Social Networks as Social Psychological Determinants Essay

The Purpose of the Research

Social networks like Instagram attract users because all the social trends that become popular are represented there. Nowadays, the information from social networks becomes a source helping to evaluate present situation and analyze modern social trends. “Fitspiration” belongs to the phenomena that are very popular on Instagram. It is considered to be a reaction to “thinspiration” involving popularization of skinniness. The present research was conducted to reveal possible connection between narcissistic behavior of male Instagram users and the popularity of “fitspiration”. The research focuses on the messages retrieved from hashtags related to healthy lifestyle.

Literature Review

The issues concerning social networks became matter of a study for many researchers. Sadie F. Dingfelder (2011) considered the problem of narcissistic behaviour that seemed to grow in many countries. The researcher was interested in the connection between the expansion of narcissistic behaviour and the growth in the popularity of Internet. Dingfelder stated that Internet encouraged people to believe that they were unique and exceptional, and this is why they became prone to self-promotion. The second source was a study conducted to reveal psychological determinants of the use of performance-enhancing substances by exercisers (Wiefferink, Detmar, Coumans, Vogels, & Paulussen, 2007, p.70). More than 140 respondents were asked about their reasons to take these substances. According to the results, they were mostly inclined to ignore possible health risks being obsessive about reaching new goals.

The results were relevant for the present research as they highlighted people’s readiness to do anything for self-affirmation. In their research, Emma Halliwell, Helga Dittmar and Amber Osborn explored the effects produced on males exposed to muscular body ideal (2007, p.278). According to the results, gym users showed greater motivation whereas non-exercisers experienced increased dissatisfaction with themselves. Stephanie Tobin found a connection between users’ wish to post photos with other people on Instagram and higher level of satisfaction with life (2016, p.303). In the end, we used the research conducted in 2015 that revealed a link between selfie posting and narcissistic behaviour among men (Sorokowski, Sorokowska,. This information was relevant for the present research as the latter was studying narcissistic behaviour in male Instagram users’ hashtags.

Study Rationale

We believe the present study to be of interest to the field of psychology because it possesses certain academic novelty. Until now, nobody has studied narcissistic behavior by analyzing Instagram hashtags. What is more, the role of a hashtag and the messages that can be conveyed with its help are not fully studied by the researchers in this field. The authors of the present research make an attempt to use all the data on narcissistic behavior, social networks and “fitspiration” in order to extend current knowledge about the level of narcissism among the fans of healthy living.

Study Hypothesis

The authors of the study aim to evaluate whether current “fitspiration” phenomenon is associated with narcissistic behaviors in male user’s hashtags. Specifically, those who are interested in ‘fitspiration’ may have higher level of hashtags showing users’ narcissistic behavior. During the research, we were using a random sampling technique to collect the data. For instance, we compared random users’ Instagrams to the ones of the most popular “fispiration” users such as Marc-Fitt, SteveCook_32, and NealMaddox. Having reviewed this comparison, we discussed the correctness of our hypothesis as a group. The first variable discussed during the study was the number of posts with ‘fitspiration’ hashtags or hashtags relating to a healthy lifestyle. The second variable was the number of hashtags with narcissistic words or similar wording. The general message or statements made by analysed photos and hashtags helped us to decide if the phenomenon of “fitspiration” invoked narcissism.

Methods

Participants

The present research was conducted to extend the knowledge on social trends becoming more popular among average users with help of social networks such as Instagram. To be more precise, during the research we were studying popular Instagram phenomenon of “fitspiration” in order to define if it was connected to narcissistic behavior or these two notions were a far cry from each other. Within the frame of the research, our group was not studying the “fitspiration” phenomenon applied to all the people using this social network. Instead, the time have been taken to study the representation of this social trend only in Instagram profiles of male users. As a group, we were studying and evaluating the posts from Instagram profiles of both famous “fitspiration” bloggers and their male subscribers in order to define if the latter had higher levels of hashtags demonstrating narcissistic behaviors in the wording of their posts.

