Psychological Science ›› 2016, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (2): 406-411.

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The Effect of Honest Self-presentation in Online Social Network Sites on Life Satisfaction: The Chain Mediating Role of Online Positive Feedback and General Self-concept

  

  • Received:2015-04-27 Revised:2015-07-13 Online:2016-03-20 Published:2016-03-20
  • Contact: Zong-Kui ZHOU

社交网站真实自我呈现对生活满意度的影响:线上积极反馈和一般自我概念的链式中介作用

刘庆奇1,孙晓军2,周宗奎3,牛更枫2,孔繁昌1,连帅磊2   

  1. 1. 华中师范大学
    2. 华中师范大学心理学院
    3. 武汉市武昌珞喻路152号,华中师范大学心理学院
  • 通讯作者: 周宗奎

Abstract: Nowadays social network sites (SNS) have been popular all over the world and already integrated into people’s daily life. Individuals used social network sites out of lots of motivations such as entertainment, needs of connecting and belonging, maintaining and deepening relationships as well as self-presentation. Self-presentation which was also called impression management or impression regulation referred to that one controlled the content of the information and the way it was presented in order to affect the formation and change of their impressions on others. Self-presentation was quite a common phenomenon in interpersonal interactions in offline life. With the development of internet, more and more individuals began to present themselves in cyberspace which provided them a relatively safe environment. And social network sites were considered as the ideal platform of self-presentation for people could engage in self-presentation through social network sites profile construction, status updates, photo album management, message-posting and so on. Researchers revealed that as most social network sites friends were offline friends who knew or could know the presenter easily in real life, individuals would have to present true information about themselves in case that others thought they were dishonest. Therefore, honest self-presentation was one of the main strategies that people adopted when self-presenting. Existing researches also indicated that SNS honest self-presentation had significant effect on life satisfaction, and online positive feedback as well as general self-concept might play important roles in between SNS honest self-presentation and life satisfaction. To investigate the relationship among SNS self-presentation, online positive feedback general self-concept and life satisfaction, a survey research method was adopted in which SNS Honest Self-presentation Questionnaire, SNS Positive Feedback Questionnaire, General Self-concept Questionnaire as well as Satisfaction with Life Scale were administered to 554 middle and high school students. Data were collected and analyzed with SPSS 17.0,and the bias-corrected percentile Bootstrap method was used to analyze the chain mediating roles of online positive feedback and general self-concept in between SNS honest self-presentation and adolescents’ life satisfaction. The results indicated: (1) the relationships between each pair of SNS honest self-presentation, online positive feedback, general self-concept as well as life satisfaction were significantly positive; SNS honest self-presentation had no direct effect on life satisfaction, but could significantly predict online positive feedback and general self-concept; online positive feedback could significantly predict general self-concept; both online positive feedback and general self-concept could significantly predict life satisfaction. (2) SNS honest self-presentation affected adolescents’ life satisfaction through three indirect paths: through the mediating role of online positive feedback; through the mediating role of general self-concept; through the chain mediating role of both online positive feedback and general self-concept. These findings highlighted the complex nature of association between honest self-presentation in online social network sites and adolescent’s life satisfaction. Honest self-presentation in online social network sites influenced life satisfaction through online positive feedback and general self-concept. Individuals who presented themselves with honest self-presentation strategy on social network sites would get more positive feedback and have positive general self-concept, and finally have higher level of life satisfaction.

Key words: social network sites, honest self-presentation, adolescents, online positive feedback, general self-concept, life satisfaction

摘要: 为探讨社交网站真实自我呈现、线上积极反馈、一般自我概念和青少年生活满意度的关系,采用社交网站真实自我呈现问卷、线上积极反馈问卷、一般自我概念量表和生活满意度量表对554名中学生进行调查,结果发现:(1)社交网站真实自我呈现、线上积极反馈、一般自我概念和生活满意度之间两两显著正相关;(2)社交网站真实自我呈现对生活满意度没有直接预测作用,但是通过三条路径的间接作用影响青少年生活满意度:通过线上积极反馈的中介作用;通过一般自我概念的中介作用;通过线上积极反馈和一般自我概念的链式中介作用。研究结果进一步揭示社交网站真实自我呈现对生活满意度的作用机制,能为社交网络时代的青少年发展自我概念及提升生活满意度提供有益建议。

关键词: 社交网站, 真实自我呈现, 青少年, 线上积极反馈, 一般自我概念, 生活满意度