Dr.

Chris Fullwood, Institute of Psychology, University of

Wolverhampton, and Ms. Mary Jane Sasser, River Hill High School,
1/12/16
CF: So nice to meet you both.
MS: Yeah.
CF: I should obviously let you lead this conversation, because obviously
youve got some very specific questions that youd like to that youd
like to ask.
IC: Um, well, I was wondering whether you had any questions, actually,
on the specifics of this research project.
CF: Well, um, obviously youve given me a little bit of information
about, um, the scheme. If thats, if thats a way to describe it, and also
a little bit of information about the area that you want to work in. Um,
from what Ive gathered, youre interested in personality, and
narcissism, and social media, and how the two might interrelate. Is that
correct?
IC: Yes, also, self-esteem.
CF: Self-esteem. Okay. So maybe just give me a little bit of, from your
perspective, what kind of project do you think youd like to engage
with?
IC: Um, well for the research, Id want to conduct a survey for the
county that I am in, in high school, and I was thinking about using the
Ten Item Personality Inventory to test their level of Big Five personality
trait.
CF: Okay.
IC: And for narcissism, I will be using the Need for Popularity test,
and for self-esteem, I am using the Rosenberg self-esteem scale.
CF: Okay, so youre interested in traits, self-esteem, rather than
specific subscales of self-esteem like performance and appearance selfesteem, you just want, just interested in global self-esteem.
IC: Yes.
CF: I mean, it sounds really interesting. So, I mean, the TIPI I wouldnt
necessarily advise using, although it does report to have good

properties in terms of reliability and all that. Weve used it recently and
discovered that a couple of the traits actually have a low reliability in
terms of Cronbachs alpha. So, you know, in terms of internal
consistency, the two items that were supposed to be measuring the
same construct, were actually measuring two very different things. We
think that the reason might be that one of the questions that relates to
the Openness to Experience subscale, one of the items can be- is a
little bit ambiguous. So, one of the items is critical or quarrelsome.
Actually I think that- Sorry, its not to Openness, its to Agreeableness.
And I think that critical can be taken two ways, it can be seen as
somebody who, you know, is seen as quite negative and disagrees with
everybody, or it can be seen as someone who has critical faculties. For
example, someone who questions things, someone whos intelligent.
So I think that because people dont necessarily interpret the item in
the same way, that causes a little ambiguity. So there are other
questionnaires that I would rather recommend you using instead of the
TIPI, for example, the BFI- Big Five Inventory. If obviously you want to
use a shorter scale rather than a longer scale than the BFI might be
better. Its also freely available so theres no need to worry about
things like licenses or having to pay to use it, its free in the public
domain.
IC: Um, also, in terms of the surveys, for measuring narcissism, Im
using the Need for Personality survey, as the survey for it, and I only
found- I was given- my advisor gave it to me through email, but I only
found one article that used it. Is there any other survey that could
measure narcissism better?
CF: Okay, yeah. So if its only been used in one study that doesnt
necessarily mean that its a bad scale, it just might mean that its quite
new and it hasnt been picked up yet. And obviously, you know, with
academic pieces of work, theres always a delay between the work
getting done and the work getting published, because its got to go
through a lengthy review process. And then, if youre lucky enough to
get accepted, usually there are revisions to be made because you have
to wait in line, you know, in the back of the queue before it actually
gets in press. So, it might be a perfectly good scale.
But, if you want- obviously, you know, it would be better to use one
that's been replicated and used a couple of times, that way youve got
more confidence in the properties of the scale in terms of reliability.
Um, I tend to use- let me just have a look. Have you come across- have
you come across the SD3? Its a short scale which measures, um, the
dark triad? The dark triad. So, it measures Machiavellianism, um,
narcissism and psychopathy. And each of the subscale has nine items.
And obviously you wouldnt necessarily be interested in the

