AT&T
Sunday, April 30 8:00 am
Purpose How are Smartphone communication behaviors and preferences related to personality? Smartphone use among college students was examined in several areas: amount and range of texting; amount and range of talking; communicating (texting, talking, chat Apps, or pictures) with friends, family, and romantic partners. These measures were correlated with several personality characteristics: HEXACO six-factor personality traits; need to belong; narcissism; life satisfaction; subjective happiness. All measures were completed online.
Personality traits predict Smartphone behaviors Lower Honesty/Humility predict: • • • •
Higher Extraversion predicts: •
It was hypothesized that the type and frequency of interaction with others via the phone would be predictable from traits such as extraversion and agreeableness, that need to belong would predict the amount of texting and talking, and that increased overall phone use would be related to narcissism and to wellbeing. Honesty was anticipated to play a role in communication that is more indirect, such as texting or photo sharing, and phone use in inappropriate situations.
• More communication with family
Lower Openness predicts: • More texting in general and across situational contexts • More talking in general and across situational contexts • More overall Smartphone communication
Results
Scale
78 women, 24 men
Mean age 24.6 years
66% Caucasian or Anglo; 20% Hispanic or Latino
73% iPhones; 25% Android phones
Measures
HEXACO (60-item version)
(Ashton & Lee, 2009)
Need to Belong scale
(Leary et al., 2013)
Narcissism (NPI-16)
(Ames et al., 2006)
Well-being:
SWLS (Diener et al., 1985) & SHS (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999)
Smartphone Use Survey (all items use 5-point response scales)
Total phone use
(64 items; α = .93)
Total use (w/o romantic partners)
(50 items; α = .92)
Texting
(12 items; α = .87)
Talking
(12 items; α = .80)
Talking in 10 contexts: Walking, driving, before/after class, in class, social settings, on a date, at work, in library, during meals, using bathroom; also typical weekday and weekend amount
Communication with Family
(13 items; α = .82)
Frequency, amount, and variety of text, pictures, and talking with family
Communication with Friends
(13 items; α = .89)
H/H
E
X
A
C
NPI-16
-.42***
-.23*
Texting
.624***
Talking
.438*
Family communication
.447*
Friends communication
.486**
-.41***
Partner communication1
.546*
-.37*
TOTAL PHONE USE1
.569*
– .36*
[-.26]
TOTAL USE (w/o romantic partners)
.532***
-.32**
-.26*
1
(n = 60)
*p < .05; **p ≤ .01; ***p ≤ .001 ; [ ] p < .07
-.30**
O
NTB
SHS
More texting in general and across situational contexts
Higher Happiness predicts: • More communication with romantic partners
SWLS
[-.20] .21* .32* .50*
Smartphone communication patterns and your personality More texting is associated with… • • •
Lower openness Lower honesty/humility Lower narcissism
More talking is associated with… •
Lower openness
More family communication is associated with… •
Higher conscientiousness
More communication with friends is associated with… • •
Lower honesty/humility Higher extraversion
More romantic partner communication is associated with… • •
Greater happiness Lower honesty/humility
Frequency, amount, and variety of text, pictures, and talking with friends
Communication with Romantic partner
Overall R
•
Texting in 10 contexts: Walking, driving, before/after class, in class, social settings, on a date, at work, in library, during meals, using bathroom; also typical weekday and weekend amount
Lower Narcissism predicts:
HEXACO scales: Honesty/Humility; Emotionality; eXtraversion; Agreeableness; Conscientiousness; Openness Need to Belong scale Narcissism scale (NPI-16) Well-being scales: Happiness (SHS); Life satisfaction (SWLS)
Online sample of 102 participants:
More communication with friends
Higher Conscientiousness predicts:
Texting, Talking, Communication with Family, Friends, Partner, & Total Use predicted from 10 measures:
Participants
More overall Smartphone communication More texting in general and across situational contexts More communication with friends More communication with romantic partners
(14 items; α = .83)
Frequency, amount,and variety of text, pictures, and talking with romantic partners
Greater overall (total) Smartphone use is associated with… • •
Dishonesty & Self-promotion Lower openness
WPA Convention 2017 Sacramento, CA; Sunday April 30, 2017 Lawrence Herringer
[email protected] Waleed Jami
[email protected] Jennifer Corbin
[email protected]
