Personality traits, social anxiety levels, and stress coping mechanisms as predictors of Internet use among adults
Authors
Douglas, Jennifer
Issue Date
2016
Degree
BA (Hons) in Psychology
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
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Abstract
Internet use is an ever growing occurrence in society; the modern person has developed a reliance on the ease in which we can communicate with those near and far. According to statista.com, Ireland is the ninth highest user of the internet internationally. The aim of this study was to discover if certain personality traits, social anxiety and coping styles predict internet use using Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and the Facebook Intensity Scale. The participants (N=95, M=21, F=73, Other=1) took part in on online survey, the results showed that personality traits, social anxiety and coping styles did not significantly predict IAT although multiple regressions run showed that conscientiousness negatively predicted IAT, age did significantly negatively predict IAT, it was found that Facebook Intensity had no significant predictors, although extraversion was approaching significance with Facebook intensity. Discussion and limitations are discussed within the study. Author keywords: Personality, social anxiety, coping strategies, TIPI, SAQ-A30, Brief COPE. Internet use, internet addiction