Date Approved

6-13-2016

Embargo Period

6-14-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. School Psychology

Department

Psychology

College

College of Science & Mathematics

Advisor

Dihoff, Roberta

Keywords

Facebook, Locus of Control, Social networking sites

Subject(s)

Locus of control; Online social networks; College students

Disciplines

Educational Psychology

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between college students' Facebook posts and external locus of control. The primary purpose of this study is to determine if the type, frequency or number of “likes” of a Facebook post will correlate to an external locus of control. Facebook has been in use for over a decade and has over a billion users worldwide. Previous studies have researched the amount of time on Facebook and activity of users; however, this study will add to the growing number of studies on social media and examine the one particular activity of self-created posts on the user’s own Facebook “wall”. The thesis will then explain the background and significance for researching the most popular social media site, Facebook. The second section will explain why a modified Rotter’s locus of control questionnaire was selected as the theoretical framework for studying Facebook user’s posts. In the next section, Rowan University students completed a Facebook usage survey along with a modified Rotter's locus of control questionnaire through an online data collection database. In conclusion, the data was collected and analyzed. The results were not statistically significant; however, there were patterns of behavior that were observed. The patterns of behavior are related to frequency of posts, number of “likes” on posts, type of post and locus of control. Recommendations are that further studies should investigate a larger sample size and people who have both an internal and external locus of control.

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