The role of self-construal in predicting self-presentational motives for online social network use in the UK and Japan.
Self-presentational motives underlying online social network (OSN) use were explored in samples of British and Japanese users. Self-expression, maintaining privacy, and attention seeking were strong motives in both samples; impression management and modesty were less strongly endorsed. Measures of independent and interdependent self-construal, as well as narcissism and modesty, were investigated as potential predictors of these motivations. Independent self-construal emerged as the most important predictor across both samples, with less independent participants showing more concern with image management and modesty. Participants with more interdependent self-construals were more concerned about maintaining privacy. There were some differences in the patterns of prediction between the samples, but overall self-construal measures contributed to the explanation of the majority of the motivations, whereas narcissistic or modest personality variables did not.
School of Psychology, University of Sussex , Brighton, United Kingdom .
Karen
K
Long
Xiao
X
Zhang
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003219:Confidentiality; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D009289:Narcissism; D012649:Self Concept; D012919:Social Behavior; D061108:Social Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006113:United Kingdom; D055815:Young Adult