Social Media Influences on Psychological Well Being, Coursework Example

Introduction

Even though social media aims to be means of communication, most people have misused the platform to abuse and discriminate against others. Social media has a strong link to increased risk of depression, anxiety, loneliness, possibility of self-harm and also promotes suicidal thoughts. People often get discriminated against based on color, gender, and body shape, more so in women. People who experience such situations often have the feeling that they are not equal to others thus tend to self-isolate them in society. However, social media can apply as a way to protect individuals against mental disorders. Increased ownership of smartphones in the digital era has made it easy for the teens to use the internet at any given time. With the existence of numerous social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Tik-Tok, Snapchat and so on has enable the teens to enjoy social media contents.  Social media influence has both negative and positive impacts on users. Adverse effects have to be addressed appropriately to eliminate the risks posed to users.

General Description of the Areas of Concern

• Women are at a higher risk of social media influencing their psychological well-being.
• Social media has an adverse effect on mental health by having an influence on how people view and maintain their social network.
• Prolonged use of social media platforms can lead to depression, anxiety and stress.
• Social media has impacted children’s life as well as adults. Depression and anxiety problems reported during Covid-19 were associated to exposure to social media which caused fear and trauma among teens (Gao et al., 2020).
• Social media has been a huge impact during this pandemic ( Covid-19)
• WeXL states there is 231.47nmillion Americans on social media
• Cyberbullying in adults and youth has led to increased cases of social media harassment, flaming, impersonation, cyberstalking, sharing of inappropriate images which are the main causes of anxiety and depression.

Significance of the Problem

1. Explicit statements of significance specific to the topic;

• Individuals who use about seven to eleven social media platforms are at a higher risk of increased levels of depression and anxiety symptoms (Bekalu et al, 2019).
• Fostering Families states that, “roughly 94% of teens are online every day, where they are spending an average of 9 hours on an ever- increasing array of social media sites- from Snapchat and Instagram to Youtube and Facebook.             Research shows that youth ages 16 to 24 spend about three hours and one minute using social media. According to Riehm et al. (2019), teens using social media for more than three hours per day may be at a higher risk of suffering from mental health problems.
• Nearly one in 5 U.S. adults live with any mental illness (46.6 million in 2017 aged 18 and older. 18.9% of all U.S. adults. According to National Institute of Mental Health (2019), the lifetime prevalence of any mental disorder among adolescents is 49.5%, and 22.2% of adolescents will suffer from a severe mental impairment in their lifetimes.
• The prevalence of any mental illness was higher among women (22.3) than men (15.1%)
• The prevalence of any mental illness was highest among adults reporting two or more race (28.6%), followed by white adults (20.4%), the prevalence of any mental illness was lowest among Asiaan adults (14.5%)
• Young adults aged 18-25 years had the highest prevalence of AMI (25.8%) compared to adults aged 26-49 years (22.2%) and aged 50 and older (13.8%)

1. Why is it important to conduct the study?

• It is necessary to address the various causes of the adverse effects of social media to eliminate the risks posed to users.

1. What theoretical/practical reasons are there for wanting to know the answers to the research questions?

• To prevent mental health on people especially this generation of teenagers that apparently it’s hard to control them when it comes to them logging into social media. About 70% of teens hide their online behavior from their parents (Shin & Kang, 2016). About43% of the teens easily access contents about violence and sex online (nude content or pornography)
• How we can help develop a safe app so that we can help those from social media anxiety or disorders that manipulate them on their self-image.

Analysis of Theoretical Basis for the Study

1. The organization of the variables that will be considered to answer the research questions likely will have a theoretical basis. Explicate how the most appropriate theoretical perspective helps conceptualize the study. Competing theoretical perspectives should be analyzed in Chapter 2 Literature Review.

• Social Media influence on psychological Well being
• social media manipulates our self-image
• Teens and social media
• Is social media making kids unhappy

1. Include theoretical definitions of important terms and all constructs (should not include operational definitions that will appear in the methods section).

