{"title":"Social media use and well-being: testing an integrated self-determination theory model","authors":"Kennon M. Sheldon, Liudmila Titova","doi":"10.1080/15213269.2023.2185259","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Although some commentators assert that social media use (SMU) has large negative effects on peoples’ mental health, meta-analyses show the effect is tiny at best, implying that individual differences play an important role. We combined self-determination theory’s organismic integration and basic psychological needs mini-theories to address this issue. Our integrated process model stated that self-determined motivation for SMU affects the extent peoples’ relatedness needs are met during the activity, which in turn affects their subjective well-being (SWB). Cross-sectional study 1 found initial support for this model. Short-term longitudinal studies 2 and 3 assigned Ps to spend a few minutes on an enjoyable social media site (study 2) or on both an enjoyable and a less-enjoyable site (study 3), during the survey itself. In all three cases, self-determined motivation predicted relatedness need-satisfaction and enhanced SWB, after the experience. We conclude that, as with any behavior, peoples’ motivation for SMU matters. Without considering this, blanket statements about SMU effects are likely to be misleading.","PeriodicalId":47932,"journal":{"name":"Media Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4000,"publicationDate":"2023-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Media Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2023.2185259","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT Although some commentators assert that social media use (SMU) has large negative effects on peoples’ mental health, meta-analyses show the effect is tiny at best, implying that individual differences play an important role. We combined self-determination theory’s organismic integration and basic psychological needs mini-theories to address this issue. Our integrated process model stated that self-determined motivation for SMU affects the extent peoples’ relatedness needs are met during the activity, which in turn affects their subjective well-being (SWB). Cross-sectional study 1 found initial support for this model. Short-term longitudinal studies 2 and 3 assigned Ps to spend a few minutes on an enjoyable social media site (study 2) or on both an enjoyable and a less-enjoyable site (study 3), during the survey itself. In all three cases, self-determined motivation predicted relatedness need-satisfaction and enhanced SWB, after the experience. We conclude that, as with any behavior, peoples’ motivation for SMU matters. Without considering this, blanket statements about SMU effects are likely to be misleading.
期刊介绍:
Media Psychology is an interdisciplinary journal devoted to publishing theoretically-oriented empirical research that is at the intersection of psychology and media communication. These topics include media uses, processes, and effects. Such research is already well represented in mainstream journals in psychology and communication, but its publication is dispersed across many sources. Therefore, scholars working on common issues and problems in various disciplines often cannot fully utilize the contributions of kindred spirits in cognate disciplines.