PSYC 325: Psychology of Self in Social Media

Examines human development in the context of the socializing role of media.

Course Description:

This course examines the Self in the media from a psychological perspective–namely the effects of our consumption of media.

Through this course I am able to:

  • Use a comprehensive model of the Self to critically evaluate my own and others’ engagement in social media.
  • Notice anecdotes and personal experiences in social media as triggers of inquiry, followed by seeking, synthesizing, and identifying gaps in empirical and theoretical scholarly literature to help understand them.
  • Analyze social media data to identify psychological phenomena, and attempt to explain your findings using relevant and current psychological research and theory.
  • Use social media deliberately to effect positive change in your own life and perhaps a larger community, and attempt to measure the impact of your actions.
  • Effectively engage in a scholarly community of inquiry in various ways, including face-to-face and using tools of social media.
  • Develop the skill and willingness to critically evaluate your own and others’ ideas and the manner in which they are presented.

Project: Self-Presentation and Parasocial Relationship

This project involved designing and conducting an original research project using archival data. Our objective was to identify a psychological phenomenon related to social media, and identify a gap in prior knowledge, then develop a hypothesis and a study that uses archival methods to test it. Archives include publicly-available posts to Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms.

In today’s modern era, majority of our time are spent online, if not, in education, employment, or training. Parasocial relationship is an interesting phenomena to study, especially from the perspective of the Self and how the Self presents itself to the media. This Impact Project allowed me to improve on my critical thinking skills by analyzing social media to identify psychological phenomena, which can be explained with findings through relevant and current research. Additionally, I also developed the skill and willingness to critically evaluate scholarly ideas and engage in scholarly community, which boosted my confidence in my communication skills.

Kim Tang – Self Presentation and Parasocial Relationship (PDF)