The population used to conduct the research involved men at the age from 21 to 35 given that not all the users indicated their age in the profiles. The research group consisted of 8 male Instagram users at the age from 21 to 35 (usernames: Zty25, Mattcherubini, Riccardocroci83, Dylan_preble, Craig_stephen_31, Johnwhite, Ashley88ashers, and Mitchellbourcier). As for controlled group, it included 3 popular “fitspiration” users such as Marc Fitt, Neal Maddox, and Steve Cook (only profile of the last participant contained the age information). All 8 members of the research group were picked up from the group of 20 Instagram users with help of random number generator. The participants of the controlled group were chosen due to their popularity among users interested in fitness and healthy lifestyle.

Apparatus and Materials

In order to find out if there was a connection between “fitspiration” social trend and narcissistic behavior, our group analyzed and counted hashtags used in the posts of popular “fitspiration” users and random male users on Instagram. Collecting the data and choosing the participants of our experiment, we were using our Instagram profiles and random number generator in order to avoid making a biased choice. Using the data on Narcissistic Personality Disorder from DSM-5 classification, we singled out the attributes of narcissistic behavior for further hashtag analysis. Then, hashtags were divided into groups according to the presence or absence of narcissistic attitudes in the messages that they conveyed.

Procedure

Within the frame of the present research, the members of our group conducted a thorough hashtag analysis in order to review them for the presence of narcissistic and self-obsessed behavior. The subjects of the experiment were divided into research group and controlled group. As for the research group, its members were chosen with help of random sampling technique. In order to form a group, we randomly chose 5 males from each of our Instagram accounts and used random number generator to choose 2 people out of 5. Initially, there were 4 groups of 5 male Instagram users but after the random selection the number of research group members was reduced to 8. The controlled group consisted of 3 popular “fitspiration” Instagram users. Then, the profiles of the members of the research group were compared to the ones of the members of controlled group. As a team, we were viewing 5 most recent pictures posted on each participant’s page on Instagram in order to decide if the hashtags involved “fitspiration” or narcissistic behavior.

The hashtags that were regarded as “fitspirational” included “#fitspo”, “#fitfam”, “#bodybuilding”, “#transformationtuesday” and other ones containing words involving healthy lifestyle. Reviewing the given hashtags for narcissism, we were looking for the words expressing selfish, self-centred, and egoistic attitudes. The hashtags containing a narcissistic language included “#swolelife”, “nofliter”, “beastmode”, “imabeast”, and “fitforlife”. Then, we compared the number of hashtags related to “fitspiration” and the number of hashtags demonstrating narcissistic behavior. By processing the information, we were able to collect a statistical data on hashtags involving narcissism and “fitspiration”.

Statistics

Having analyzed hashtags of the photos posted by the members of the controlled group, we found out that 40 of them involved “fitspiration” trend and 24 demonstrated narcissistic behavior (the number of the hashtags related to other topics was 30). As for the hashtags of the research group, 254 of them were related to “fitspiration” whereas 238 conveyed messages regarded as narcissistic (the number of the hashtags related to other topics was 94).

References

Dingfelder, S. F. (2011). Reflecting on narcissism. Science, 1(1), 64.

Halliwell, E., Dittmar, H., & Orsborn, A. (2007). The effects of exposure to muscular male models among men: Exploring the moderating role of gym use and exercise motivation. Body Image, 4(3), 278-287.

Sorokowski, P., Sorokowska, A., Oleszkiewicz, A., Frackowiak, T., Huk, A., & Pisanski, K. (2015). Selfie posting behaviors are associated with narcissism among men. Personality and Individual Differences, 85(1), 123-127.

Tobin, S. J. & Chulpaiboon, P. (2016). The role of social connection in satisfaction with Instagram photographs. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 2(3), 303.

Wiefferink, C. H., Detmar, S. B., Coumans, B., Vogels, T., & Paulussen, T. G. W. (2007). Social psychological determinants of the use of performance-enhancing drugs by gym users. Health Education Research, 23(1), 70-80.