Graduate Theses

Date of Award

4-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

Supervisory Committee Chair

Jamie Hughes, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

James Olson, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Emily Farris, Ph.D.

Abstract

No longer do individuals have to wonder what others are doing on a daily basis. With the advent of social media, discovering other individual’s whereabouts and interests or gaining insight into their personal lives is at our fingertips. Facebook is the largest and most popular of these social networking sites with 1.06 billion users as of January 2013. With such a strong and prevalent presence in our lives, researchers have been examining the possible effects Facebook has on the population ever since Facebook first made its debut in 2004. Across various life domains, some studies show positive effects while others show negative ones. These domains include self-esteem and relationships. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationships between self-control, Facebook stalking, and Facebook romantic jealousy. It was predicted that an individual’s self- control would moderate the relationship between Facebook stalking and Facebook romantic jealousy. To test the moderation hypothesis, the predictor variable (Facebook jealousy), the moderator (self-control), and the product of the predictor and moderator were regressed on partner Facebook stalking. Self- control did not interact with Facebook Jealousy to predict Facebook staking. The study did not yield results supporting the hypothesis, however, correlations were found. The correlations found are as follows: a decrease in Facebook jealousy is related to an increase in Facebook stalking; as self-control increases, jealousy decreases; and lastly the amount of logins per day is positively related to Facebook jealousy. In future testing, another moderating factor may better predict Facebook stalking.

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