[FULL ACCESS] Investigating Narcissism and Social Media Use

This mock proposal for a research project investigates the relationship between narcissism and social media use. The study aims to explore how individuals with high narcissistic tendencies engage with online platforms, using Pearson's Product moment correlation, Independent T-tests, and Regression analysis to analyze data from participants who have completed a survey about their social media habits. The results of this study will contribute to our understanding of the impact of social media on mental health and behavior.

Research Project Proposal
To be submitted via Moodle by the deadline on Moodle. The Research
Project Proposal continues on the following page. Please ensure that
you complete ALL SECTIONS of the form.
Name
Proposed Title
(Not exceeding 15
words)
Investigation of the relationship between Problematic
Facebook Usage, narcissism and Self Esteem in Young
Adults and the role of Gender.
Purpose Statement
(500 words max)
People have been spending more time on internet, social
media to be specific. Life without social media is hard to
imagine. Facebook is one of the most popular Social media
sites and the present statistics show that there are almost 2.2
billion daily users on Facebook (Ahmad, 2011). Given the
fact that one social media site has brought about such
enormous changes in interpersonal communication, it is
essential to conduct research to find the ways in which
Facebook acts as predictor for variables such as low self
esteem, low well being, Personality factors etc.
There are many different opinions on the topic of Facebook
Addiction; however, it is the truth that uncontrolled Facebook
usage does have dire effects on the life of an individual
(Toma & Hancock, 2011).
Narcissism can be defined as a personality trait possessed by
individuals in which they tend to seek excessive attention
towards themselves and have an intense need to be wanted or
liked. The basic concept of social media was to have larger
social socials which are beyond are physical reach. There

have been studies which have showed significant relationship
between narcissism and problematic Facebook usage
(Buffardi & Campbell, 2008). It has been studied that
Facebook is a cultural norm in individualistic societies
(McKinney, Kelly & Duran, 2012). There have also been
studies relating the big five personality traits and problematic
Facebook usage, which suggested a positive correlation
between extraversion and extreme Facebook usage (Wilson,
Fornasier, & White, 2010). The results of the study stated that
individuals who are extroverts have a very low arousal
threshold due to which they tend to get bored sooner and try
to explore more, because of which they cannot tend to stop
being involved in large social media networks. It has been
seen that individuals scoring high on the trait of openness had
no significant correlation with Facebook addiction (Wilson,
Fornasier, & White, 2010).
Recent study by some university students about the
relationship between narcissism and Facebook showed that
there exists a positive correlation between Facebook usage
and self promotional and antisocial behaviour (Carpenter,
2012).
Self esteem can be defined as the evaluation one makes of
themselves in terms of their own capabilities, significance
and worth (Wilson, Fornasier, & White, 2010). Studies have
shown negative relationship exists between excessive

Facebook usage and Self-esteem ( Echeburúa, 2010).
Studies have shown that that it is the young people who have
more chances of falling into the social networking addiction
(Forest & Wood, 2012) which is the rationale behind taking
the sample from the young adult population.
Facebook has become an inevitable part of the lives of
people, especially the college, university and work place
goers. However, this excessive usage has been posing a
number of lifestyle health issues like anxiety, depression, low
self esteem, loneliness, and decreased social interactions.
There have also been studies which suggest a negative
correlation between problematic Facebook usage and well-
being of individuals (Satici & Uysal, 2015).
However, there have been studies which suggest positive
relationships between the variables discussed (Munoz &
Towner, 2009). There are evidences stating positive
correlation between positive feedback on Facebook and self
esteem (Valkenburg, Peter & Schouten, 2006). Ellison et al.,
(2007) stated that Social networking helps students in
maintaining the social capital and help them experience more
satisfaction in life and also have more social trust.
In our study we are going to investigate if problematic
Facebook usage is a predictor for variables like self- esteem
and narcissism. We will also be looking if there is any
significant gender difference in the three scales.

Understanding the effect of Facebook usage on essential
variables likes self esteem and narcissism is required, so that,
more awareness about controlled usage of the same can be
raised.
Main Hypotheses/
Research question (in
the case of
qualitative research)
You can list up to 3
main hypotheses or
research questions in
this section.
The main hypothesis of the present study are-
 There will be a negative correlation between
Problematic Facebook Usage and Self Esteem in
Young Adults.
 There will be a positive correlation between
problematic Facebook Usage and Narcissism.
 There will be a significant gender difference in the
three variables.
Type of Design
The mentioned study will be correlational design because we
want to find out the relationship between the variables and
not the cause and effect connections.
Convenience Sampling Method will be used for this study.
This sampling design is going to be used because there exists
time and budget constraints. Convenience sampling is a kind
of Non-probability sampling method which involves in
selection of the participants on the basis of their availability
and proximity.
Variable(s)
- If correlational,
identify measured
variables (PV and CV) The Predictor Variable in this study is Problematic Facebook

-
Usage
The Criterion Variables in this study are Narcissism and Self
Esteem.
Methods (a) Who are your participants going to be, and how many?
Participants in the Study will be college students between 18-
25 years of age. The sample size would be 200. (100 males,
100 females).
(b) How will you gain access to your sample?
College students would be randomly approached, if they meet
the age criteria, they will be explained about the study and
requested to participate.
Exclusion criteria would include unwillingness of individuals
to participate in the study.
Inclusion Criteria-
 Participant Should belong to the age group of 18-25.
 Participant should be willing to take part in the study.
Exclusion Criteria-
 Participant does not belong to the age group.
 Participant has serious physical ailment.

