The Role Of Personality In Social Media

In today’s society social media hold the most critics and controversies over the idea of narcissism and society's reliance and dependence upon social media and smartphones.

These three traits are known collectively as “The Dark Triad” (Mariani, 7). The article looks at three case studies and quotes psychologists for evidence of the ominous side of social media. The main evidence is a case study on two teenage boys who almost shot up a neighborhood for views on Periscope, an app that allows you to film what you are doing to an audience (Mariani, 3). A second piece of evidence focuses on a girl who snapchatted herself driving at over 100 mph before crashing into another car and severely injuring the passengers and herself. A third instance of horrendous behavior is when a girl filmed her friend being raped on Periscope instead of intervening because of the attention she was receiving. A psychologist, Keith Campbell, explains that social media promotes self-obsession (Mariani, 6). He argues that social media has made it possible for people with negative traits to get ahead in life. It does note, however, that many people who use social media are simply seeking connections and popularity for regular things. In conclusion, the article warns of the dangers of social media for those seeking fame and “social rewards” and also says further studies need to be done to better

The five-factor model (FFM) is a contemporary construct describing personality. It incorporates five traits – openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism also referred to as OCEAN. Within each dimension, there are specific personality attributes, for example, openness includes subcategories of feelings and actions. The FFM was influenced by Cattell’s 16-factor model (1957) and shares traits with many other personality theories such as Eysenck’s PEN model. There has been an ongoing debate discussing how many factors appropriately represent the brain structure of personality, suggestions have varied from 2-7, recently Almagor et al. (1995) advocated that a 7-factor model unfolds when evaluative traits are involved. Costa & Mcrae (1992) claim that the FFM is the best theory of personality, however, the model has received much criticism. Through examining different aspects of the model its credibility can be explored.

Costs & McCrae, (1995) supported the development that each of the Five Factor Model (FFM) further split into six facets, (Widiger & Costa, 2012). The five factor model and their six facets are explained as: “Extraversion (E) – gregariousness, sociability, affiliation, dominance, boldness and forcefulness, Agreeableness (A) - generous, cooperative, altruistic and warm, Conscientiousness (C) – responsible, efficiency, dependability, carefulness and organization, Neuroticism (low ES) – anxiousness, insecurity, indecisiveness and being tense /Emotional Stability (ES) - self-reliant and stable and Openness to Experience (O) – imaginative, unconventional, curious, original and independent minded” (Ehrhart et. al., 2008) allowing the five factor model to be effective in developing cross-cultural questionnaires (Costs & McCrae, 1995).

The Analysis of the Five Factor Model In this essay, first the Five Factor Model (FFM) will be described. Secondly, psychologists for and against the model will be looked at. Following this, the stability of traits will be looked at, both longitudinal and cross situational. Finally, the application of the model within and outside psychology will be evaluated to show support that the FFM provides a solid foundation for an adequate personality psychology.

In 1990, J.M. Digman advanced his five factor model of personality, which Lewis Goldberg extended to the highest level of organization.[13] These five overarching domains have been found to contain and subsume most known personality traits and are assumed to represent the basic structure behind all personality traits.[14] These five factors provide a rich conceptual framework for integrating all the research findings and theory in personality psychology. The Big Five traits are also referred to as the "Five Factor Model" or FFM,[1] and as the Global Factors of personality.[15]

McCrae &Costa’s Five-Factor model of personality has become the dominant conception of personality structure (1985, 1987, and 1997). The Big Five Personality traits are said to be predictive of some kinds of behaviour such as honesty, job performance, and procrastination.

The five-factor model of personality is a set of five broad personality traits referred to as the “Big 5”. These include, openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (OCEAN). “Each of the five personality facts represents a range between two extremes” (Cherry, 2016).

Among the numerous psychological models of personality studied in this chapter, I believe the most useful model of personality is the five-factor model. Rather than focusing on character traits, the unconscious, or learning principles, this model describes personality as being derived from five higher-order traits known as the “Big Five” (Weiten, McCann, 2016). The Big Five, developed by Robert McCrae and Paul Costa, consists of extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Thesis (?): This model is most compelling to me as I can easily identify fundamental aspects of my personality with it.

Global use and deficiency paradigms are two hypotheses used to define the relationship between online and offline social interactions. The global use paradigm suggests that individuals have the same pattern of behaviour online as they do offline, for example if they are popular online they will also be popular online. Contrary to this the deficiency paradigm proposes that people use social networking sites as compensation for social interactions not being met in an offline setting. In this essay I focus on the personality traits that are associated with the two paradigms in regards to social networking and parasocial interactions.

Living in the 21st century requires one to stay current with latest technological advancements. Ever since the development of social networking sites, people are now able to create a carefully-crafted identity for themselves. This has led psychologists to question how well these online personalities match the person in front of the computer. The innovative branch of media psychology looks into how social networking portrays individuals and initiates human interactions within a society.

Social networking has risen in popularity throughout the last twenty years and in effect narcissistic behavior has increased within society(particularly America's society) since the 1980's(Jayson 1). Studies show that the greater an individual is inclined to narcissistic behavior; there is a resulting increase in their online social networking activity(Mehdizadeh 357). Social networking sites or “SNSs” are defined as: “A web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system”(Boyd, Ellison 1).

The Five Factor Model or Big Five model developed by McCrae and Costa factor together personality traits into 5 major categories. Those factors were Neuroticism (worried insecure, nervous, highly strung), Extraversion (Sociable, talkative, fun-loving, affectionate), Openness (Original, independent, creative, daring), Agreeableness (Good-natured, softhearted, trusting, courteous), and Conscientiousness (Careful, reliable, hardworking, organized). (Schultz & Schultz, 2013). They are able to include most of other lower order traits accounting for specific dimensions of individual differences in personality. (Schultz & Schultz, 2013)

“Personality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving” (American Psychology Association). Personality is an often debated topic, and in the modern world, many people have an interest in finding out more about themselves. With a variety of theories and tests to determine what composes an individual, from MBTI to Rorschach 's Inkblot test, there are many ways of quantifying seemingly qualitative traits. One of these testing methods is called the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R), which is based on the Five-Factor model, a theory that relies on five traits, that encompass the human personality.

A largely effective method of breaking up the human personality is using the Big Five Factor Model, this presents five traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness). Many studies that been done on each individual trait and their respective influences on success, however when individual traits are studied to observe their effect on academic success it is clear that some traits are more desirable than others if one is to strive within an academic setting (ETS, 2016).