Psychology Question

While each paper focuses on a specific part of your manuscript, all papers have supporting materials to help you craft your paper. Each paper includes paper instructions (which are long and detailed but worth reading!), a grading rubric, a checklist, and two example papers from prior semesters. If you look over ALL FIVE items, your chances of getting a good grade will improve dramatically!

(Includes an Artificial Intelligence Appendix with prompts)

Additional Supporting Material for Paper III

(Similar to the one presented by Dr. Winter in the “Paper Clinics”)
- (Word Document)
- Two New Independent Variable and Hypotheses
  
  Hi class,After some feedback on the direction of study two, it looks like we are going with the idea of altering social comparisons (upward vs downward) as our new independent variable. That is, participants will create a profile (either actual or ideal) and engage in social comparison (upward or downward). Ill refer to this new independent variable as the Social Comparison condition, and I will discuss it more below. First, I want to discuss our original independent variable.1). Study Two will continue to focus on the original Social Media Self-Discrepancy Theory (SMSDT) manipulation from Study One as our first independent variable, but we will omit the Opposite Self condition for Study Two. Originally, we had the Actual Self, Ideal Self, and Opposite Self, but keeping all three is unnecessary for Study Two. Ill continue to call this the SMSDT condition. Thus, we will have the following SMSDT independent variable for our study two design:A). Actual Self condition (Participants are instructed to create a profile that reflects their actual self).B). Ideal Self condition (Participants are instructed to create a profile that reflects their ideal self).Note: In Paper Three or Four, you will need to justify why we dropped this opposite self condition, and there are some good reasons. The actual and ideal self conditions are more established in the literature, and they are also more practical, so they are better options to keep. After all, how often do people create a profile that is the opposite of them? Besides, a lot of the data analysis showed that the actual and ideal self conditions often differed from each other while the opposite self condition switched sides sometimes it differed from the actual self only and sometimes from the ideal self only. Thus, the actual vs ideal self are more consistent comparisons.2). Now, consider our new independent variable again (Social Comparison, which fits well within the Social Comparison Theory literature as well as literature focusing on upward and downward social comparisons, counterfactual thinking, social rank theory, etc.). This new IV will need YOUR help to create, as there are different ways to manipulate social comparisons. The goal is to create a way to make participants in some conditions engage in upward comparisons and participants in other conditions engage in downward comparisons. How we do this is flexible. A). For the Upward condition, we could manipulate this in several ways.
  1. Show high achievement cues (awards, trophies, honors)
  2. Highlight high social media follower counts / prestige cues
  3. Provide a polished, highstatus example profile
  4. Can you think of something else? Surprise me!
  B). We could manipulate the Downward condition similarly, though this manipulation should be consistent (in an opposite direction) from the upward manipulation.
  1. Show struggle cues (lost opportunities, failures)
  2. Highlight low social media follower counts / lack of recognition
  3. Provide a lowachieving, unpolished example profile
  This creates a 2 (SMSDT: Actual Self vs. Ideal Self) X 2 (Social Comparison: Upward vs. Downward) factorial design. Thus, there will be four conditions:1). Actual Self + Upward Comparison2). Actual Self + Downward Comparison3). Ideal Self + Upward Comparison4). Ideal Self + Downward ComparisonAs you begin writing your Study Two literature review for Paper III, keep in mind this new Social Comparison independent variable. You will need to find prior research that looks at how people make social comparisons and use that literature to help support or justify your study predictions. Good keywords for PsycInfo might be Impression Formation, Social Comparison Theory, Self-Evaluation, Upward and Downward Comparisons and the like. Original research by Leon Festinger (1954) is a good place to start, but contemporary research is good as well (especially those that focus on social comparison in social media. A good start might be: )Hypotheses:For your hypothesis, you will need to focus on both main effects (the effect of each independent variable on its own) and an interaction (the influence of both independent variables interacting together). Each of your scaled dependent variables will need its own main effect and interaction hypotheses (thus three predictions for each DV).Let me focus on one specific DV from your original survey (Part Two Question #6): I feel more negative about myself after creating the profile. Just note that YOU will need to develop you own predictions for the DVs you choose