 Participant has a history of Mental Health issues.
(c) What equipment/resources/questionnaires will you require
(continue on separate sheet if necessary)?
Following are the Questionnaires or testing materials that are
going to be required for the Study.
 Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS) ( Raskin &
Terry, 1988)- This questionnaire consists of 18 items,
each with a five point rating scale ranging from 1: very
rarely to 5: Very often Cronbach Alpha coefficient of
the scale is 0.83. Akin et al., (2013) stated that BFAS
is a reliable and valid scale for measuring Problematic
Facebook usage or Facebook Addiction.
 Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) is going to be
used to quantify Narcissism. The questionnaire
consists of 40 statements consisting of Narcissistic as
well as not-narcissistic responses. Participants need to
mark the statement congruent to their feelings.
 Self-Esteem Scale is going to be used to measure Self
esteem of Individuals. This scale consists of 10
questions with a 4 pint rating scale ranging from 1-
strongly agree to 4 – strongly disagree. Individuals
with a score ranging between 10 and 40 have higher

self esteem.
Ethics Discuss any ethical issues which you have considered in the
development of your proposal.
The participants are supposed to be informed about the tests
that are to be done and the implications that they might have.
Therefore willing participants are included in the study. Each
Participant will be made to sign a consent form stating that
he/she gave their full consent in participating in the study.
Also the anonymity of the information about each participant
is to be maintained. It is to be mentioned to the participants
that in case of any difficulty or problem, they can let the
researcher know and that will be immediately acted upon.
Statistics/Analysis What analysis of your data do you consider appropriate and
why?
The data will be analysed using Pearson’s Product moment
correlation Independent T-tests and Regression analysis.
Correlation coefficient will be used to find the linear
relationship between the variables. Regression analysis will be
used to predict the direction of relationship between the
variables and t-tests will be used to find if there is any
significant gender difference in the three scales.
Key references on

which your project is
based (continue on
separate sheet if
necessary)
Ahmad, A. (2011). Social network sites and its
popularity. International Journal of Research and Reviews
in Computer Science, 2(2), 522-526.
Buffardi, L. E., & Campbell, W. K. (2008). Narcissism and social
networking web sites. Personality and social psychology
bulletin, 34(10), 1303-1314.
Carpenter, C. J. (2012). Narcissism on Facebook: Self-promotional
and anti-social behavior. Personality and individual
differences, 52(4), 482-486.
Echeburúa, E. (2010). Addiction to new technologies and to online
social networking in young people: A new challenge.
Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of
Facebook “friends:” Social capital and college students’ use
of online social network sites. Journal of computer-
mediated communication, 12(4), 1143-1168.
Forest, A. L., & Wood, J. V. (2012). When social networking is not
working: Individuals with low self-esteem recognize but do
not reap the benefits of self-disclosure on
Facebook. Psychological science, 23(3), 295-302.
Malik, S., & Khan, M. (2015). Impact of facebook addiction on
narcissistic behavior and self-esteem among students. J Pak
Med Assoc, 65(3), 260-263.
McKinney, B. C., Kelly, L., & Duran, R. L. (2012). Narcissism or
openness?: College students’ use of Facebook and
Twitter. Communication Research Reports, 29(2), 108-118.
Muñoz, C., & Towner, T. (2009, March). Opening Facebook: How
to use Facebook in the college classroom. In Society for

information technology & teacher education international
conference (pp. 2623-2627). Association for the
Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
Raskin, R., & Terry, H. (1988). A principal-components analysis of
the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and further evidence
of its construct validity. Journal of personality and social
psychology, 54(5), 890.
Satici, S. A., & Uysal, R. (2015). Well-being and problematic
Facebook use. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 185-190.
Toma, C. L., & Hancock, J. (2011). Affirming the self-online:
Motives and benefits of Facebook use: Paper presented at
the annual meeting of the International Communication
Association. Boston, MA.
Valkenburg, P. M., Peter, J., & Schouten, A. P. (2006). Friend
networking sites and their relationship to adolescents' well-
being and social self-esteem. CyberPsychology &
Behavior, 9(5), 584-590.
Wilson, K., Fornasier, S., & White, K. M. (2010). Psychological
predictors of young adults' use of social networking
sites. Cyberpsychology, behavior, and social
networking, 13(2), 173-177.
Potential supervisors Not Applicable for Mock Proposal
Signature ______________________________