• All Ages,
• Females/ Males
• All backgrounds welcome

Synthesize and Critically Analyze the “Very Relevant Literature”

1. Make the argument for the capstone using the “studies in the existing literature that incorporate all the major variables or constructs that are present in the proposed study” provides a visual conceptualization of relevance of literature.

• Bekalu, M. A., Mcloud, R. F., & Viswanath, K. (2019). Association of social media use with social wellbeing, positive mental health, and self-rated health: disentangling routine use from emotional connection to use. Health Education & Behavior, 46 (2_suppl), 69s – 80s.
• V., Hjetland, G. J., Aoro, L. E., & Skogen, J. C. (2020). Social Media Use and Mental Health and Wellbeing among Adolescents-A scoping Review. Frontier in psychology, 11, 1949.
• Karim, E., Oyewande, A. A., Abdalla, L., F., Ehsanullah, R. C., & Khan, S. (2020). Social Media Use and Its connection to Mental Health: A systematic Review. Cureus, 12(6).
• Pantic, I.(2014). Online Social Networking and Mental Health. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 17(10), 652-657.
• Pulido, C. M., Maro, L. C., Ionescu, V., & Sorde-Marti, T. (2020). Social Impact of Psychological Research on Well-Being shared in Social Media. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 135.

Problem Statement

Social Media has had a significant influence on the psychological wellbeing of most of its users. People often get discriminated against because of color or body shape, with the most considerable effect on adolescent youths. Therefore, people need proper education on how to use social media platforms without posing a risk to others.

Research Questions and Hypotheses

Ordinarily the researcher will have a few research questions, with a number of hypotheses for each. Do not operationalize variables in this section. Use theoretical questions and hypotheses written in the language of constructs. A research question should (a) be in the form of a question, (b) suggest a relationship among constructs, and (c) be empirically testable. Hypotheses are declarative statements written in the expected or predicted direction (usually an alternate hypothesis). Such hypotheses are called research, scientific, or theoretical hypotheses and are written in the present tense. Research Question: How do adolescents with dyslexia cope with the effects of their learning disabilities? Hypothesis 1: Adolescents with dyslexia who accept the diagnosis of having a learning disability use more problem-focused coping strategies than adolescents with dyslexia who reject or deny the diagnosis. Hypothesis 2: Adolescents with dyslexia who accept the diagnosis of having a learning disability rely more on social support than adolescents with dyslexia who reject or deny the diagnosis. Hypothesis 3: Adolescents with dyslexia who reject or deny the diagnosis of having a learning disability use more avoidant coping strategies than adolescents with dyslexia who accept the diagnosis. (Note: how hypothesis 2 and 3 are worded so that the coping strategy hypothesized matches the specific group. Also note that terms are not operationalized here).

• Your Research Question: Does social have an influence on the psychological wellbeing of its users?
• Hypothesis 1: Social media has a significant influence on the psychological wellbeing of most of its users.
• Hypothesis 2: Social media platforms do not have any effect on the psychological wellbeing of their users.
• Hypothesis 3: how does social media affect self-image on all age?

Literature Review

This chapter reviews what has already been written in the field on the topic of the research. The literature cited should support the theoretical argument being made and demonstrate that the author has a grasp of the major ideas and findings that pertain to his or her topic. Refer to APA manual for additional information concerning literature reviews.

Historical Background

1. Put things in perspective. This is more than just a chronology and does not necessarily have to include every detail since day one. What are the major issues, controversies, etc. that impact your study. Include background on all relevant variables.

• Social media platforms have been affected dramatically by cyberbullying, which has the most significant impact on the psychological wellbeing of its users (Schonning et al, 2020).
• Theory Relevant to Research Questions/Hypotheses.

What theoretical models/perspectives inform your research?: The interactionist perspective will inform this research paper study. The perspective promotes the idea that humans derive meaning from everyday social interaction.

