Promoting positive psychology using social networking sites: a study of new college entrants on Facebook.
This study explores the potential of promoting college students' positive psychological development using popular online social networks. Online social networks have dramatically changed the ways college students manage their social relationships. Social network activities, such as checking Facebook posts dominates students' Internet time and has the potential to assist students' positive development. Positive psychology is a scientific study of how ordinary individuals can apply their strength effectively when facing objective difficulties and how this capability can be cultivated with certain approaches. A positive message delivery approach was designed for a group of new college entrants. A series of positive messages was edited by university counselors and delivered by students to their Facebook social groups. Responses from each posted positive messages were collected and analyzed by researchers. The responses indicated that: (1) relationships of individual engagement and social influence in this study can partially explain the observed student behavior; (2) using class-based social groups can promote a positive atmosphere to enhance strong-tie relationships in both the physical and virtual environments, and (3) promoting student's positive attitudes can substantially impact adolescents' future developments, and many positive attitudes can be cultivated by emotional events and social influence.
Graduate Institute of Business and Management, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan. amanda@mail.cgu.edu.tw.
Shu-Man
SM
Chang
Department of Information Management, Ta-Hwa University of Technology, Hsinchu 30740, Taiwan. lin021060@gmail.com.
Yung-Hsiu
YH
Lin
Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, National Dong-Hwa University, Hualien 97401, Taiwan. chiwei@mail.ndhu.edu.tw.
Chi-Wei
CW
Lin
Graduate Institute of Business and Management, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan. hkchang@mail.cgu.edu.tw.
Her-Kun
HK
Chang
College of Management and Design, Ming Chi University of Technology, New Taipei 24301, Taiwan. chong@mail.mcut.edu.tw.
Ping Pete
PP
Chong
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D060756:Social Networking; D012944:Social Support; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D013624:Taiwan; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult