Persoonlijkheid en het zelfbeeld van jongvolwassen vrouwen: Welke rol speelt social media gebruik?

Abstract

Social media is a popular medium with young adults and is used to present themselves online and to maintain social contacts. Female young adults have shown higher frequency of social media use and value the social aspect of social media more than male young adults. But what drives these adults to use media in a certain way and what does this mean for their self-image? This research focused on exploring the relationship between personality types extraversion and neuroticism and the self-image of female young adults between the age of 18 to 25, and what the moderating role is of social use of social media, specifically Instagram. It was expected that extraverted young adults had a positive self-image due to high frequency of social use of social media, which colludes with a high level of self-confidence and a low level of social comparison. Neurotic young adults were expected to have negative self-image due to low frequency of social use of social media, with a low level of selfconfidence and a high level of social comparison. An online survey was conducted with 81 females. It appeared that social media had no significant moderating role, which means that social media had no significant effect on the relationship between personality and selfimage. Personality type was significant on self-image of female young adults. Future research can contribute to an increase of knowledge about the relationship between personality and self-image of young female adults and the role of social media within this relationship.