 Correlations Matrix of Measured Variables in Research Model
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 1. 1 2. .421*** 1 3. .152*** .406*** 1 4. .318*** .418*** .487*** 1 5. .286*** .465*** .420*** .388*** 1 6. -.469*** -.376*** -.405*** -.330*** -.336*** 1 7. .104* .075 .062 -.041 .113** .124** 1 8. .175*** .117** .084 .004 .220*** .221*** .724*** 1 9. .110* .041 -.062 -.057 .063 .137** .701*** .696*** 10. .233*** .265*** .176*** .148*** .238*** .150*** .440*** .381*** 11. .132** .057 -.091* -.085* .052 .161*** .632*** .643*** 12. .157*** .246*** .136** .049 .152*** .228*** .294*** .332*** 13. .106* .186*** .087* -.017 .105* .093* .350*** .330*** 14. .053 .213*** .089* .015 .138** .223*** .290*** .328*** 15. .005 .227*** .431*** .221*** .243*** .119** .134** .106* 16. .064 .075 .083 .035 .036 .095* .081 .094* 17. .052 .087* .087* .053 .034 .074 .063 .094* 18. .074 .081 .079 -.024 .056 .084 .105* .119** 19. .091* .142** .125** .002 .081 .159*** .122** .111** 20. .583*** .753*** .718*** .745*** .736*** .508*** .086* .167*** 21. .187*** .139** .045 -.005 .171*** .195*** .859*** .847*** 22. .003 .138** .119** .129** .093* .094* .151*** .200*** 23. .044 .187*** .223*** .134** .211*** .111** .121** .194*** 24. .014 .086* .144** .053 .088* .155*** .101* .116** 25. .029 .160*** .201*** .088* .154*** .154*** .108* .143** 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 9. 1 10. .357 *** 1 11. .708*** .492*** 1 12. .294*** .264*** .294*** 1 13. .258*** .271*** .281*** .384*** 1 14. .300*** .148** .315*** .477*** .376*** 1 15. -.024 .247*** -.056 .149** .222*** .128** 1 16. .070 .109* .033 .142** .102* .118** .016 1 17. .061 .098* .065 .077 .138** .056 .074 .256*** 18. .027 .087* .022 .135** .110* .108* .061 .475*** 19. .034 .088* .063 .202*** .126** .182*** .152*** .167*** 20. .022 .296*** .011 .205*** .128** .142** .330*** .082 21. .85**** .661*** .850*** .364*** .367*** .339*** .103* .096* 22. .071 .120** .135** .158*** .224*** .183*** .126** .179*** 23. .029 .126** .042 .122** .170*** .157*** .275*** .083 24. -.002 .061 .071 .182*** .144** .231*** .167*** .074 25. .005 .115** .052 .193*** .187*** .180*** .281*** .061 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 17. 1 18. .181*** 1 19. .315*** .587*** 1 20. .074 .088* .123** 1 21. .089* .094* .103* .146** 1 22. .270*** .201*** .216*** .139** .166*** 1 23. .324*** .135** .306*** .231*** .127** .468*** 1 24. .095* .335*** .412*** .112** .085* .518*** .288*** 1 25. .169*** .322*** .536*** .182*** .105* .297*** .598*** .510*** Pearson two-tailed correlation tests were used. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Note: 1. Narcissism: Authority, 2. Narcissism: Superiority, 3. Narcissism: Exhibitionism, 4. Narcissism: Exploitativeness, 5. Narcissism: Vanity, 6. Extraversion, 7. Self-Worth on Others’ Approval, 8. Self-Worth on Appearance, 9. Self-Worth on Family Support, 10. Self-Worth on Competition, 11. Self-Worth on Academic Competence, 12. Need for Entertainment, 13. Need for Self-Preservation, 14. Need for Communication, 15. Need for Popularity, 16. Number of Taken Individual Selfies, 17. Number of Posted Individual Selfies, 18. Number of Taken Group Selfies, 19. Number of Posted Group Selfies, 20. Narcissism Composite, 21. Self-Worth Composite, 22. Frequency of Taking Individual Selfies, 23. Frequency of Posting Individual Selfies, 24. Frequency of Taking Group Selfies, 25. Frequency of Posting Group Selfies.
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Table 12 Coefficients of Simple Linear Regression of Control Variables (N = 539) 1. 2. 3. 4. Gender .008 -.040 .069 .110* Ethnicity -.005 .001 .004 -.003 Income -.014 -.073 -.056 -.033 Individual Selfie-Taking Skill .129* .170** .005 -.131* Group Selfie-Taking Skill -.052 -.106 .125 .298*** Non-selfie-Taking Skill -.049 -.032 -.041 -.054 Adjusted R2 .016 .042 .045 .135 F value (degrees of freedom) 2.045 3.879 4.070 11.165 (7,450)* (7,450)*** (7,450)*** (7,450)*** * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001 Models: 1. Individual Selfie-Taking 2. Individual Selfie- Posting 3. Group Selfie-Taking 4. Group Selfie-Posting
Based on the research model proposed in Figure 1 through Figure 4, and the results concerning control variables in Table 12, a series of Structural Equation Modeling tests were conducted using SPSS AMOS. The evaluation of model fit was based on the chi-square test statistic, the comparative fit index (CFI), the Tucker-Lewis index (TLI), and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). Good model fit was indicated by values larger than
0.90 for CFI and TLI, and 0.08 or lower for RMSEA (Hu and Bentler, 1999).
For each model, four composites of Z scores of frequency measure multiplied by Z scores of number measures of dependent variables were created because of the different scale used in frequency of posting or taking selfies and the amount of selfie pictures taken or posted.
Originally, the researcher wanted to create a Z-score composite dependent variable with both frequency and number of pictures. However, because of the low correlation between frequency measures and number measures (see Table 11), models using the Z score composites as dependent variables display poor model fit (see Table 13). The researcher figured probably frequency and number of selfies represent two different phenomena. Hence, rather than using a 67 composite measure, the frequency and number of selfie-related behaviors were analyzed separately in the Structural Equation Modeling analysis of the models.
Table 13 Model Fit for Models Using Composite of Frequency and Number of Selfie-Related Behaviors as Dependent Variables χ² df χ²/df CFI TLI RMSEA Model 1 1136.918 362 3.141 .896 .883 .063 Individual Selfie-Taking Model 2 1253.033 468 2.677 .907 .896 .056 Individual Selfie-Posting Model 3 1172.261 388 3.021 .896 .883 .061 Group Selfie-Taking Model 4 1211.783 440 2.754 .908 .869 .057 Group Selfie-Posting For four models: Estimator = MLM; n = 539
Model 1: Motivations of Individual Selfie-Taking
Figure 5 shows the Structural Equation Modeling results for motivations of the number of taking individual selfies. Initial model included narcissism and self-worth as latent variables each with five indicators. The construct of narcissism is a composite of authority, superiority, exhibitionism, exploitativeness, and vanity dimensions. Self-worth is a composite construct consisting of self-worth on others approval, self-worth on appearance, self-worth on family support, self-worth on competition, and self-worth on academic competence. Initial model displayed a good model fit as indicated in Figure 5. The model indicates that narcissism is a significant predictor for need for self-preservation (β = .11, p < .05), self-worth (β = .13, p < .05), and need for popularity (β = .43, p < .001), and extraversion is a significant predictor for need for entertainment (β = .26, p < .001). However, none of the independent variables, mediators, and control variables significantly predicted the number of taking individual selfie-taking.
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Figure 5 Initial Model for Motivations of Number of Taken Individual Selfies χ² (410) = 1078.587, χ²/df = 2.631, CFI = 0.912, TLI = 0.900, RMSEA = 0.055; Estimator = MLM; n = 539, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Insignificant paths are in dotted lines.
To further examine the motivations of the number of individual selfies taken, specific dimensions of narcissism and self-worth were used as latent variables in the model. To decomplicate the model, variables that are irrelevant in predicting the dependent variable were removed from the model, and control variables were excluded from the model for better model fit. The simplified model shows a better fit and can predict number of individual selfies taken (χ²
(217) = 618.648, χ²/df = 2.851, CFI = 0.938, TLI = 0.928, RMSEA = 0.059). As displayed in
Figure 6, only exhibitionism, among all other dimensions of narcissism, significantly predicted the number of individual selfie-taking through mediation of self-worth on appearance and competition. Exhibitionism significantly predicted self-worth on appearance (β = .11, p < .05) and competition (β = .23, p < .001). Self-worth on appearance (β = .13, p < .05) and competition
(β = .13, p < .05) significantly predicted number of taken individual selfies. Extraversion (β
= .27, p < .001) predicted the dependent variable through the mediation of need for entertainment
(β = -.27, p < .01). Self-worth on appearance, competition, and academic performance (β = -.16, p < .05) significantly predicted the number of individual selfie-taking. Need for self-preservation 69 and need for social popularity were found not related to the number of individual selfie-taking.
Thus, H2(b) self-worth mediate the relationship between narcissism and taking individual selfies and H3(b) need for entertainment mediate the relationship between extraversion and taking individual selfies are supported. H1 the higher the level of narcissism, the more participants will take individual selfies, H2(a) and H2(c) need for self-preservation and need for popularity mediate the relationship between narcissism and taking individual selfies H3(a) need for popularity mediate the relationship between extraversion and taking individual selfies, and H4 need for popularity mediates the relationship between self-worth and taking individual selfies are not supported. According to the modified model, the answer to RQ1 (What is the most important motivation for the number of taken individual selfies?) is that affirmation on self-worth based on appearance and competition is the most important motivation for taking large number of individual selfies.
Figure 6 Modified Model for Motivations of Number of Taken Individual Selfies χ² (217) = 618.648, χ²/df = 2.851, CFI = 0.938, TLI = 0.928, RMSEA = 0.059; Estimator = MLM; n = 539, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Insignificant paths are in dotted lines.
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Figure 7 shows the Structural Equation Modeling results for motivations of the frequency of taking individual selfies. Initial model included narcissism and self-worth as latent variables each with five indicators. Initial model displayed a good model fit as indicated in Figure 7.
Similar to the initial model using number of selfies as dependent variable, the model indicates that narcissism is a significant predictor for need for self-preservation (β = .11, p < .05), self- worth (β = .10, p < .05), and need for popularity (β = .42, p < .001), and extraversion is a significant predictor for need for entertainment (β = .25, p < .001). But none of these uses and gratifications variables predict frequency of individual selfie taking. Only self-preservation (β
= .11, p < .05) significantly predicted the frequency of taking individual selfie-taking.
Figure 7 Initial Model for Motivations of Frequency of Taking Individual Selfies χ² (386) = 1056.115, χ²/df = 2.736, CFI = 0.912, TLI = 0.901, RMSEA = 0.057; Estimator = MLM; n = 539, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Insignificant paths are in dotted lines.
To further examine the motivations of the frequency of taking individual selfies, Specific dimensions of narcissism and self-worth were employed as latent variables in the model. To simplify the model, variables that are irrelevant in predicting the dependent variable were removed from the model, and control variables were excluded from the model for better model 71 fit. The modified model, as displayed in Figure 7, shows a better fit than original model and predicts frequency of taking individual selfies (χ² (386) = 1056.115, χ²/df = 2.736, CFI = 0.912,
TLI = 0.901, RMSEA = 0.057). It indicated that only superiority (β = .19, p < .001) and vanity
(β = .22, p < .001) were the only two dimensions of narcissism significantly predicted the frequency of individual selfie-taking through mediation of the need for self-preservation (β = .14, p < .01) and self-affirmation on appearance (β = .14, p < .01) respectively. Extraversion and the need for entertainment didn’t predict frequency of selfie-taking. The need for popularity (β = .11, p < .05) also significantly predicted the frequency of taking individual selfies to a slightly lesser extent. Thus, H2(b) self-worth mediate the relationship between narcissism and taking individual selfies and H3(b) need for entertainment mediate the relationship between extraversion and taking individual selfies are supported. H1 the higher the level of narcissism, the more participants will take individual selfies, H2(a) and H2(c) need for self-preservation and need for popularity mediate the relationship between narcissism and taking individual selfies H3(a) need for popularity mediate the relationship between extraversion and taking individual selfies, and
H4 need for popularity mediates the relationship between self-worth and taking individual selfies are not supported. According to the modified model, the answer to RQ1 (What is the most important motivation for the frequency of taking individual selfies?) is that affirmation on self- worth on appearance and need for self-preservation is the most important motivation for the frequency of taking individual selfies. 72
Figure 8 Modified Model for Motivations of Frequency of Taking Individual Selfies χ² (157) = 466.937, χ²/df = 2.974, CFI = 0.940, TLI = 0.927, RMSEA = 0.061; Estimator = MLM; n = 539, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Insignificant paths are in dotted lines.
Model 2: Motivations of Individual Selfie-Posting
Figure 9 shows the Structural Equation Modeling results of the initial model predicting the number of individual selfie-posting, which included narcissism and self-worth as latent variables each with five dimensions. Initial model displayed a good model fit as indicated in
Figure 9. Narcissism was found significantly predicting need for self-preservation (β = .15, p
< .01), self-worth (β = .14, p < .01), and need for popularity (β = .45, p < .001). Extraversion was found negatively predicting need for communication (β = .27, p < .001) and need for entertainment (β = .29, p < .001). However, none of the individual variables nor mediators significantly predicted the number of individual selfies posted on social media in the initial model.
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Figure 9 Initial Model for Motivations of Number of Posted Individual Selfies χ² (492) = 1207.702, χ²/df = 2.455, CFI = 0.917, TLI = 0.905, RMSEA = 0.052; Estimator = MLM; n = 539, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Insignificant paths are in dotted lines.
To further examine the motivations behind posting individual selfies, specific dimensions of narcissism and self-worth are used as latent variables in the model. To simplify the model, variables that are irrelevant in predicting the dependent variable were removed from the model, and control variables were excluded from the model for better model fit. As shown in Figure 10, the modified model showed better fit than the initial model and can predict number of individual selfies posting (χ² (90) = 201.050, χ²/df = 2.334, CFI = 0.975, TLI = 0.967, RMSEA = 0.048).
The modified model indicates that although vanity significantly predicted self-worth on others’ approval (β = .12, p < .05) and appearance (β = .23, p < .001), only need for self-preservation (β
= .11, p < .05) significantly predicted individual selfie-posting, but not all other variables. H5 the higher the level of narcissism, the more participants will post individual selfies, H6 (a) need for self-preservation, (b) self-worth, and (c) need for popularity mediate the relationship between narcissism and posting individual selfies, H7 (a) need for popularity and (b) need for 74 entertainment mediate the relationship between extraversion and posting individual selfies, and
H8 need for popularity mediates the relationship between self-worth and posting individual selfies are not supported for Model 2. According to the modified model, the answer to RQ2
(What is the most important motivation for posting individual selfies?) is that need for self- preservation is the most important motivation for posting individual selfies.
Figure 10 Modified Model for Motivations of Number of Posted Individual Selfies χ² (90) = 201.050, χ²/df = 2.334, CFI = 0.975, TLI = 0.967, RMSEA = 0.048; Estimator = MLM; n = 539, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Insignificant paths are in dotted lines.
Figure 11 shows the Structural Equation Modeling results of the initial model predicting the frequency of individual selfie-posting, which included narcissism and self-worth as latent variables each with five indicators. Initial model displayed a good model fit as indicated in
Figure 11. Narcissism was found significantly predicting need for self-preservation (β = .14, p
< .01), self-worth (β = .14, p < .01), and need for popularity (β = .44, p < .001). Extraversion was found predicting need for communication (β = .26, p < .001) and need for entertainment (β = .29, p < .001). However, none of the individual variables nor mediators significantly predicted the 75 frequency of posting individual selfies on social media in the initial model, except for the control variable individual selfie-taking skill (β = .20, p < .001).
Figure 11 Initial Model for Motivations of Frequency of Posting Individual Selfies χ² (492) = 1230.403, χ²/df = 2.501, CFI = 0.916, TLI = 0.904, RMSEA = 0.053; Estimator = MLM; n = 539, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Insignificant paths are in dotted lines.
To further examine the predictors of frequency of posting individual selfies, specific dimensions of narcissism and self-worth were used as latent variables in the model. To simplify the model, variables that are irrelevant in predicting the dependent variable were removed from the model, and control variables were excluded from the model for better model fit. As shown in
Figure 12, the modified model showed better fit than the initial model and can predict frequency of posting individual selfies (χ²/df = 2.334, CFI = 0.975, TLI = 0.967, RMSEA = 0.048). The modified model indicates that vanity significantly predicted self-worth on appearance (β = .23, p
< .001) and other’s approval (β = .12, p < .05), which both significantly predicted need for popularity (self-worth on appearance: β = .22, p < .01; self-worth on others’ approval: β = .33, p 76
< .001). Extraversion is also a significant predictor of need for popularity (β = .16, p < .01). Need for popularity (β = .10, p < .05) is found as the only significant predictor of frequency of posting individual selfies. Thus, H6(b) self-worth mediates the relationship between narcissism and posting individual selfies, H7(a) need for popularity mediates the relationship between extraversion and posting individual selfies, and H8 need for popularity mediates the relationship between self-worth and posting individual selfies are supported. H5 the higher the level of narcissism, the more participants will post individual selfies, H6 (a) need for self-preservation and (c) need for popularity mediate the relationship between narcissism and posting individual selfies, and H7 (b) need for entertainment mediate the relationship between extraversion and posting individual selfies are not supported for Model 2. According to the modified model, the answer to RQ2 (What is the most important motivation for posting individual selfies?) is that need for popularity is the most important predictor for frequency of posting individual selfies.
Figure 12 Modified Model for Motivations of Frequency of Posted Individual Selfies χ² (90) = 201.050, χ²/df = 2.334, CFI = 0.975, TLI = 0.967, RMSEA = 0.048; Estimator = MLM; n = 539, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Insignificant paths are in dotted lines.
Model 3: Motivations of Group Selfie-Taking
Figure 13 shows the Structural Equation Modeling results of the initial model, which included narcissism and self-worth as latent variables each with five indicators. Initial model 77 displayed a good model fit as indicated in Figure 13., showing that narcissism significantly predicting need for self-preservation (β = .10, p < .05), self-worth (β = .11, p < .05), and need for popularity (β = .43, p < .001), while extraversion (β = .26, p < .001) significantly predicting need for entertainment. However, none of these variables predict the number of group selfies taken.
Figure 13 Initial Model for Motivations of Number of Taken Group Selfies χ² (384) = 1003.065, χ²/df = 2.612, CFI = 0.907, TLI = 0.918, RMSEA = 0.055; Estimator = MLM; n = 539, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Insignificant paths are in dotted lines.
To further examine the predictors of numbers of group selfies taken, specific dimensions of narcissism and self-worth are used as latent variables in the model. To simplify the model, variables that are irrelevant in predicting the dependent variable were removed from the model, and control variables were excluded from the model for better model fit. The modified model shows a better fit and predict number of group selfies taken (χ²/df = 2.674, CFI = 0.939, TLI =
0.931, RMSEA = 0.056). As shown in Figure 14, self-worth on others’ approval significantly mediated (β = .30, p < .05) the influence of exhibitionism (β = .14, p < .01) on taking group selfies. Exploitativeness negatively predicted self-worth on others’ approval (β = -.17, p < .05). 78
Extraversion, as in previous models, predicted (β = .29, p < .001) need for entertainment, which significantly predicted group selfie-taking (β = .13, p < .01). Self-worth on family support negatively predicted group selfie-taking (β = -.27, p < .01). Thus, H10(b) self-worth mediate the relationship between narcissism and taking group selfies and H11(b) need for entertainment mediate the relationship between extraversion and taking group selfies are supported. H9 the higher the level of extraversion, the more participants will take group selfies, H10 (a) need for self-preservation and H10 (c) need for popularity mediate the relationship between narcissism and taking group selfies, H11(a) need for popularity mediate the relationship between extraversion and taking group selfies, and H12 need for popularity mediates the relationship between self-worth and taking group selfies are not supported. According to the modified model, the answer to RQ3 (What is the most important motivation for taking group selfies?) is that affirmation on self-worth by others’ approval is the most important motivation for number of taken group selfies.