Machiavellianism or psychopathy, but you could certainly use the

narcissism subscale of the SD3. So its got nine items, and I think that
three of them are reverse items. Its been reported to have good
properties, so, um, I think in terms of Cronbachs alpha its about a .8
something. Point eight five, I think. It was developed by Paulhus and
colleagues in 2011, 2012 I think. So its been published and its been used quite a number
of times in literature already, so that might be one that youd prefer to use. But, its
entirely of choice, sometimes its just about personal preference, which scales you
associate with.
IC: Okay. UmCF: But, Im happy to send along of the materials if you want to use them.
IC: Okay, thatd be great, thank you.
CF: So, I have copies of both the, um, SD3 and BFI-10, Big Five inventory ten. So the
BFI-10, in some sense, its very similar to TIPI. Its got ten items, but I think its better, I
think its less ambiguous. So, Im quite happy to send both of those. And obviously Ive
also got copies of the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale which youve already got hold of so
theres no problems there. But, if you were interested in different subscales, um. Self
esteem, for example, appearance or performance self esteem, then there is another scale
that measures it in addition to global self-esteem. Its referred to as the self-esteem scale,
and thats got 20 items. If youd like I could also send you a copy of that. Again, its free
to use in the pubic domain.
IC: Okay.
CF: Sorry, I just realized my video isnt on. Sorry.
MS: Haha, okay.
CF: Its probably a little bit darker over here than it is over there. Its five oclock in the
evening.
MS: I dont know, its raining here.
CF: Its very wet and its also very dark so
MS: Yeah.
IC: Um, so, on the other end of my research, the Facebook part. Mostly Im focusing on
the time spent on Facebook. If- I dont remember the name of the scale exactly, but I
think its the Facebook Intensity Scale.
CF: Yes, Nicole Ellison, I think, developed that scale, um. Its an interesting scale,
because it measures both intensity of use, in terms of how long theyve been on, how

many friends theyve got, how long theyve been members, that kind of thing. But, it also
measures attachment, or I guess emotional attachment to that site. So theres also
questions that are like, ask about things like, you know, how important Facebook is to
them, and how would they feel if it was suddenly taken away from them. So, its actually,
um, theres two different measures there.
Um, one of them, which is more objective, would rely on your participants being able to
properly go on and access their profile, because if you asked some people, how many
friends youve got, or how long youve been a member, they wouldnt necessarily be able
to remember that information off the top of their head. Im not on Facebook, so [laughs]
but when I was on Facebook, a while ago. Yeah, I probably wouldnt have been able to
answer that question either. So, Im assuming, are you going to be able to ask these
people in person, or are you going to get them to fill it out online, or? Whats the plan?
IC: Um, Im going to do, I think, and online survey, because I think that adolescents will
be more receptive to that, since they are already used to it.
CF: Yep. I think thats a good idea, I mean obviously, you have to be aware that there are
advantages and disadvantages to both online data collection and offline data collection.
Um, I suppose the primary disadvantage to online data collection is that you cant
necessarily be as confident that the people filling it out are who they say they are, even
when you make assurances like confidentiality. Sometimes people, you know, give in to
demand characteristics, social desirability, and theyll fill out a questionnaire in the way
that they want you to think that they, you want them to respond rather than an honest way.
Youre much more likely to get honest replies, obviously, if its anonymous. So if you can
find a way to make it anonymous, then youll be much more likely to get genuine
responses from your participants. I think that the thing about doing the survey face to face
is that you know that the people are who they say they are. But, you know, you probably
have less of a reach. I guess the advantage of doing it online, you can widen the net as it
were, and get more, many participants not necessarily from your local area. You can get
participants from a little further afield if you feel that its necessary.
IC: Um, are there any particular survey sites that you could recommend? I was thinking
of using Google Surveys, but that gives you just a giant sheet of information, and its not
very organized.
CF: Most of the- So youre talking about survey software?
IC: Yes.
CF: To, to design the survey? Um We use Survey Monkey, but thats- you have to pay
for a license to use it. You can get an individual license. I don't think its particularly
expensive for solo licenses. We pay a lot quite obviously, because we have a bachelors
license, so it covers quite a lot of the whole departments. Um, I think Survey Monkeys
pretty good, it certainly fulfills all the needs that we require it for, and for something that
youre describing I imagine itd be quite suitable as well. If youre not willing to pay, or

