Given the emergence of social media over the past decade and its popularity with adolescents, understanding its impact on this population is crucial to investigate. The purpose of this thesis was to identify potential links between social media use, identity formation, self-esteem, and social comparison motives. The first hypothesis proposed a positive association between passive social media use and identity moratorium, diffusion, and distress. The second hypothesis suggested self-esteem would mediate this relationship. The final hypothesis posited that the social comparison motives of self-destruction and self-evaluation would exacerbate negative influences of social media use on self-esteem and identity, while self-enhancement and self-improvement motives would buffer them. Two studies were conducted, one observational with 568 participants and one experimental with 15 participants. The first study found active social media use significantly predicted identity diffusion and distress, whereas the second study determined passive social media use led to identity distress. Self-esteem was not found to mediate either relationship. Finally, self-destruction, self-enhancement, self-evaluation, and self-improvement all had differing moderating effects on social media use and the distinct identity outcomes and self-esteem. These results introduce a new concern for late adolescents still developing their identities who utilize social media, as having an online presence can further impede commitment to an identity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the structure of work foremployees worldwide, as many began working remotely in response to national and local social distancing efforts. These changes occurring amid the transition to remote working conditions led to the question of how daily stress and daily uplifts occur in this new work context. For the present thesis study, I explored how internal (i.e., optimism) and external (i.e., team flow) resources function to moderate the effects of daily hassles and uplifts on employee well-being (i.e., burnout and professional efficacy) during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a sample of 417 adults at baseline, and 266 at the follow-up, I investigated how specific resources function to protect employees experiencing occupational burnout. Additionally, I explored gender differences in these relationships. Study results demonstrated that both daily uplifts and hassles predicted burnout and professional efficacy at earlier stages of the pandemic, while at a later stage in the pandemic, the relationships between daily uplifts and burnout and daily hassles and burnout persisted, but only daily hassles were associated with professional efficacy. For males at baseline, higher scores in optimism strengthened the negative relationship between daily uplifts and burnout. Surprisingly, males with relatively low team flow in work or school settings seemed to fare better professionally with increased daily hassles. This finding indicates that males with less collaboration at work thrive as they experience increased daily stress. While these findings are specific to the COVID-19 context, they may be beneficial for companies and supervisors seeking to improve employee engagement.

The “filter bubble” has been a heated discussion topic since several years ago. In addition to possible algorithmic contribution to this phenomenon, people’s selective exposure tendency may be another primary cause of the “filter bubble” on social media. Prior research indicates that, under the influence of selective exposure tendency, people tend to perceive pro-attitudinal news as more credible than counter-attitudinal news, with strong partisans more likely to be affected. The proposed thesis seeks to examine whether the perceived credibility of a news source and story on social media is influenced by selective exposure and strength of partisanship. Through an experimental study via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, 468 participants chose or were assigned to read an ostensible news story from a social media feed with the news source and ideological slant varied between participants. The results showed that people reported higher perceived source and story credibility when the source and stories were pro-attitudinal (consistent with their political ideology) as opposed to counter-attitudinal, regardless of participants’ age, race, perceived credibility of news from social media, in general, and strength of partisanship. However, contrary to the hypotheses, selective exposure behavior (i.e., choosing a preferred news source before reading a news story) did not affect credibility perceptions when participants read counter-attitudinal news from a pro-attitudinal source. Last, strength of partisanship did not moderate the influence of selective exposure on credibility perceptions. In sum, this study suggests that although selective exposure tendency may affect people’s credibility perceptions and contribute to “filter bubbles,” the impact of selective exposure behavior may be overestimated in terms of perceived source and story credibility of news on social media.

Intimate relationship functioning and mental well-being are inherently linked; thus, for those with mental illness, such as social anxiety, intimate relationship functioning may be impaired. Research on the intimate relationships of those with social anxiety has often focused on emotion regulation, as emotions play a crucial role in the development and maintenance of interpersonal relationships and are a clear area of deficit among those with social anxiety. The current thesis had three primary aims: 1a) to examine individual emotion expressivity and 1b) interpersonal emotion regulation processes among individuals with varying levels of social anxiety; 2) to examine individual and interpersonal emotion regulation within romantic relationships; and, 3) to examine how individual emotion expressivity and interpersonal emotion regulation influence relationship health and intimacy among those with varying levels of social anxiety. For Aim 1, differences in individual emotion expressivity and interpersonal emotion regulation were analyzed using regression analyses with social anxiety as a continuous predictor. Analyses were also conducted using a dichotomous grouping (i.e., non-socially anxious and socially anxious) and conducting a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA).

