Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Date of Award

8-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Bernardo De La Garza

Second Advisor

Dr. Matthew Johnson

Third Advisor

Dr. Dawid Wladyka

Abstract

The present study seeks to examine the influence of viewing pages that are categorized as positive, negative, or neutral on the social network (SN) Facebook in relation to college students’ levels of happiness and self-esteem. Viewers were predicted to spend more time viewing the Facebook pages that have been coded as negative compared to positive or neutral pages because of cognitive saliency, and they were predicted to show lower levels of self-esteem and happiness. In addition, participants who view the positive pages were predicted show higher levels of selfesteem and happiness. The results suggested no significant difference in emotion on self-esteem and happiness. However, on exploratory analysis those with positive emotion profiles were rated higher in likability in comparison to negative and neutral, and spent more time viewing the Facebook page with negative content only in comparison to the neutral page.

Comments

Copyright 2015 Isis Lopez. All Rights Reserved.

Granting Institution

University of Texas Brownsville

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