to analyze. You can use the one below if you like if you choose to analyze the same DV, but you would still need to create a prediction for your second DV on your own.1). Main Effect. IV = SMSDT (Actual Self vs. Ideal Self). DV = I feel more negative about myself after creating the profile.IF participants create an ideal-self profile, THEN they will more strongly agree that they feel more negative about themselves after creating the profile compared to participants who created an actual-self profile.Note #1: This replicates our study one prediction, though it lacks the opposite self condition. This main effect prediction only looks at the two levels of theSMSDT independent variable and ignores the social comparison IV.2). Main Effect. IV = Social Comparison (Upward vs. Downward). DV = I feel more negative about myself after creating the profile.IF participants make an upward comparison, THEN they will more strongly agree that they feel more negative about themselves than if they make a downward comparison.Note#1: If you use this prediction, you need to set up and justify this prediction in your Paper II literature review for Study Two. Personally, I think it makes sense that participants making upward social comparisons would feel more negative. Note #2: While making upward comparisons might result in more negative self-evaluations, this prediction is still vague in terms of what upward and downward comparisons are. I could make it more specific by operationally defining an upward (downward) comparison as a example profile of a successful (unsuccessful) person. So, keep in mind that the predictions are flexible at this stage. You could easily substitute the language IF participants read an example profile of a successful social media user, THEN Note #3: If you find literature that does not support the main effect prediction above (either contradicts it or finds that social comparisons would not have any impact), feel free to alter the prediction. Still, you do need to justify why you think you might get something different.3). Interaction, SMSDT (Actual Self vs. Ideal Self) X Social Comparison (Upward vs. Downward). DV = I feel more negative about myself after creating the profile.IF participants create an ideal self profile and make an upward comparison, THEN they will more strongly agree that they feel more negative about themselves than in all other conditions (those creating an ideal self profile who make a downward comparison, those creating an actual self profile who make a downward comparison, and those creating an actual self profile who make an upward comparison), with these latter three conditions not differing from each other.Note #1: I am pretty sure those who write an ideal self profile and make an upward comparison (perhaps by seeing a successful example profile) will have two different items that might be discrepant from their real self. As such, I think they might feel the most negative about themselves. Note #2: For all other conditions, things are fuzzier. I think all other conditions will be lower for a few reasons. For example, for the actual self + downward condition, feelings of self-negativity should be low. The profile is about their real self and they are better than the comparison example. For the actual self + upward condition, self-negativity might be a little higher, but they are still honest with themselves by writing about their actual self. As such, they may not be as overly negative even if they see a more successful example. The most interesting condition is the ideal self + downward condition. In Study One, the ideal self led to high self-negativity, but here there is an example of someone who might be worse off. Having that downward comparison might make a person who writes about their ideal self not feel as bad about the discrepancy between it and their actual self. But Note #3: I MIGHT BE WRONG. These are predictions, not statements of fact. If you disagree with the interaction prediction above for this specific dependent variable, then change the prediction. I encourage that. Do not agree with it just because it is in print here. Think for yourself!Keep in mind that each dependent variable you plan to look at in study two will need similar main effect and interaction hypotheses. Above is the one for I feel more negative about myself after creating the profile. You will need to come up with your own prediction for a second independent variable. If our class creates a new dependent variable, it will also need its own prediction (if you intend to analyze it). I know this announcement is long, so here are some tips about things you can do next!Before drafting your Paper III literature review:
  1. Identify which DV(s) youll analyze.
  2. Find 46 empirical articles related to social comparison.
  3. Write a paragraph explaining why the Opposite Self condition was dropped.
  4. Draft two maineffect hypotheses and one interaction hypothesis per DV you intend to analyze.
  Good luck as you work on Paper III!!!! Warmest regards, Dr Chang

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Two New Independent Variable and Hypotheses

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