Figure 14 Modified Model for Motivations of Number of Taken Group Selfies χ² (242) = 647.040, χ²/df = 2.674, CFI = 0.939, TLI = 0.931, RMSEA = 0.056; Estimator = MLM; n = 539, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Insignificant paths are in dotted lines.
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Figure 15 shows the Structural Equation Modeling results of the initial model predicting the frequency of taking group selfies, which included narcissism and self-worth as latent variables each with five indicators. Initial model displayed a good model fit as indicated in
Figure 15., showing that narcissism significantly predicting need for self-preservation (β = .10, p
< .01), self-worth (β = .11, p < .01), and need for popularity (β = .43, p < .001), while extraversion (β = .29, p < .01) significantly predicting need for entertainment. Need for popularity is the only significant predictor of frequency of taking group selfies in the initial model (β = .11, p < .01).
Figure 15 Initial Model for Motivations of Frequency of Taking Group Selfies χ² (384) = 1008.585, χ²/df = 2.627, CFI = 0.927, TLI = 0.907, RMSEA = 0.055; Estimator = MLM; n = 539, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Insignificant paths are in dotted lines.
To further examine the predictors of frequency of taking group selfies, specific dimensions of narcissism and self-worth are used as latent variables in the model. To simplify the model, variables that are irrelevant in predicting the dependent variable were removed from the model, and control variables were excluded from the model for better model fit. As shown in 80
Figure 16, vanity significantly predicted self-worth on others’ approval (β = .19, p < .01) and family support (β = .18, p < .01). Exploitativeness significantly and negatively predicted self- worth on others’ approval (β = -.20, p < .01). Extraversion significantly predicted need for entertainment (β = .29, p < .001). Self-worth via family support (β = -.24, p < .05) and others’ approval (β = .40, p < .01) significantly predicted need for popularity. Extraversion (β = .11, p
< .05), self-worth via family support (β = -.33, p < .05), self-worth via others’ approval (β = .28, p < .05), need for popularity (β = .11, p < .05), and need for entertainment (β = .14, p < .01) are all found as significant predictors of frequency of taking group selfies. Thus, H9 the higher the level of extraversion, the more participants will take group selfies, H10(b) self-worth mediate the relationship between narcissism and taking group selfies, H11(b) need for entertainment mediate the relationship between extraversion and taking group selfies, and H12 need for popularity mediates the relationship between self-worth and taking group selfies are supported. H10 (a) need for self-preservation and H10 (c) need for popularity mediate the relationship between narcissism and taking group selfies and H11(a) need for popularity mediate the relationship between extraversion and taking group selfies are not supported. According to the modified model, the answer to RQ3 (What is the most important motivation for taking group selfies?) is that affirmation on self-worth based on others’ approval and family support are the most important predictors for frequency of taking group selfies.
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Figure 16 Modified Model for Motivations of Frequency of Taking Group Selfies χ² (496) = 1210.054, χ²/df = 2.440, CFI = 0.932, TLI = 0.934, RMSEA = 0.052; Estimator = MLM; n = 539, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Insignificant paths are in dotted lines.
Model 4: Motivations of Group Selfie- Posting
Figure 17 shows the Structural Equation Modeling results of the initial model predicting the number of group selfies posted on social media, which included narcissism and self-worth as latent variables each with five indicators. Initial model displayed a good model fit as indicated in
Figure 17. Narcissism significantly predicted need for self-preservation (β = .14, p < .01), self- worth (β = .13, p < .01), and need for popularity (β = .44, p < .001). Extraversion significantly predicted need for communication (β = .26, p < .001) and need for entertainment (β = .29, p
< .001). However, no mediators and independent variables were found significantly predicted posting group selfies, except for the control variables group selfie-taking skill (β = .12, p < .01) and gender (β = .32, p < .01). 82
Figure 17 Initial Model for Motivations of Number of Posted Group Selfies χ² (499) = 1363.951, χ²/df = 2.733, CFI = 0.913, TLI = 0.901, RMSEA = 0.052; Estimator = MLM; n = 539, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Insignificant paths are in dotted lines.
To further examine the motivations of posting group selfies, specific dimensions of narcissism and self-worth are used as latent variables in the model. To simplify the model, variables that are irrelevant in predicting the dependent variable were removed from the model, and control variables were excluded from the model for better model fit. The modified model shows a better fit than the original model. As shown in Figure 18., extraversion significantly predicted posting group selfies in a direct path (β = .10, p < .05), and in an indirect path through the mediation (β = .24, p < .001) of need for entertainment (β = .17, p < .001). Exhibitionism predicted need for popularity (β = .48, p < .001), which further predicted posting group selfies (β
= .10, p < .05). Self-worth based on family support negatively predicted both posting group selfies (β = -.14, p < .05) and need for popularity (β=-.24, p < .001). Self-worth based on others’ approval positively predicted both need for popularity (β = .30, p < .001) and posting group selfies (β = .18, p < .05). Thus, H13 the higher the level of extraversion, the more participants 83 will post group selfies, H14(c) need for popularity mediate the relationship between narcissism and posting group selfies, H15(b) need for entertainment mediate the relationship between extraversion and posting group selfies, and H16 need for popularity mediates the relationship between self-worth and posting group selfies are supported, and H14 (a) need for self- preservation and H14 (b) self-worth mediate the relationship between narcissism and posting group selfies, and H15 (a) need for popularity mediate the relationship between extraversion and posting group selfies are not supported. According to the modified model, the answer to RQ4
(What is the most important motivation for posting group selfies?) is that need for entertainment and affirmation on self-worth based on others’ approval are the most important motivations for number of posted group selfies.
Figure 18 Modified Model for Motivations of Number of Posted Group Selfies χ² (217) = 461.253, χ²/df = 2.126, CFI = 0.961, TLI = 0.955, RMSEA = 0.046; Estimator = MLM; n = 539, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Insignificant paths are in dotted lines.
Figure 19 shows the Structural Equation Modeling results of the initial model predicting frequency of posting group selfies, which included narcissism and self-worth as latent variables each with five indicators. Initial model displayed a good model fit as indicated in Figure 19. 84
Narcissism significantly predicted need for self-preservation (β = .14, p < .01), self-worth (β
= .14, p < .01), and need for popularity (β = .44, p < .001). Extraversion significantly predicted need for communication (β = .26, p < .001) and need for entertainment (β = .29, p < .001).
However, no mediators and independent variables were found significantly predicted posting group selfies, except for the control variables group selfie-taking skill (β = .17, p < .001) and gender (β = .32, p < .001).
Figure 19 Initial Model for Motivations of Frequency of Posting Group Selfies χ² (499) = 1363.333, χ²/df = 2.732, CFI = 0.913, TLI = 0.902, RMSEA = 0.052; Estimator = MLM; n = 539, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Insignificant paths are in dotted lines.
To further examine the predictors of frequency of posting group selfies, specific dimensions of narcissism and self-worth were used as latent variables in the model. To simplify the model, variables that are irrelevant in predicting the dependent variable were removed from the model, and control variables were excluded from the model for better model fit. The modified model shows a better fit than the original model (χ² (216) = 543.610, χ²/df = 2.517, CFI
= 0.948, TLI = 0.940, RMSEA = 0.053). As shown in Figure 20., extraversion significantly 85 predicted posting group selfies in a direct path (β = .10, p < .05), and in an indirect path through the mediation (β = .25, p < .001) of need for entertainment (β = .15, p < .01). Exhibitionism predicted self-worth on others’ approval (β = .13, p < .05), which further predicted need for popularity (β = .47, p < .001). Self-worth via family support predicted both need for popularity
(β = -.39, p < .001) and frequency of posting group selfies (β = -.15, p < .05). Need for popularity significantly predicted frequency of posting group selfies (β = .24, p < .001). Thus, H13 the higher the level of extraversion, the more participants will post group selfies, H14 (b) self-worth mediate the relationship between narcissism and posting group selfies, H15(b) need for entertainment mediate the relationship between extraversion and posting group selfies, and H16 need for popularity mediates the relationship between self-worth and posting group selfies are supported. H14 (a) need for self-preservation and H14(c) need for popularity mediate the relationship between narcissism and posting group selfies, and H15 (a) need for popularity mediate the relationship between extraversion and posting group selfies are not supported.
According to the modified model, the answer to RQ4 (What is the most important motivation for posting group selfies?) is that need for popularity is the most important predictor for frequency of posting group selfies. 86
Figure 20 Modified Model for Motivations of Frequency of Posting Group Selfies χ² (216) = 543.610, χ²/df = 2.517, CFI = 0.948, TLI = 0.940, RMSEA = 0.053; Estimator = MLM; n = 539, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Insignificant paths are in dotted lines.
For a display of the hypotheses testing results for all four models, please see Table 14.
