IAHRW International Journal of Social Sciences Review

Stuti Singh ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Psychology, University of Allahabad Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, IN

Abstract

The advent of the internet has dramatically changed our life, positively as well as negatively. Internet addiction is one such negative consequence of it. The present study aims at exploring how personality, loneliness, and affect (positive & negative) predict internet addiction among University students. Four psychological tools were used to measure the variables taken in the study. Internet addiction was measured by Online Cognition Scale (OCS), Personality was measured by Eysenck's MPI (Short), Loneliness was measured by UCLA Loneliness Scale (UCLA-LS), and affect was measured by PANAS. Cronbach's alpha of these scales on the present sample was: OCS (0.88), UCLA-LS (0.79), PANAS (Negative Affect 0.68, Positive Affect 0.77), and MPI (Extraversion 0.33, Neuroticism 0.58). Data were collected from a sample size of 182 participants of undergraduate and postgraduate classes. They are between the age group of 18 to 25 years. Their mean age is 19.76 years. Multiple correlation indicate a significant correlation (0.34, p<0.001) among all the variables chosen in the study and all the predictors explained significant variance in the internet addiction. Loneliness and Negative Affect emerged as the significant predictors of internet addiction in the present study.

Keywords

Internet Addiction, Loneliness, Neuroticism, Extraversion, Negative Affect, Positive Affect.

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Stuti Singh ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Psychology, University of Allahabad, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, IN

Abstract

Social comparison is an integral part of our social life. It provides us a better understanding of who we are, how we are doing, how we can improve and many other things. These comparisons can be on various levels such as inter-personal, intra-group and inter-group social comparisons. Nature and outcomes of different type of comparisons vary because each one has different dynamics. The focus of the present study is to explore the nature of emotions that people feel while making intra-group social comparison. The study being exploratory in nature, interview method was chosen for data collection. Individual interviews were taken from boys and girls in the age group 18 to 25 years. A semi structured interview schedule was prepared for the interviews. Each interview was audio taped and then transcribed for further analysis. Response themes indicate a wide variety of emotions felt by participants. These ranged from feeling of positive emotions such as, happiness, satisfaction, and pride to feeling of negative emotions such as, anger, jealousy, dissatisfaction, grief, etc. Implications of these emotions have been discussed in context of our social interactions and intra-group social comparison.

Keywords

Social Comparison, Intra-Group Comparison, Intra-Group Emotions, Positive and Negative Emotions.

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