Social media use and subjective well-being: An investigation of individual differences in personality, social comparison and Facebook behaviour Jennifer Gerson For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy A thesis submitted to City, University of London Department of Psychology September 2018 1 Table of Contents List of tables ....................................................................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................ 6 Declaration ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Abstract .............................................................................................................................................. 8 Glossary of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................ 9 Chapter 1. Introduction and literature review ............................................................... 11 Subjective well-being ....................................................................................................................... 13 Life evaluation .............................................................................................................................. 13 Eudaimonic well-being ................................................................................................................. 14 Affective well-being ..................................................................................................................... 15 Differences between aspects of SWB ........................................................................................... 16 Predictors and determinants of SWB ............................................................................................ 17 Individual differences in personality and subjective well-being theory ....................................... 18 Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of Personality ......................................................................... 19 RST-PQ traits ................................................................................................................................ 20 Prior literature on individual differences in personality and subjective well-being ..................... 22 Social comparison theory ................................................................................................................ 25 Comparison orientation ................................................................................................................. 26 Social comparison and subjective well-being ............................................................................... 27 Social comparison and personality ............................................................................................... 30 Social Networking Sites................................................................................................................... 31 Why would Facebook use be associated with SWB? ................................................................... 32 Facebook use and SWB – Mixed findings .................................................................................... 33 Individual differences in personality and Facebook use ............................................................... 35 Aim of this thesis.............................................................................................................................. 36 Contributions and applications ...................................................................................................... 37 Structure of the thesis ..................................................................................................................... 38 Chapter summary............................................................................................................................ 40 Chapter 2. The relationship between Facebook use, Facebook social comparison, and subjective well-being: Personality as a moderator ............................................................. 44 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 45 Facebook use and subjective well-being ....................................................................................... 45 Facebook use and social comparison ............................................................................................ 46 Facebook use and RST personality traits ...................................................................................... 48 Moderation .................................................................................................................................... 53 Methods ............................................................................................................................................ 54 Sample and procedure ................................................................................................................... 54 Measures ....................................................................................................................................... 55 Control variables ........................................................................................................................... 57 Data analysis ................................................................................................................................. 58 Results............................................................................................................................................... 59 Facebook intensity ........................................................................................................................ 59 Facebook social comparison valence (FBSC) .............................................................................. 59 RST personality traits.................................................................................................................... 60 Control variables ........................................................................................................................... 63 Summary of results ....................................................................................................................... 63 Discussion ......................................................................................................................................... 70 Personality and subjective well-being........................................................................................... 72 Personality and Facebook use ....................................................................................................... 73 Limitations and directions for future work ................................................................................... 75 Chapter summary............................................................................................................................ 77 2 Chapter 3. Development and validation of the Passive Active Use Measure .............. 78 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 79 Facebook engagement ................................................................................................................... 80 Previous measures of passive and active use ................................................................................ 81 Study 3.1 Development of the Passive Active Use Measure ........................................................ 81 Methods ......................................................................................................................................... 82 Results ........................................................................................................................................... 87 Discussion ..................................................................................................................................... 90 Study 3.2 Validation of the Passive Active Use Measure ............................................................. 91 Methods ......................................................................................................................................... 91 Results ........................................................................................................................................... 93 Discussion ..................................................................................................................................... 94 Study 3.3 Further validation of the Passive Active Use Measure ............................................... 94 Methods ......................................................................................................................................... 95 Results ........................................................................................................................................... 97 Discussion ................................................................................................................................... 100 General discussion ........................................................................................................................