Compare and contrast competing theories and justify the theoretical foundation of the dissertation.

• One of the competing theories is that of symbolic interaction that has a focus on how individuals use symbols to communicate with each other. The interactionist perspective is effective for this study since it focuses on how humans can derive the meaning of themselves or others in society through day-to-day communication.

Describe how the theoretical foundation of the dissertation applies to the problem.

• Interactionist perspective will apply in this study since the communications a person has with other people on social media platforms determine what they perceive of themselves and others thus can have an influence on their psychological well being.

Incorporate discussion of strengths/weaknesses of methodology in previous studies and which you are building on/hoping to avoid/improve upon in your study.

• One of the weaknesses of methodology in previous studies is data restriction (Pulido et, 2020), which this study hopes to improve on by carrying out direct observations.

Method

The method chapter should give sufficient detail about the methodology used that the study could be replicated. Sections in a Method chapter often include, but are not limited to, the following: participants, instruments, materials, procedure, and analysis. Refer to APA manual for additional information concerning methods sections.

Participants

1. Human subject’s consideration and clearance (How will you get the participants to agree in your project/study? This is hypothetical).

• Participants will be required to consent to participate in the study after being informed of the benefit it holds not only to them but the society at large.

Describe subjects in enough detail so the reader can visualize the subjects (who will you be having in your group, film, interviews, etc.). Important characteristics should be delineated (often not available until after data collection, these data should be presented here rather than in the results section).

• Subjects selected for the study have to be active social media users above the age of sixteen and can be of any gender. The study will also include psychologists.

Describe methods for sample selection in detail. For example, if a sample of convenience is used, this should be explicitly stated. Specific inclusion and exclusion criteria should be noted in this section.

• The study will use a sample of convenience. For a participant to be included in the study, they have to be sixteen years and above who are active social media users. Participants will be selected through interviews.

Conduct and report a power analysis to determine the sample size for the proposal. Keep these findings in the final document and provide an explanation if there are meaningfully more or less subjects in the final analyses.

• 50- 100 sample size for this survey
• 16- up ages
• All gender
• Active on social media

For all measures, evidence of reliability and validity should be stated explicitly. If this information is not available from prior studies, piloting of the instrument/procedures should be conducted.

• Social media can increased levels of anxiety and depression , specifically on image driven platforms like facebook and Instagram.
• If people use social media daily they will experience self image and disorder over time.
• Children using social media to fit in will end up developing anxiety and other disorders.
• Cyberbullying in social media is common in adults
• Mental health is higher in women than man because of social media
• Increased ownership of smartphones in the digital media age among teens has increased cases of anxiety and depression
• Reduced face-to-face interaction among teens has led to increased cyberbullying hence increased anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicidal thoughts.

Research Design

Include general description of the research design in accepted terminology. Include possible threats to internal and external validity of the chosen design.

• Study social media users for a period of two months
• One of the threats of validity is shame and fear possessed by possible participants
• It might be hard to assess the actual effect of social media use on the psychological wellbeing of participants.

List independent and dependent variables and their operational definitions.

• Independent Variable – social media influences.
• Dependent Variable-Psychological Wellbeing of social media users.

It is often useful to include a diagram/figure of the design (Infographic as well).

• Diagram or bar graphs will be useful to indicate and help us figure out the stats of our research.

I think it will be prudent to have some questions and ask online users how they feel about the questions or concerning the argument about images; you get images of celebrities, masculine individuals and share the pictures with your target population. Get their views in relation to the topic.

Procedures

Procedures should be described in sufficient detail, that a reader could replicate the study if so desired. If a survey is used, the method of collecting data, the rate of return, and description of the procedures used in follow up and a description of the non-responders should be provided. Copies of materials used in intervention, etc. should be included in an appendix.

• A survey will be sufficient for this study since it will involve observing participants for any changes during the specified period.
• Interviews will also be appropriate for the study.
• Conducting anonymous survey inline will be useful and helpful

Data Analysis

Restate each research question and hypothesis.

• Does social media have an influence on the psychological wellbeing of its users?

Each hypothesis should be followed by a choice of statistical analysis to address each.

• Hypothesis 1: Social Media has a significant influence on the psychological wellbeing of most of its users. The study will use the students test to assess whether social media use influences psychological wellbeing. Data collected is normally distributed and also allows random sampling.
• Hypothesis 2: Social Media platforms do not have any effect on assessing the hypothesis. One of the assumptions in regression modeling is that observations made are independent. The residuals for the model have a normal distribution.

Include brief description, the assumptions regarding the statistical analysis that will be tested, and rationale for each statistical technique chosen.

• Teen and social media
• Self-image due to social media
• Cyberbullying and social media

Yes, getting figures is a good idea and this should come from the students test

Results

This chapter presents the results of the analyses, usually in order by research question, and any results of further analyses (that is, analyses that were not proposed but which were carried out). Results should be presented without interpretation. Refer to APA manual for additional information concerning methods sections.

• Social Media use influences the psychological wellbeing of users.
• Manipulating them to look into their self image Young boys and ladies in their teens go through Facebook posts for a short period. Some views images of ideal bodies and start comparing themselves with the images. Teens feeling that their bodies should be like the ones seen from posts may develop low self-esteem and they may get into depression trying to work on their appearance to fit into the pictures seen (Glazzard & Stones, 2019).

Discussion

Results are interpreted in light of the research questions and discussed in conjunction with other literature. Limitations of interpretation and implications for further research may be presented. Refer to APA manual for additional information concerning methods sections

• Summary
• Summarize results briefly (Or what your anticipated results will be). b. Discuss results in non-statistical terms. Answer the research question and hypothesis.

1. Social Media has a significant influence on the psychological wellbeing of its users since it enhances the likelihood of depression, anxiety, and high stress levels on teenagers.
2. Social Media use also promotes low self-esteem/ self-image
3. Social media show teens to start hiding things from parents such as nude and pornographic contents

• Conclusions

1. Explicitly discuss the implications of the results. Integrate your results with the theoretical background and very relevant literature findings.

• Social Media uses a significant influence on the psychological wellbeing of users.

1. Relate to literature review – point out (a) consistencies and (b) inconsistencies with results of those studies reported in the literature cited.

• The results for the study are consistent with the results of the studies reported in the cited literature.

1. Did findings provide support or differ from extant theoretical positions

• The findings provided support to the theoretical positions identified in the study.

3. Limitations

• A limitation is a weakness or handicap that potentially limits the internal or external validity of the results, such as using a sample with a particular characteristic such as all males. Most limitations should have been considered when the study was conceptualized. Therefore, limitations in this section are those that were largely outside the control of the researcher. Often limitations include a statement of the generalizability of the results, controls that may be impossible to meet, etc. For example, if you must use intact groups rather than random assignment, how might this affect the interpretation of your results?
• The main limitation of the study is that participants find it hard to undergo assessment for two months since they have to go on with their day-to-day activities.
• They can complete a survey that will be 5- 10 minutes long

4. Recommendations for Future Research

• Provide specific guidance based on the capstone findings (and literature review) and they relate to the extant theoretical and empirical base. Why is the proposed research needed and what form should it take?
• Future research focusing on the influence of social media on the psychological wellbeing of users should have its basis on what social media practices cause the influence.

References Appendices

“11 Facts About Cyberbullying.” DoSomething.org, www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-cyber-bullying#:~:text=About%2037%25%20of%20young%20people,common%20medium%20for%20cyber%20bullying.

Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández, Johan Farkas. “Racism, Hate Speech, and Social Media: A Systematic Review and Critique – Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández, Johan Farkas, 2021.” SAGE Journals, journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1527476420982230.

