Individual psychological indicators of a person’s addiction to social networks: An integrative approach

Abstract

The relevance of the study is due to the following fact. Comparative analysis of individual psychological characteristics of students with and without addiction to social networks, that is conducted by means of the integrative approach, allows us, firstly, to identify the connection of multi-level characteristics in the structure of the individuality and, secondly, to single out latent, resource capabilities of the individual for psycho-prophylaxis and psycho-correction of this addiction. The research objective is to study individual psychological characteristics of the students who are either addicted to social networks or do not have such an addiction. The objective is achieved by using the integrative approach. The article hypothesizes that university students with a prominent addiction to social networks have specific features of integration of psychodynamic, personal and socio-psychological traits in the structure of students’ individuality. The study sample includes 154 1st – 3d-year students of Saratov State University, aged 17 to 20, the average age 18.6, SD = 0.61, 45% of young men, 55% of young women. The research methods (tools) are as follows. The questionnaire of formal-dynamic individuality properties (by V. M. Rusalov) was used to identify psychodynamic properties in the structure of one’s individuality. To study personal qualities, the following tools were used: The Freiburg Personality Inventory (the modified form “B”) (developed by A. A. Krylov and T. I. Ronginskaya), The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale, the Technique for Diagnosing the Level of Neuroticism (by L. I. Wasserman). To identify socio-psychological characteristics the questionnaire “Perception of the Internet” (by E. A. Schepilina) was used; to measure the degree of a person’s addiction to social networks, the “Social Networks Addiction Assessment Questionnaire” (by V. P. Sheinov, A. S. Devitsyn) was used. The research results. The study has revealed significant differences in the integration of multi-level individual psychological qualities in the structure of students’ individuality in the compared samples. The conclusion. Students’ addiction to social networks is manifested by the following symptom complex of characteristics: low psychodynamic resourcefulness in the communicative sphere, high emotionality and its lability, neuroticism, disposition to depressive states and psychological difficulties in interpersonal communication. Independence from the use of social networks is accompanied by motor and communicative endurance at the psychodynamic level of integral individuality, introversion, high speed of intellectual information processing and assimilation of communication skills, as well as sociability at the personal level. The compared sample groups differ in the type of contribution of psychodynamic features to the manifestation of the social networks addiction. This can influence manifestation of sociability during contact interaction and can determine the tendency to excessive immersion in network and the Internet communication. The received data can help to optimize the process of the Internet communication used for educational purposes by interpreting psychodynamic grounds as the reasons for students’ predisposition to develop addiction to communicating in social networks. The data can become the basis for designing psychological developmental and psycho-prophylactic programs aimed at preventing this type of addiction.