Heather Jaffe

Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Barton, Michelle

Keywords

Cyberball, Facebook, Self-Esteem

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

Cyberostracism is the act of being socially excluded over the Internet and it typically leads to feelings of lowered self-esteem. The current study attempted to examine whether Facebook usage can buffer the negative effects of cyberostracism on an individual's self-esteem. Cyberostracism was induced by having students play a game of Cyberball. Fifty students at a small liberal arts college were asked to complete pre-test questionnaires and then were assigned to 1 of 5 conditions. After completing the pre-test questionnaires, the participants in the control condition were asked to play a game of Cyberball in which they were excluded and the participants in the other 4 groups were asked to complete 1 of 4 online activities including Facebook with instant messaging, Facebook without instant messaging, an included game of Cyberball, and StumbleUpon. After this, these 4 groups played a game of Cyberball in which they were excluded. The results found evidence to support the hypothesis that participating in online tasks such as Facebook, StumbleUpon, and Cyberball, buffers the negative effects of cyberostracism on individuals' self-esteem.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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