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Table 14 Hypotheses Testing Results for All Models Hypotheses Results H1: The higher the level of narcissism, the more participants will take individual selfies Rejected H2(a): Need for self-preservation mediates the relationship between narcissism and taking Rejected individual selfies H2(b): Self-worth mediates the relationship between narcissism and taking individual selfies Supported H2(c): Need for popularity mediates the relationship between narcissism and taking individual Rejected selfies H3(a): Need for popularity mediates the relationship between extraversion and taking individual Rejected selfies. H3(b): Need for entertainment mediate the relationship between extraversion and taking Supported individual selfies. H4: Need for popularity mediates the relationship between self-worth and taking individual Rejected selfies. H5: The higher the level of narcissism, the more participants will post individual selfies Rejected H6(a): Need for self-preservation mediates the relationship between narcissism and posting Rejected individual selfies H6(b): Self-worth mediates the relationship between narcissism and posting individual selfies Supported H6(c): Need for popularity mediates the relationship between narcissism and posting individual Rejected selfies H7(a): Need for popularity mediates the relationship between extraversion and posting Supported individual selfies. H7(b): Need for entertainment mediate the relationship between extraversion and posting Rejected individual selfies. H8: Need for popularity mediates the relationship between self-worth and posting individual Supported selfies. H9: The higher the level of extraversion, the more participants will take group selfies Supported H10(a): Need for self-preservation mediates the relationship between narcissism and taking Rejected group selfies H10(b): Self-worth mediates the relationship between narcissism and taking group selfies Supported H10(c): Need for popularity mediates the relationship between narcissism and taking group Rejected selfies H11(a): Need for popularity mediates the relationship between extraversion and taking group Rejected selfies. H11(b): Need for entertainment mediate the relationship between extraversion and taking group Supported selfies. H12: Need for popularity mediates the relationship between self-worth and taking group selfies. Supported H13: The higher the level of extraversion, the more participants will post group selfies Supported H14(a): Need for self-preservation mediates the relationship between narcissism and posting Rejected group selfies H14(b): Self-worth mediates the relationship between narcissism and posting group selfies Supported H14(c): Need for popularity mediates the relationship between narcissism and posting group Supported selfies H15(a): Need for popularity mediates the relationship between extraversion and posting group Rejected selfies. H15(b): Need for entertainment mediate the relationship between extraversion and posting group Supported selfies. H16: Need for popularity mediates the relationship between self-worth and posting group selfies. Supported
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Testing Alternatives
Since people’s personality tend to become stable in after the age of 30 (Terracciano et al.,
2006), it is likely that selfie-related behaviors, especially frequent and indulgent usage of selfies, might contribute to people’s narcissistic and extravert personality. Therefore, alternative paths were examined using narcissism and extraversion as the dependent variables in the research model. Alternative explanations were tested based on original models, reversing the path from
“personality traits to needs to selfie behaviors” to “needs to selfie behaviors to personality traits”.
However, the model displayed poor fit across all settings (see table 15). Longitudinal data is needed for further examination.
Table 15 Model Fit for Models Using Narcissism and Extraversion as Dependent Variables Models χ² df χ²/df CFI TLI RMSEA Frequency of Individual Selfie-Taking 1279.018 391 3.271 .883 .870 .065 Frequency of Individual Selfie-Posting 1514.799 477 3.176 .879 .866 .064 Number of Taken Individual Selfies 1267.795 391 3.242 .884 .870 .065 Number of Posted Individual Selfies 1538.976 477 3.226 .876 .863 .064 Frequency of Group Selfie-Taking 1271.393 391 3.252 .884 .871 .065 Frequency of Group Selfie-Posting 1563.642 477 3.278 .872 .859 .065 Number of Taken Group Selfies 1281.333 391 3.277 .882 .869 .065 Number of Posted Group Selfies 1552.927 477 3.256 .874 .860 .065 For all models: Estimator = MLM; n = 539;
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CHAPTER VI. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
This study is designed to investigate the psychological motivations behind people’s selfie-taking and selfie-posting behaviors for both individual selfies and group selfies. Selfie- taking and self-posting are conceptualized as related but distinct behaviors. Results of the study confirm that different dimensions of narcissism and self-worth and various psychological needs affect the frequency and amount of selfie-taking and selfie-posting. The research found that selfies are associated with different dimensions of people’s self-worth system, indicating that selfies can be tools for people to affirm important values of self. The research also shed light on how personality traits can influence people’s selfie-taking and posting behaviors. The study also found that individual selfies and group selfies are motivated by different factors.
Selfie Behaviors as a Self-Affirming Process
Consistently throughout four models, different aspects of self-worth have been found significantly predicting selfie-related behaviors. It was found that selfie-related behaviors can be examined through people’s affirmation of different aspects of self-worth system. Scholars who study Self-Affirmation Theory have found that people’s self-worth is a complex and flexible system. By affirming one or more aspects of important self-worth values, people will have more confidence and strength to overcome risks and complete tasks consequentially (Sherman, 2003).
Each self-worth dimension contributes differently to selfie-taking and selfie-posting, which indicates that selfie-related behaviors can be a compensatory process for people to gain confidence, psychological confirmation of achievements, and group approval.
Self-Worth based on Appearance
Self-worth based on appearance was found predicting both the number of individual selfies taken and frequency of taking individual selfies. This indicates that taking individual 90 selfies is a common way for people to affirm their own self-value on their appearance. Previous research has found that people view themselves as more attractive in their selfies rather than in photo taken by others (Zhang et al., 2017). This might due to the fact that people have more control over their digital image in their selfies than other forms of digital photography. They can find their perceived best angle of themselves to capture into the selfies. The filters and feature- adjusting software that can make people more physically attractive in their digital image might also contribute to people’s enjoyment of taking individual selfies. Therefore, people who put appearance more importantly in their self-worth system might use selfies as a way to affirm this aspect. This study also found that self-worth based on appearance only significantly predicted individual selfie-taking behaviors directly but not directly affect posting behaviors. This indicate that people who take individual selfies with the intention to affirm their value on appearance do not tend to post those individual selfies onto social media. This might due to avoidance of public judgement or fear of negative feedback. This finding reveals that selfie-taking itself already can serve a positive function for people, even without posting those selfies on to the public digital platform. Therefore, while most studies on selfies are focused on selfies that already existed on some forms of social media platform, this finding stress the importance and necessity of studying selfies that are taken without the intention to be posted for others to see.
Self-Worth based on Competition
Self-worth based on competition was found predicting the number of individual selfies taken, but not the frequency of taking individual selfies. This indicate that one of the reasons behind people taking a good number of individual selfies is to affirm one’s competitiveness compared to others because more selfies can show the variety of formats and occasions of taking individual selfies. Apart from the close-up face shot featuring almost nothing but the selfie-takers 91 face and makeup, individual selfies can also be selfies with a marathon trophy, selfies with a certificate of a completed internship, or selfies with a tourist destination. With the convenience of smartphones and accessible internet, selfie-takers can easily record the occasions that marked his or her competitiveness. The study did not require participants to specify the purpose of selfie- taking. The linkage between people’s affirmation on self-worth on competition and number of taken individual selfies might be explained by the purpose of those individual selfies. So, showing off and recording one’s achievement or experience can be an important motivation for taking many selfies.
Self-Worth based on Other’s Approval
Self-worth based on others’ approval was found predicting the number of group selfies taken, frequency of taking group selfies, and number of group selfies posted on social media.
This indicates that the more people value others’ approval in their self-worth system, the greater number of group selfies they will take and post on social media, and the more frequently they will take group selfies. People view others’ approval as more important in their value system might choose to be around a group of people more often rather than being alone. The more frequently they spent time with a group, the more chances of taking group selfies. On the other hand, it is interesting that self-worth on others’ approval didn’t directly predict the frequency of posting group selfies on social media, but through the mediation of need for popularity. This indicates that people who value others’ approval are more likely to post group selfies on social media if they have a need for social popularity. If they don’t value the virtual satisfaction that social media provides when their photos got many “likes” or “favorites”, they are fine with just taking and keeping the group selfies to themselves.
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Self-Worth based on Academic Performance and Family Support
Some aspects of self-worth were found as negative predictors of selfie-related behaviors.
Self-worth based on academic performance was found negatively predicting the numbers of individual selfies taken. This indicate that people with higher self-worth on academic performance tend to take fewer individual selfies. College students who value academic performance more importantly might be more interested in long-term gratifications and real-life benefits than immediate gratifications offered by selfies. While posting individual selfies might bring immediate gratification by gaining “likes”, “favorites”, and positive comments, it can hardly bring tangible real-life benefits to the posters. In addition, the more value they put in academic work, the more time they tend to invest in studying, instead of taking pictures with their phones or spending time on posting and editing the pictures.
Self-worth based on family support was found negatively predicting number of group selfies taken, frequency of taking group selfies, number of group selfies posted on social media, and frequency of posting group selfies on social media. This indicates that the more people value family support, the fewer group selfies they will take and post on social media and do so in a lower frequency. Typical group selfies on college students’ social media posts tend to mark events and occasions with friends rather than family. People’s group identification can derive from many social groups, including family, friends, colleagues, community etc. This finding indicates a potential compensatory relationship between people’s identification with multiple social groups and selfie behavior. The more people value family support, the more they gain group identification from family. Hence, it’s likely that the less they will need group identification from hanging out with friends, and use taking and posting group selfies to affirm such group identification with friends. 93
Aspects of Narcissism as Indirect Motivations
A good number of previous research have found a linkage between narcissism and selfie- related behaviors (Barry et al., 2017; Charoensukmongkol, 2016; Halpern et al., 2016; Kim et al.,
2016; Lee & Sung, 2016; Sung et al., 2016). Narcissism is a multi-dimensional concept, including authority, superiority, exhibitionism, exploitativeness (one’s perceived ability to take advantage of other people), and vanity (Halpern & Katz, 2016). This study explored both the overall effects of narcissism as a latent concept and specific dimensions of narcissism on the selfie-related behaviors. The findings of this study indicate an indirect effects of specific dimensions of narcissism on different selfie-related behaviors, adding further insights into the understanding of the relationship between narcissism and the selfie phenomenon.
