The self in the selfie: Psychopathological mechanisms underlying excessive self-photography and posting
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Date
2016
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Management and Technology
Abstract
Abstract
Given the abrupt increase in self-photography and its negative conceptualizations, an empirical investigation of the psychological mechanisms behind selfie-taking and its posting is warranted. The primary objective of this study is to explore the psychopathological underpinnings of selfie-taking and posting. Specifically, we investigated if histrionic and narcissistic tendencies predict excessive selfie-taking and posting.Young adults (n=405) from different universities and colleges of Lahore and Sargodha were conveniently recruited while few participants contributed online. To assess the personality pathology of the participants following self-report measures were administered: Brief Histrionic Personality Sale (Ferguson & Negy, 2014), Narcissistic Personality Inventory-16 (Ames, Rose, & Anderson, 2006) , Self –Objectification Scale (Noll & Fredrickson, 1998) along with open-ended questions to evaluate the average frequency of selfie taking and posting. The small positive correlation between narcissistic features and selfie-posting approached significance r (399) =.097, p=.053. The Pearson correlation analysis followed by the regression, showed that there is significant positive correlation, r (399) =.193, p<.01 between selfie posting and histrionic personality traits and predicted selfie posting on social networking sitesβ=.193, t (198) =3.93, p<.001 with explained 3.8% of variance in men. A negatively significant correlation was found between selfie taking and self-objectification traits r= -.114, p<.05, but not with the selfie-posting. The qualitative analysis explored the perception about purpose of selfie taking as a way to get other's attention and appreciation by posting them on social media and somehow depicts self-admiration. Besides, the purpose of selfie posting is the approach of self-enhancement and self-promotion on social networking sites and hence, might be associated with narcissistic and histrionic tendencies.
Description
Supervisor: Ms. Haya Fatimah
Keywords
BS Thesis, Histrionic personality traits, Narcissistic personality traits, Selfie taking, Selfie posting, Self-objectification traits, Social networking sites