For Aim 2, the impact of individual and interpersonal emotion regulation processes on relationship health was examined using a series of regression analyses. Finally, Aim 3 was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). Results suggest those with social anxiety show specific, but not general, deficits in individual emotion expressivity and interpersonal emotion regulation, and both individual and interpersonal emotion regulation had positive effects on relationship health. Regarding the primary analyses, interpersonal emotion regulation fully mediated the association between individual emotion expressivity and relationship health. Further, although the strength of these paths varied between groups, the valence and general pattern of these findings were similar for both those with social anxiety and those without. The study provided novel insights into the role of interpersonal emotion regulation in relationship health, and extended previous findings on emotion regulation and relationship health among those with social anxiety.

Background: When studying how humans regulate their affect, it is important to recognize that affect regulation does not occur in a vacuum. As humans are an inherently social species, affect plays a crucial evolutionary role in social behavior, and social behavior likewise assumes an important role in affect and affect regulation. Emotion researchers are increasingly interested the specific ways people help to regulate and dysregulate one another’s affect, though experimental examinations of the extant models and theory are relatively few. This thesis presents a broad theoretical framework for social affect regulation between close others, considering the role of attachment theory and its developmental foundations for social affect regulation in adulthood. Affectionate and responsive touch is considered a major mechanism of regulatory benefit between people, both developmentally and in adulthood, and is the focus of the present investigation. Method: A total sample of 231 heterosexual married couples were recruited from the community. Participants were assigned to engage in affectionate touch or sit quietly, and/or engage in positive conversation prior to a stress task. Physiological data was collected continuously across the experiment. Hypotheses: Phasic respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was used to index the degree of regulatory engagement during the stressor for those who did and did not touch. It was hypothesized that touch would reduce stress appraisal and thus the need for regulatory engagement. This effect was predicted to be greater for those more anxiously attached while increasing the need for regulatory engagement in those more avoidantly attached. Secondarily, partner effects of attachment on sympathetic activation via pre-ejection period (PEP) change were tested. It was predicted that both attachment dimensions would predict a decrease in partner PEP change in the touch condition, with avoidant attachment having the strongest effect. Results: Hierarchical linear modeling techniques were used to account for nonindependence in dyadic observations. The first set of hypotheses were not supported, while the second set were partially supported. Wives’ avoidance significantly predicted husbands’ PEP change, but in the positive direction. This effect also significantly increased in the touch condition. Theoretical considerations and limitations are discussed.

Stress is an arguably universal phenomenon that has maladaptive effects on individuals’ mental health (i.e., depression). Individuals traditionally deal with stress through various coping strategies that fall under three coping styles: emotion-oriented coping, avoidance/disengagement coping, and problem-oriented coping. Furthermore, numerous studies have focused on the stress-reducing properties of music, but the literature lacks an examination of the use and effectiveness of music as a coping strategy. The current thesis examined the moderating role of music as a coping strategy in the link between stress and depression. Based on existing research, the author predicted that for participants who endorsed music coping as emotion-oriented or avoidance /disengagement-oriented, there would be an exacerbation of the stress-depression link. However, for participants who endorsed music coping as problem-oriented, there would be an attenuation of the stress-depression link. In an online survey-based study of 207 students attending Arizona State University, the author found that emotion-oriented music coping and avoidance/disengagement music coping exacerbated the relationship between stress and depression. The author, however, did not find support for the prediction that higher endorsement of problem-oriented music coping would buffer the effect of stress on depression. These results suggest that music coping may parallel alternative coping strategies in some respects but not others. Overall, the study findings support the further examination of music as a coping strategy in order to replicate emotion-oriented coping as the primary use of music.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), or lupus, is a rare autoimmune disease in which the antibodies that are formed in the body attack healthy tissues and organs. The most prevalent physical manifestation of the illness is fatigue. Fatigue often plagues patients with no warning and without leaving a trace of measurable evidence. The issue of fatigue’s invisibility and the difficulties of communicating the experience of fatigue has been shown to impact relationships with friends, family, and physicians. It is important for patients to understand their condition in order to better identify their own triggers, manage their condition, and communicate their symptoms to friends, families, and other medical professionals. The study sought to explore the lived experience of women who have lupus, describe the impact of symptom invisibility on social support and patient-doctor relationships, identify effective strategies in communicating and managing the condition, and describe the broad range of life changes associated with the disease. The study utilized in-depth, semi-structured interviews to gather detailed information from eleven women with lupus. Six overarching themes emerged from the data: difficulties with diagnosis, discovering lupus is a process, managing lupus, social impact of lupus, communicating the experience, and limitations of the healthcare system. Symptom invisibility was not frequently cited as the cause of any interpersonal problems faced by the participants. Rather, the results suggest that the current healthcare system in the United States may not be equipped to adequately care for patients with lupus. This study provides insight for recommendations to patients with lupus and may inform cultural and policy changes necessary to improve healthcare delivery.