When narcissism is treated as one composite variable, in three out of the four models, it was found not as a direct nor an indirect motivation to the selfie-related behaviors. But when specific dimensions of of narcissism were used in the models as independent variables, significant indirect paths between the specific dimensions of narcissism and selfie-related behaviors were revealed. This indicates that narcissism is a complex and multi-dimensional concept that must not be used in an aggregate manner but to employ specific dimensions in the examination of selfie-taking and posting motivation. The only one exception is that narcissism, as one latent variable, was found significantly predicting frequency of taking individual selfies indirectly through the mediation of need for self-preservation. This finding revealed that need for self-preservation through photos and videos is driven by multiple aspects of narcissism, instead of a certain aspect of this construct. Four out of the five dimensions of narcissism was found as indirect predicting of selfie-related behaviors, except for authority, which was found unrelated to the selfie phenomenon. This indicate that one’s perception of self success and leadership does 94 not influence his/her selfie-related behavior. People who believe they are more successful than other won’t take or post more or less selfies than people who view themselves as less successful.
The following section discusses the specifics of the linkage between each dimension of narcissism and selfie related behaviors.
Exhibitionism
Exhibitionism, or the tendency to seek public attention and to show off, was found as an indirect predictor for many selfie-related behaviors. Exhibitionism predicted the number of taken individual selfies through the mediation of self-worth on appearance and competition. It also impacted the number of group selfies taken through the mediation of self-worth based on others’ approval. Exhibitionism also impacted the number of group selfies posted on social media through the mediation of need for popularity, and the frequency of posting group selfies on social media through the mediation of self-worth on others’ approval and need for popularity. Selfies can be seen as a digital exhibition of oneself. What is worth discussing is that exhibitionsim was not only found as predictor for posting selfies on social media, but also for taking individual and group selfies. This indicate that when people are taking individual selfies and group selfies, even through they have no intention of posting them on social media, they have an inherent intention to show them to others in the future, apart from keeping the selfies as a preservation. While selfies often remind people of social media, this finding provides insight for future investigation of selfies that were not posted publicly on social media.
Vanity
Vanity, or one’s fondness of his/her own look, was found as an indirect predictor of frequency of posting individual selfies on social media through the mediation of self-worth based on appearance, self-worth based on others’ approval, and need for popularity. In addition, vanity 95 impacted the frequency of taking group selfies through the mediation of self-worth based on others’ approval and need for popularity. It is not surprising that vanity significantly influences people’s self-worth based on appearance. What is interesting is that self-worth based on others’ approval consistently mediated the influence of vanity on both the frequency of posting individual selfies on social media and the frequency of taking group selfies. This indicate that posting individual selfies on social media is an other-oriented behavior. Being fond of one’s look is not a sufficient motivation to post selfies on social media. The selfie-posters must have an inherent need to seek others’ approval on their own perspective of their appearance by posting their individual selfies onto social media. Vanity was also found as a significant predictor of the frequency of taking group selfies through the mediation of self-worth based on others’ approval.
The more confidence people have in their appearance, the more frequently they tend to take group selfies with friends, which in turn reinforces their own positive perception of their appearance. This indicate that people’s judgement of how they look is a social process, and this judgement need to be confirmed and reinforced frequently. In addition, vanity was found an indirect predictor of frequency of taking group selfies, but not of posting group selfies on social media. This indicates that people who are confident in their looks tend to take group selfies more frequently, but what determines whether they will post the groupies on social media or not is their exhibitionism.
Exploitativeness
Exploitativeness refers to one’s perceived ability to manipulate or take advantage of people around them. It is considered as one of the unhealthy aspects of narcissism, as other aspects of narcissism can be healthy (e.g. authoritativeness) (Choi, Panek, Nardis, & Toma,
2015). Being one of the dimensions of narcissism, exploitativeness was found as a negative 96 predictor of the frequency of taking group selfies and number of taken group selfies through the mediation of self-worth on others’ approval. This finding explains why narcissism failed to positively predict selfie-related behaviors. Some dimensions of narcissism facilitate selfie use while other dimensions of narcissism may suppress selfie use.
The negative relationship between exploitativeness and group selfies behavior can be attributed to the unpleasant social relationships of people who score higher on exploitativeness.
Exploitative people might have less friends to take group selfies with. Scholars have found that exploitativeness, compared with other components of narcissism, is “more interpersonally disruptive” (Reidy, Zeichner, Foster, & Martinez, 2008, p. 866), since exploitative people often see other people in their social relationships to gain benefits. This non-reciprocal social interaction can drive people away from exploitative people who only take advantage of other people. A study on Facebook responsiveness showed that people tended to provide less responses to posts that they perceived as posted by people who have higher exploitativeness
(Choi et al., 2015). Supporting and building on previous studies, the negative relationship between exploitativeness and taking group selfies revealed in this study indicates that it is an oversimplification to claim selfie-takers and -posters are narcissists, because some components of narcissism can drive people away from taking and posting group selfies while some components foster desire to take and post selfies.
Superiority
Superiority was found impacting the frequency of taking individual selfies through the mediation of need for self-preservation. This indicates that people who view themselves as more successful than others tend to have a higher need to record their lives through photos and videos, and tend to take more individual selfies. What is worth noticing is that superiority wasn’t found 97 as a significant predictor for posting individual selfies. This indicate a difference between the motivations of taking selfies and posting selfies. People who believe themselves to be superior, although have the need to take individual selfies as preservation, do not need to post them on social media for others to see.
Extraversion as Direct and Indirect Motivation
While multiple dimensions of narcissism were found affecting selfie-related behaviors in indirect paths as opposed to direct path, extraversion, on the other hand, was found influencing behaviors on selfies both directly and indirectly. Through the mediation of need for entertainment of social media use, extraversion was found as an indirect predictor for frequency of taking group selfies, number of taken group selfies, frequency of posting group selfies, and number of posted group selfies on social media. Extraversion was also found as a direct predictor for frequency of taking group selfies, frequency of posting group selfies on social media, and the number of group selfies on social media. The direct and indirect paths between extraversion and behaviors on group selfies indicate that extraverts are more likely to take and post group selfies.
This might due to the fact that extraverts who emphasize social life, tend to hang out with friends more frequently, thus leaving more digital record of the social interaction. The consistent findings on the influence of extraversion on selfie-related behaviors explains group selfie-taking and -posting as behaviors both driven by social interactions as well as certain narcissistic personality traits.
But in terms of behaviors on individual selfies, the predicting effects of extraversion were inconsistent across models. Extraversion was found predicting the frequency of posting individual selfies on social media through the mediation of need for popularity. However, extraversion was found negatively predicting the number of taken individual selfies through the 98 mediation of need for entertainment. This finding indicate that extraverts who use social media for fun and entertainment tend to use consume other contents like writing and sharing online jokes and interesting memes, instead of taking selfies. For extraverts who use social media for social popularity, they tend to post more individual selfies. This further exemplifies that individual selfie-taking and -posting is an other-oriented process. When the purpose of social media use is more self-oriented, like seeking entertainment, taking and posting selfies are less used. When the purpose of social media use of more other-oriented, posting individual selfies can help gain social attention through virtual interactions on social media.
Quantitative Evidence for Uses and Gratifications of Selfies
In the examination of motivations of selfie-related behaviors, previous scholars have adopted the Uses and Gratifications approach to discover the potential functions of selfie-related behaviors (Choi & Behm-Morawitz, 2016; Etgar & Amichai-Hamburger, 2017; Holiday et al.,
2016; Sung et al., 2016). This study, by quantitatively investigating the relationship between selfie-related behaviors and variables discovered through previous U&G research, offers confirmatory support on the functions of selfies. The data partially confirmed the predicting effects of previously discovered motivations and pinpointed the influence of these motivations on specific selfie-related behaviors.
Need for Entertainment
Need for entertainment of social media use was found positively influencing the number of taken and posted group selfies, and the frequency of taking and posting group selfies. It was also found as a negative predictor of the number of taken individual selfies. The positive association between entertainment need and behaviors on group selfies indicate the potential entertaining function of groupies. While individual selfies tend to highlight physical appearance 99 or personal achievements, group selfies tend to record and display positive social relationships.
Taking and posting group selfies, apart from serving utilitarian functions like impression management and maintain social relationship, can be a fun activities in social gatherings. The rising of a specific group selfies, “uglies”, or group selfies featuring funny faces, can be a representation of entertaining use of group selfies (Butterworth, 2016). The negative association between need for entertainment and individual selfie-taking indicates that the more people use social media for fun and relaxation, the less number of individual selfies they take. This finding potentially revealed the unentertaining side of taking and posting individual selfies. People who seek entertainment from social media might follow accounts that post jokes and funny memes, might be more attracted by the funny group selfies posted by friends and acquaintances. It is hard for individual selfies to serve an entertaining function on social media for both the posters and the viewers, since individual selfies tend to be more about physical appearance and personal achievements.
Need for Self-Preservation
Need for self-preservation was found positively influencing people’s frequency of taking individual selfies and the number of individual selfies posted on social media. No linkage was found between need for self-preservation and behaviors on group selfies. This indicate that the more people view recording life and memories through photos importantly, the more frequently they will take individual selfies and the more individual selfies they posted on social media. This finding quantitatively confirmed the arguments of previous research on Media Accounting
Theory. In her book The Qualified Self, Social Media and Accounting of Everyday life,
Humphreys (2018) argued that social media can serve as virtual bank accounts for people’s everyday life storage. The traces of social media posts marks the memories and everyday events 100 of the posters, and they are available for posters future revisits. With the convenience of smartphone, self photography and photography of the self can facilitate people’s social media accounting activities to preserve and tangify everyday memories.
