Online and Offline Identity Gaps: Cross-Contextual Predictors and Psychological Outcome

<p>Using Communication Theory of Identity as a framework, this study compared an individual’s online and offline personal-enacted identity gap and examined the effect of each personal-enacted identity gap on individuals’ psychological well-being, as well as tested four cross-contextual predictors for online and offline personal-enacted identity gaps.</p> <p>Survey data were collected from 214 participants on Amazon M-Turk. A sequence of hypotheses was tested. A questionnaire used for measuring individuals’ online personal-enacted identity gap was generated.</p> <p>The result suggested individuals experience larger personal-enacted identity gap offline, which significantly negative predict individuals’ psychological well-being, whereas online personal-enacted identity gap positively predicts psychological well-being. Both online and offline personal-enacted identity gap mediate the effects of communication competence, social anxiety, online disinhibition, and social information control on individuals’ psychological well-being.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters Thesis

Year dc:date.available

2020

Author dc:creator

• Wang, Ningyang

Contributors dc:contributor

• Eura Jung
• Fei Xue
• Kathryn Anthony

• Communication Theory of Identity; Identity Gaps; Psychological Well-being
• Health Communication
• Interpersonal and Small Group Communication
• Social Media

Repository record dc:identifier

https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/726

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:aquila.usm.edu:masters_theses-1782