Caroline Miller is the editorial director of the Child Mind Institute. “Does Social Media Cause Depression?” Child Mind Institute, 11 June 2020, childmind.org/article/is-social-media-use-causing-depression/.

Clark, Maria. “40+ Frightening Social Media and Mental Health Statistics.” Etactics, Etactics | Revenue Cycle Software, 9 Dec. 2020, etactics.com/blog/social-media-and-mental-health-statistics.

“Cyberbullying: Adults Can Be Victims Too.” WeLiveSecurity, 19 June 2020, www.welivesecurity.com/2020/06/19/cyberbullying-adults-can-be-victims-too/.

“Impact of Social Media on Youth Mental Health.” University of Nevada, Reno, 30 Dec. 2019, onlinedegrees.unr.edu/online-master-of-public-health/impact-of-social-media-on-youth-mental-health/.

McLean Hospital. “The Social Dilemma: Social Media and Your Mental Health.” Here’s How Social Media Affects Your Mental Health | McLean Hospital, McLean Hospital, 10 Feb. 2021, www.mcleanhospital.org/essential/it-or-not-social-medias-affecting-your-mental-health.

Perrin, Andrew, and Monica Anderson. “Share of U.S. Adults Using Social Media, Including Facebook, Is Mostly Unchanged Since 2018.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 31 July 2020, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/10/share-of-u-s-adults-using-social-media-including-facebook-is-mostly-unchanged-since-2018/.

Scheff, Sue. “Adult Cyberbullying Is More Common Than You Think.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 29 Nov. 2019, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/shame-nation/201911/adult-cyberbullying-is-more-common-you-think.

Renick, Christie. “Navigating Social Media with Foster and Adopted Teens.” Fostering Families Today, 15 Jan. 2021, fosteringfamiliestoday.com/fostering-families-today-feature/navigating-social-media-with-foster-and-adopted-teens/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA-OeBBhDiARIsADyBcE7Gr2n7tJpVQvArCPFTCFc4S8QG_0PR3-0BrBnLjvz-nIsUokdXnAAaAlBQEALw_wcB.

Wang, Vince. “Social Media Anxiety: How Social Media Is Manipulating Our Self Image.” WeXL Org, WeXL Org, 18 Feb. 2021, www.wexl.org/american-wellness/social-media-anxiety-how-social-media-is-manipulating-our-self-image?gclid=Cj0KCQiA-OeBBhDiARIsADyBcE71ODNkFtNTslK_JvuOlYx8mJM2jtz-BburANEF3Wp2ZDcG4nHbrAcaAiMhEALw_wcB.

Bekalu, M.A., Mclaud, R. F., & Viswanath, K.(2019). Association of social Media Use with social wellbeing positive mental health, and self-related health: Disentangling routine use from connection to use. Health Education & Behavior, 46(2_suppl), 69s-80s. https:doi.org/10.117%2F1090198119863768.

Riehm, K. E., Feder, K. A., Tormohlen, K. N., Crum, R. M., Young, A. S., Green, K. M., … & Mojtabai, R. (2019). Associations between time spent using social media and internalizing and externalizing problems among US youth. JAMA psychiatry, 76(12), 1266-1273.

The National Institute of Mental Health. (2019). Prevalence of Any Mental Illness (AMI). Retrieved from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness.shtml#part_155771.

Gao, J., Zheng, P., Jia, Y., Chen, H., Mao, Y., Chen, S., … & Dai, J. (2020). Mental health problems and social media exposure during COVID-19 outbreak. Plos one, 15(4), e0231924.

Shin, W., & Kang, H. (2016). Adolescents’ privacy concerns and information disclosure online: The role of parents and the Internet. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, 114-123.

Glazzard, J., & Stones, S. (2019). Social media and young people’s mental health. In Selected Topics in Child and Adolescent Mental Health. IntechOpen.