Need for Communication
Need for communication was not found as significant predictor for behaviors on either individual selfies nor group selfies related to social media. In this study, participants were asked to separate selfies use through direct messages and snapchat and selfies taken with the intention not to post, to post on social media, and posted on social media. This might be the major reason behind the lack of linkage between need for communication and social media selfies use. This indicate that to fulfill the need of communication, people tend to use chatting platforms like
Snapchat and direct messages, rather than use social media posts as a tool to communicate. This finding also raise the necessity to study selfies posted through Snapchat separately from selfies posted on social media, since the former is more communicative and for instantaneous consumption and the latter involves other motivations and serve as a permanent digital record in a public platform.
Need for Popularity
Need for popularity was found significantly mediating the influence of extraversion, self- worth based on other’s approval, and self-worth based on appearance on the frequency of posting individual selfies on social media. It was also found as a significant moderator between self- worth based on others’ approval and frequency of taking group selfies, number of posted group selfies on social media, and frequency of posting group selfies on social media. This indicates that seeking social popularity is a very important motivation in various selfie-related behaviors on social media. Social popularity on social media might be as gratifying as social popularity in 101 real life. The gratification derived from posting individual selfies and group selfies triggered a frequent selfie-related behavior in the future. Social media is an online social realm with either strangers or with people who have real life connections. Individual and group selfies posted on social media can attract attention from a wide range of people, either in the form of views, or in trackable forms of “likes”, “favorites”, and comments. While in real life, the pursuit of social popularity can be hard and complicated, the virtual social popularity on social media is relatively more controllable. Social media offers an accessibility to social groups and a controllable environment to gain social feedback, thus making it a useful platform to gain gratification of social popularity.
Need for popularity was also found as a negative mediator between self-worth based on family support and frequency of taking group selfies, number of posted group selfies on social media, and frequency of posting group selfies on social media. This indicate that the more people value family support, the less they value social popularity. The perceived group identification derived from social gathering and perceived social popularity might be able to be compensated by the support and love from family. Those who are well-supported by family members might have less need to seek group attention, group identification, and perceived popularity in social gatherings with peers, thus making them less likely to take and post group selfies to record and display their social popularity.
Differences between Motivations of Behaviors on Individual and Group Selfies
This study investigated the motivations of behaviors on individual selfies and group selfies separately. Although with overlapping motivations, The SEM models revealed different driving aspects towards behaviors on individual and group selfies. We first explain how individual and group selfies affirm different aspects of self-worth. 102
According to Self-Affirmation Theory, people can gain strength to combat threats and tasks in lives by affirming valued aspects of self-worth. One of the conceptualizations of selfies in this study is a self-controlled digital tool for self-affirmation. The significant path between various aspect of self-worths and behaviors on selfies supported this conceptualization. In addition, a comparison of models for individual selfies and group selfies revealed that people use individual selfies and group selfies to affirm different aspects of self-worth.
In three out of four models regarding individual selfies, self-worth based on appearance was found as a significant predictor, indicating that individual selfies can be a good tool to affirm the self-perception on the selfie-takers’ and -posters’ appearance. Human beings are visual animals. Appearance becomes an inevitable source of self-confidence. Previous study have found that people perceive themselfes as more attractive in their selfies than photos taken by others (Zhang et al., 2017). Potential reasons might be the self-control behind selfie-taking. With the front camera featured on almost all phones nowadays, selfie-takers has the technological affordance for controlling their digital self-image. They can also take as many selfies as they want until they are satisfied with how they look in the picture. Although posting individual selfies on social media serve a social function, the affirmation of appearance is a more important aspect as the driving motivation.
While individual selfies are more about appearance, group selfies are more about others’ approval and group support. In all four models on group selfies, self-worth based on others’ approval was found as a positive predictor of behaviors on group selfies, and self-worth based on family support a negative one. Different from individual selfies which typically features a close headshot taken at an arm’s length, group selfies contains more “heads” in them. More people in the group selfies means more than more appearances being featured, but more social 103 relationships. Others’ approval is an important aspects in people’s self-value system (Crocker et al., 2003). Group selfies taken and posted on social media serve as a record, confirmation, display, and exhibition of social relationships and social support. The negative relationship between self-worth based on family support and behaviors on group selfies reversely proved the linkage between group selfie and group identification. Those who have strong support from family tend to take and post less group selfies because they have sufficient supply of group support and do not need group selfies with friends to confirm that.
Differences in Motivations between Intensity and Indulgence of Selfies Behaviors
In the previous examination of the selfie-phenomenon, frequency was typically used to measure the behaviors of selfies (Halpern et al., 2016; Sung et al., 2016). In this study, selfie- related behaviors were measured in two dimensions: the frequency of taking and posting individual and group selfies, and the numbers of individual and group selfies taken and posted on social media. Higher frequency of selfie-related behaviors indicates habits, ritual, and dependence, while higher numbers of selfies taken and posted indicates indulgence. While the two dimensions of selfie-related behaviors were related and easily to be considered as interchangeable, this study have found empirical proof that there are some distinctions in the motivations behind them. When composites of frequency and number measures were used in the examination of motivations, models display poor goodness of fit. When frequency and number measures were analyzed separately, the models fit better. In addition, throughout four models,
SEM analysis on number measures and frequency measures displayed different path. This finding indicates that people have different motivations when they determine how frequently they take and post selfies and how many selfies they choose to take and post.
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Mediation of Need for Popularity for Frequency of Selfie Usage
While indicators of self-worth were consistently found as predictors of both frequency of selfie-related behaviors and number of selfies taken and posted, what is worth noticing is that need for popularity was found as an important mediator between self-worth and frequency of selfie-related behaviors, as opposed to number of selfies taken and posted.
In the model predicting the frequency of posting individual selfies on social media, need for popularity mediated the impacts of self-worth based on appearance and others’ approval. The mediation was not found in the model predicting the number of selfies posted on social media. In the model predicting the number of group selfies taken by college student, self-worth based on others approval was found as a direct predictor. While in the model predicting the frequency of taking group selfies, self-worth based on others’ approval only impacted the dependent variable through the mediation of need for popularity. Similarly in the model predicting the frequency of posting group selfies on social media, self-worth based on others’ approval was found as an indirect predictor through the mediation of need for popularity, while in the model predicting the number of group selfies posted on social media, self-worth based on others’ approval was found as a direct predictor. This series of findings indicate that a higher frequency of taking group selfies and posting both individual and group selfies on social media was not only derived from an affirmation need on self-worth system, but also from a need to seek social popularity.
There might be many reasons behind the linkage between need for popularity and higher frequency of selfie use, rather than a higher number of selfies taken and posted. First, frequent selfie-posting on social media indicate a higher need for consistent social attention on digital realm. When the number of selfies are hold constant, higher frequency of taking and posting refers to more frequent concern about self-presentation in the digital form and on social media 105 platforms. Second, higher number of selfies taken and posted might due to other reasons like a need for variations in photo-taking perspectives, a variety of content that need to be covered in more photos, and failed attempts of selfie-taking due to technological reasons. Thus, higher number of selfies taken and posted might be due to a higher indulgence of the selfie behaviors, or it might due to other reasons that are unrelated to the motivations of selfie-taking and -posting.
Third, more frequent selfie-taking and posting behaviors can better gratify the need for popularity than taking or posting a higher number of selfies. Posts with more or less photos are displayed in a similar way on social media. Thus, people who post more selfies or photos won’t be able to grab more attention or collect more feedback than people who post just one picture.
Therefore, in order to attract social attention and update one’s status to others through social media, posting more frequently is a better method than posting more content at a time.
Although need for popularity is more related with the frequency of behaviors on selfies rather than the number of selfie pictures, it is still meaningful to measure the number of selfies taken and posted by people because it provides another dimension of the selfie-usage. When the frequency of selfie-related behaviors is hold constant, higher number of selfies taken and posted might indicate several things. First, as mentioned above, it might be due to practical reasons like a variety of content to be covered or a need to take selfies from many angles. Second, it might also be because of the technological difficulty of selfie-taking like unfamiliarity with photo- shooting with front cameras or the position of the person is difficult to take a good selfie. Selfie- taking skill is also a factor in influencing the number of selfies the taker has to take in order to get a decent image. Third, taking more repetitive selfies might indicate a need to pick and select the best one out of a higher number of selfies to be featured on social media. Fourth, especially for individual selfie-taking, a higher number of selfies taken at one time might indicate 106 indulgence in the selfie-taking process because of its entertaining functions or beautifying functions.
Theoretical Implementations
Self-Affirmation Theory and Selfie-Related Behaviors
According to Self-Affirmation Theory, people have the fundamental need to perceive themselves as competent, coherent, stable, valuable, good, and worthy (Steele, 1988). When people’s self-value is threatened, they can either initiate an unhealthy way to protect their ego by blindly discrediting the threats, or they can initiate a healthier way to repair their self-worth system by affirming other unthreatened aspects of ego-integrity (Sherman & Cohen, 2006). This study conceptualizes selfie-usage as a conscious or unconscious way of self-affirmation of different aspects of self-worth. The significant paths between self-worth variables and selfie- related behaviors revealed that one of the important motivations behind people’s usage of selfies is to affirm their self-worth. By taking and posting selfies, people can affirm their value in their appearance, achievements, group support, and social popularity through various ways of response on social media. Previous scholars have studied the self-affirming effects of social media usage (Kim & Lee, 2011; Toma & Hancock, 2013; Valkenburg et al., 2006). This current study, by supporting and furthering previous studies, offers additional empirical proof of how taking and posting individual and group selfies can affirm people’s self-worth values, and provide ego-boosting effects to selfie-taker and -posters to fight against the threatens in lives more effectively.
This study also further explores the relationship between personality traits and behaviors on selfies. Adding value to previous research on the association between narcissism and selfie- taking and posting (Barry et al., 2017; Charoensukmongkol, 2016; Halpern et al., 2016; Kim et 107 al., 2016; Lee & Sung, 2016; Sung et al., 2016), this study provides specific connections between dimensions of narcissism and selfie behaviors. In addition, the study also revealed the association between extraversion and behaviors on group selfies, extending the previous research on the influence of extraversion on selfie behaviors (Kim & Chock, 2017).
Quantitative Confirmation of Previous Uses and Gratification Studies
Through previous studies, researchers found that people take and posted selfies out of the need of self-preservation, communication, entertainment, belonging, and attention (Choi &
Behm-Morawitz, 2016; Etgar & Amichai-Hamburger, 2017; Holiday et al., 2016; Sung et al.,
2016). This study, building on previous studies, investigates the link between behaviors on selfies and the previously found motivations in a quantitative design, providing confirmation and details on the predicting effects of motivational construct on specific selfie-related behaviors.
The SEM models confirmed that need for preservation motivates people to take individual selfies and post individual selfies on social media, but the need does not drive people’s behaviors on group selfies. Need for communication was not found as significant predictor of selfie-related behaviors throughout the four models. It might due to the specification of the selfies in the study.
This study is designed to study selfies taken with the intention not to post, to post on social media, and posted on social media as a public display, while people might take and post selfies for interpersonal communication on channels like Snapchat and other direct messaging software.
Need for entertainment was found significantly predicting taking individual selfies and taking and posting group selfies. Need for popularity was found as an important mediation in models predicting posting individual selfies and taking and posting group selfies. This study offers quantitative empirical support to the conceptualization of selfies as digital media tools to gratify their users’ needs to preserve memories of the self, to entertain, and to see social attention and 108 popularity. But these needs gratifications are only useful in specific selfie behavior such as posting individual selfies and different from taking individual selfies and their effect are indirect rather than direct.
Methodological Implementations
This study has three methodological implementations. First, by incorporating self-worth variables into the investigation of motivations behind selfie-related behaviors, this study provides an example of conceptualizing social media usage and digital media behaviors as ways of affirming aspects of self-worth. Many previous research on Self-Affirmation Theory uses experimental research design to study the relationship between self-affirmation on valued self- worth aspects and consequential outcomes (Cohen et al., 2007; Sherman et al., 2009). While experimental research design have unparalleled advantages in drawing causal conclusion, experimental settings sometimes are hard to execute in studying behaviors on social media which are interactive and reciprocal. As Toma and colleague (2013) put is, people are less likely to adopt the experimented self-affirming methods (value-ranking and essay writing on important values), but more likely to maintain their ego-integrity on their own by surfing the Internet and engaging in social media. Therefore, by revealing the linkage between self-worth and selfie- related behaviors in SEM models with good fit, this study provides an example of studying the self-affirming effects of social media and digital media behaviors through survey research design as an alternative method.
Second, by specifying latent indicators/dimensions of narcissism apart from a general measure of the construct into the research model, this study revealed detailed relationship between different aspects of narcissism and different types of selfie-related behaviors. Adding value to the previous research on the relationship between narcissism and selfies (Barry et al., 109
2017; Charoensukmongkol, 2016; Halpern et al., 2016; Kim et al., 2016; Lee & Sung, 2016;
Sung et al., 2016), this study detailed the effects of exhibitionism on individual selfie-taking, group selfie-taking, and group selfie-posting; vanity on individual selfie-posting and group selfie taking; and exploitativeness on group selfie-taking. The unsupported link between general narcissism and behaviors on selfies also revealed a necessity to specify dimensions of narcissism in future research on the motivations towards behaviors regarding selfies.
Third, both frequency of selfie-related behaviors and number of selfies taken and posted were measured and compared in the study. A poor model fit on models using a composite variable including both frequency and amount revealed a difference in the motivations of the two measures of selfie-related behaviors. The models predicting frequency measures and the models predicting the number measures displayed different paths, indicating a difference of motivations behind the indulgence of selfie-related behaviors and intensity with frequent selfie-related behaviors.
Practical Implementations
Previous research has found that when people’s ego is threatened, they can initiate an unhealthy defense system by blindly discrediting or ignoring the threatening information or initiate healthier defense system to affirm their valued aspects of self-worth and face the threatening information with the affirmed and repaired self-integrity (Cohen et al., 2007;
Sherman et al., 2009). By finding significant linkage between self-worth and selfie-related behaviors, the conceptualization of selfies as tools for self-affirmation is supported. Behaviors on selfies are found to be a process of self-affirmation in a controlled digital setting and familiar social media environment, with low technological barriers of smartphones and internet access.
Therefore, this study provides empirical support for public education possibilities on the positive 110 use of social media for improving psychological well-being and facilitating positive developmental outcomes of young adults. For example, selfies with peers can affirm the group identification for people who lack group support from family; selfies that heightens physical appearance might give selfie-takers a temporary confidence boost for them to conquer challenges faced in school and work; selfies taken with prizes or trophies might elevated the happiness of achievement through self-affirmation by gaining others’ positive feedback; and funny selfies like
“uglies” might bring comments and “likes” to the selfie-posters and affirm their self-worth on social support (Butterworth, 2016). In addition, the findings of this study also contribute to an awareness of the positive environment of social media, informing social media users the potential self-affirming effects of selfies-posting behaviors, deviating users from a negative stereotype of viewing selfie-takers and selfie-posters.
In addition, by linking selfie-related behaviors with self-worth, this study provides theoretical support for future practical suggestions on public relations and advertising campaign on social media. Public relations and advertising practitioners are encouraged to produce social media content that appeals to users’ self-worth system, which might generate more user engagement, sharing, and thus higher return on investment for social media campaigns. For example, the ice bucket challenge was a huge success as a public relations campaign in raising money and awareness on the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Part of its success was due to affirmation of the people who participate in the challenge by pouring a bucket of ice water down their heads, to some degree, affirmed their self-worth as healthy, brave, strong, socially engaging, caring, and philanthropic people and they post their pictures on social media. In addition, because of the perceived accessibility of selfies and the relationship intimacy conveyed by selfies, it can be a great tool for social media public relations campaign. Public relations and 111 advertising practitioners are advised to creatively adopt selfies into their digital marketing messages to increase user engagement.
Limitations of This Study
Although college students are heavy users of selfies among other demographic groups, this study used a convenience sample, which makes the result of the study ungeneralizable to the larger population. In addition, while the study provides a framework of studying motivations on selfie-related behaviors, there are other non-psychological motivations behind taking and posting selfies that are not included in the study such as technological empowerment and social learning from peers because the path coefficients are not very strong although the models show good fit.
The motivations examined in this study are self-oriented, while social media behaviors might also be driven by other-oriented motivations like providing entertainment for others.
Furthermore, the selfies analyzed in this dissertation were limited to those that are taken with the intention to post publicly on social media. Selfies that are taken for direct messaging or on
Snapchat, were excluded from the dissertation. The more private nature of those communication may reflect different motivations and need gratification. In addition, the sample of the study consisted of undergraduate students from Bowling Green State University. A sample from different demographic might show different relationship in terms of the motivations of selfie- related behaviors, for example, people with different age, cultural background, income level, and occupations. Finally, this research collected cross-sectional data, which can weaken the causal inferences between personality traits and selfie-related behaviors.
Suggestions for Future Research
Due to this study’s limitations, scholars are suggested to conduct future research on the motivations behind selfie-related behaviors on a random and representative sample of the general 112 population to examine the generalizability of the path discovered in the current research. In addition, scholars are also suggested to conduct laboratory or field experimental research to confirm the self-affirming effects of taking and posting selfies which was found in this study.
Third, the selfies researched in this study is divided only into individual selfies and group selfies.
Future researchers are advised to differentiate selfies that are used for specific occasions such as selfies with pets, selfies featuring solely a scenery or setting, selfies witnessing personal achievements, selfies in social gathering, etc. Fourth, future research on selfies can adopt content analysis as a research method to determine the prevalence of different types of selfies and to specify the self-affirming functions of selfies found in this study. Researchers are also recommended to discover other non-self-oriented motivations and environmental constraints and facilitators of self-taking and postings. Futherfore, scholars can also study selfies use in different age groups other than college students to discover the potential differences in motivations behind selfie-behaviors for different demographics. Finally, future researchers are advised to collect longitudinal data to determine the cause-effect relationship and reverse causal relationship between personality traits and selfie-related behaviors.
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APPENDIX A. APPROVAL LETTER OF HUMAN SUBJECT REVIEW BOARD
126
APPENDIX B. CONSENT LETTER
School of Media and Communication Ruonan Zhang, Ph.D. Candidate
127
APPENDIX C. QUESTIONNAIRE
School of Media and Communication Ruonan Zhang, Ph.D. Candidate
Start of Block: consent block
Consent Form
Introduction: Thank you for being interested in completing this survey! Before answering the survey questions in this study, please read the consent form below and click on the “I Agree” button if you understand the statements and give consent to participate in the study. You must be at least 18 years old to participate in this study. This study is to examine your selfie taking and posting habits. The principal investigator of this study is Ruonan Zhang, a PhD student at Bowling Green State University, U.S.A.
Purpose: This study has been approved by the Bowling Green State University Human Subjects Review Board. You will be asked about your selfie taking and posting behaviors. You will have the opportunity to think deeply about the reasons of your selfie-related behaviors the help of survey questions. You will receive 0.5 credits in SONA program for participating in this study. If you don’t want to participate in this study, an alternative assignment for earning the 5 credits is to write a 50-word response essay to this news article.
Procedure: Taking the survey is completely voluntary and anonymous. This survey will take at most 15 minutes to complete. You will be asked how frequently you take and post selfies on social media. Then you will be asked to rate some statements that are related to your personality and social media use.
Voluntary nature: Your participation is completely voluntary. You are free to withdraw at any time. You may decide to skip questions or not do a particular task or discontinue participation at any time without penalty. Deciding to participate or not will not affect your grades and class standing or your relationship with Bowling Green State University, your teacher, your school, your job...any institution involved in the research.
Confidentiality Protection: The survey does not require your personal information that can used to identify you, like name or phone number. You are free to withdraw from the study at any time. You are advised to clear the browser and page history before and after taking the survey. The data of the study will be stored in a private hard drive protected by password and accessed by the two researchers of this study. Some employers may use tracking software, so you may want to complete your survey on a personal computer. Please do not leave survey open if using a 128 public computer or a computer that others may have access to. Please remember to clear your browser cache and page history after completing the survey.
Risk: The risk of participation is no greater than that experience in daily life.
Contact information: If you have other questions, please contact the principal investigator Ruonan Zhang, at 330-389-4911 and [email protected] or her faculty advisor, Dr. Louisa Ha at [email protected]; or the BGSU Institutional Review Board, at 419-372-7724 and [email protected]. If you are 18 years of age or older, have been informed of the statements above, and give consent to participate in the study, please click on the “I Agree” button to begin the survey. Thank you.
o I agree o I disagree
How often would you say that you POST the following type of selfies through direct messages to others on Snapchat or other social media? Once Several Several Once a every Once a Once a Never times a times a month other week day week day week INDIVIDUAL selfies (Selfies with only you in them, no o o o o o o o other people) GROUP selfies (Selfies with more than one o o o o o o o people, including you)
129
How often would you say that you POST the following type of selfies on your Snapchat Story or Instagram Story? Once Several Several Once a every Once a Once a Never times a times a month other week day week day week INDIVIDUAL selfies o o o o o o o GROUP selfies o o o o o o o
How often would you say that you TAKE the following type of selfies NOT for direct messages nor for Snapchat/Instagram Story? Once Several Several Once a every Once a Once a Never times a times a month other week day week day week INDIVIDUAL selfies o o o o o o o GROUP selfies o o o o o o o
How often would you say that you POST the following types of selfies on SNSs like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (Instagram posts, not Instagram story)? Once Several Several Once a every Once a Once a Never times a times a month other week day week day week INDIVIDUAL selfies o o o o o o o GROUP selfies o o o o o o o
130
How many selfies would you say that you TAKE within one typical week for direct messages?
Please insert a number
INDIVIDUAL selfies
GROUP selfies
How many selfies would you say that you POST within one typical week through direct messages?
Please insert a number
INDIVIDUAL selfies
GROUP selfies
131
How many selfies would you say that you TAKE within one typical week for Snapchat story and Instagram story?
Please insert a number
INDIVIDUAL selfies
GROUP selfies
How many selfies would you say that you POST within one typical week on Snapchat story and Instagram story?
Please insert a number
INDIVIDUAL selfies
GROUP selfies
132
How many selfies would you say that you TAKE within one typical week NOT for direct messages nor Snapchat/Instagram Story?
Please insert a number
INDIVIDUAL selfies
GROUP selfies?
How many selfies would you say that you POST on SNSs like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (not Instagram Story) within one typical week?
Please insert a number
INDIVIDUAL selfies (Selfies with only you
in them, no other people)
GROUP selfies? (Selfies with more than one
people, including you)
End of Block: selfies block
Start of Block: last block
133
How do you rate your photography skill? Neither Extremely Moderately Slightly Slightly Moderately Extremely good bad bad bad good good good nor bad Individual selfies o o o o o o o Group selfies o o o o o o o Non- selfie photos o o o o o o o
Compared with letting others take photos for you, what are the reasons that you take selfies?
o Because I think I look better in selfies o Because sometimes there are no people around to help taking pictures for me o Other reasons, please insert here ______
Display This Question: If How often would you say that you TAKE the following type of selfies NOT for direct messages nor f... = Never
Why don't you take any individual selfies nor group selfies? Please insert your answer in the box down below
______
134
How often do you do the following activities on Facebook, Twitter , or Instagram? Once Several several Once a every Once a once a Never times a times a month other week day week day week
Post texts o o o o o o o Post images other than o o o o o o o selfies Post videos o o o o o o o Repost others' posts o o o o o o o Comment on others' posts o o o o o o o
Next, you will see some questions about your social media usage and opinions on several things, please click the "next" button to continue.
End of Block: last block
Start of Block: Needs block
135
Do you think it is important… 136
Neither Moderatel Extreme Extremely Very important Moderate Very y ly unimporta unimporta nor ly importa unimporta importa nt nt unimporta important nt nt nt nt To let other people think o o o o o o o highly of you To let people have positive opinion o o o o o o o about you. To let people respect o o o o o o o you. To feel that you are attractiv o o o o o o o e To feel good about the way your o o o o o o o body looks To feel confide nt about the way o o o o o o o you look 137
To feel well support ed by o o o o o o o your family To let your family member s be o o o o o o o proud of you To let your family member s care o o o o o o o about you
138
Do you think it is important… Neither Extreme Moderat Modera Extrem Very importa Very ly ely tely ely unimpor nt nor import unimpor unimpor importa import tant unimpor ant tant tant nt ant tant To feel a sense of self-respect that you are better than others in some o o o o o o o respects To feel good about how well you are compared to others o o o o o o o To feel that you can do well in competitions o o o o o o o To have good academic/working performance o o o o o o o To know that you are doing well academically/profes o o o o o o o sionally To have a sense of self respect because you are doing well o o o o o o o in school/at work
139
I use social media because... Neither Strongly Somewhat agree Somewhat Strongly Disagree Agree disagree disagree nor agree agree disagree It’s entertaining. o o o o o o o It is enjoyable. o o o o o o o It helps me forget about school or o o o o o o o work. It’s relaxing. o o o o o o o It’s exciting. o o o o o o o
140
Do you think it is important… Neither Extremel Moderate Moderat Extreme Very important Very y ly ely ly unimport nor importa unimport unimport importan importa ant unimport nt ant ant t nt ant To depict my life through o o o o o o o photos To remember special events by taking o o o o o o o picture and videos To document the world o o o o o o o around me To remember something important by taking o o o o o o o pictures and videos To commemor ate an event by taking o o o o o o o pictures and videos
141
I use social media… Neither Strongly Somewhat agree Somewhat Strongly Disagree Agree disagree disagree nor agree agree disagree To keep in touch with friends o o o o o o o To communicate with family o o o o o o o and relatives To build intimacy with friends and o o o o o o o acquaintances To communicate with friends and o o o o o o o acquaintances To communicate with others through o o o o o o o comments
142
Do you agree with the following statements? 143
Neither Strongly Somewhat Somewhat Strongly Disagree agree nor Agree disagree disagree agree agree disagree At times, I’ve hung out with some people, so others o o o o o o o wouldn’t think I was unpopular At times, I’ve changed the way I dress in o o o o o o o order to be more popular It’s important that people think I’m popular”, “I’ve neglected some o o o o o o o friends because of what other people might think 144
When I post selfies on social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, o o o o o o o I think my post is going to get a good number of likes or favorites
End of Block: Needs block
Start of Block: Personality block
We are almost there! Thank you for your patience. I just need a little more information about what type of person you are. The answers are completely anonymous and confidential. Click the "next button" to continue
145
Do you agree with the following statements? Neither Strongly Somewhat agree Somewhat Strongly Agree Disagree agree agree nor disagree disagree disagree I see myself as a good o o o o o o o leader I would prefer to be a leader o o o o o o o I will be a success o o o o o o o People always seem to recognize o o o o o o o my authority I have a natural talent for influencing o o o o o o o people
146
Do you agree with the following statements? Neither Strongly Somewhat agree Somewhat Strongly Agree Disagree agree agree nor disagree disagree disagree I am an extraordinary person o o o o o o o I know that I am good because everybody o o o o o o o keeps telling me so I like to be complimented o o o o o o o I think I am a special person o o o o o o o I wish somebody would someday o o o o o o o write my biography
147
Do you agree with the following statements? Neither Strongly Somewhat Somewhat Strongly Agree agree nor Disagree agree agree disagree disagree disagree I am apt to show off if I get the o o o o o o o chance Modesty doesn't become o o o o o o o me I get upset when people don't notice how I o o o o o o o look when I go out in public I like to be the center of o o o o o o o attention I would do almost anything o o o o o o o on a dare
148
Do you agree with the following statements? Neither Strongly Somewhat agree Somewhat Strongly Agree Disagree agree agree nor disagree disagree disagree I can read people like a book o o o o o o o I can make anybody believe anything I o o o o o o o want them to I find it easy to manipulate o o o o o o o people I can usually talk my way out of o o o o o o o anything Everybody likes to hear my o o o o o o o stories
149
Do you agree with the following statements? Neither Strongly Somewhat agree Somewhat Strongly Agree Disagree agree agree nor disagree disagree disagree I like to look at my body o o o o o o o I like to look at myself in o o o o o o o the mirror I like to display my body o o o o o o o I think I am a good- looking o o o o o o o person I think appearance is of some importance to a o o o o o o o person’s success
150
I see myself as someone who… Neither Strongly Somewhat agree Somewhat Strongly Agree Disagree agree agree nor disagree disagree disagree
Is talkative o o o o o o o Is full of energy o o o o o o o Generates a lot of enthusiasm o o o o o o o Has an assertive personality o o o o o o o Is outgoing and o o o o o o o sociable
Now we are approaching the end of the survey, you will be asked some questions on your personal information. The answers are completely confidential and anonymous. The data is used only for academic research purposes.
What's your gender?
o Male o Female o Other ______o I prefer not to disclose
151
What race or ethnic group do you identify yourself with?
o White o Black or African American o American Indian or Alaska Native o Asian o Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander o Hispanic o Other
What's your MONTHLY disposable income?
o Below $500 o From $500 to $1000 o From $1000 to $1500 o From $1500 to $2000 o From $2000 to $2500 o From $2500 to $3000 o Above $3000 o I prefer not to disclose
End of Block: Personality block