if you dont have the budget to pay, then I recommend a free survey software called
eSurvey. Its a little- you know, because its free, youre going to get pop-ups, adverts,
things like that, unfortunately. I think there are some restrictions to it, in terms of the free
membership, in terms of how many participants youre allowed to recruit, over the space
of a year, or whatever you- I think there are some restrictions so you have to take that in
to count. I cant remember what those restriction are, precisely Do you- do you not
have access to a survey software in the school being used?
MS: Not currently, thats, um, thats very good. No. Very short, five question type thing.
Thats about it.
CF: So is there a budget to cover? Maybe?
MS: Um, well, actually, I know places where we can go and knock on the door, say this is
the project, this is the detail weve done, and will you be a donor? And typically they
have helped us in the past. So we can definitely, um, make that happen.
CF: Great! Um, yeah, its, um. I think its a pretty good survey. Qualtrics is a pretty good
survey as well, if youre interested in that. Qualtrics Actually, I think thats pretty
decent. Ive always been happy with Survey Monkey, um. There are different tiers in
terms of the membership. You know, you can go platinum, or gold, or even silver, and
they permit different access requirements and different things like that. I think, from
what I can tell, from what I think youre doing, the very basic package should cover
everything. But itd be worth reading the small print just to make sure, because the last
thing you want to do is buy- pay for a membership and realize that there was a specific
function that you required it for that you cant achieve, because you dont have the right
package.
IC: Um, so also. Facebook is kind of an outlet for expression, and expressing your
opinions and likes and dislikes. So, how do you think the Big Five personality traits
would play into that?
CF: Well, we- In the research that weve done in the past weve looked at the Big Five
personality traits and how they relate to things like expression, but also different user
preferences, and motivations for using sites. So, for example, um, extraverts use
Facebook as a means to, you know, to connect with people, to make new friends, to
establish new connections. Because obviously extraverts, they enjoy human company,
they enjoy having a large social circles and lots of people to hang out with and potentially
go out with and that kind of thing.
Whereas someone who is high in Neuroticism, they tend to have a preferences to use the
sites to keep informed, so kind of like keeping up with the joneses. They monitor what
other people are doing theyre more like to lurk and monitor and see whats going on,
because people who score high in Neuroticism tend to be worried, and concerned, and
stressed about the future, and stress about how other people kind of think of them and all
that kind of thing. So they can use this site to kind of, you know, to kind of reduce their

level of anxiety, to make that they are actually in the loop, to make that people arent
badmouthing them, and saying horrible things about them and theyre not being left out,
that kind of thing.
I mean, theres an argument, an interesting argument in the literature in terms of whether
social media supports these two hypotheses, the rich-get-richer hypotheses or the poor get
richer hypotheses, sometimes called social compensation hypothesis or social
enhancement hypothesis. So, the poor get richer, or, social enhancement is the idea that
people who are perhaps in some way lacking, or can make use of the online world to
compensate for any sort of deficiencies or- I dont like to use the word deficiency, but any
area that theyre perhaps not as strong in. For example, someone whos quite introvert
might acknowledge that theyre not very good at talking with people or making new
friends, partly because theyre worried about how they come across in social interactions.
But, you know, when youre online, you can compensate that in many ways because you
dont have to worry about peoples perceptions and reactions because they cant see you,
so theres a level of invisibility.
Whereas the social enhancement hypothesis, or the rich get richer hypothesis is this idea
that people who are already thriving, like extraverts, for example, theyve got no problem
with making new friends. They can use the online world as an additional tool to enhance
their already really good position. So theres a lot of arguments for which one is the
better- is there more evidence for one hypothesis than the other, and actually I think that
theres probably evidence to suggest that both are pretty accurate. Theres sort of a one
size fits all solution, theres something for everybody. I guess the one thing about
Facebook, or social media, is that they tend to be anchored, so they tend to be tied to
peoples preexisting offline networks.
Not for everybody, obviously, some people might use it to experiment with different
identities. Some people might create completely false identities if you think about
something like catfish for example. For the vast majority of us who use Facebook, the
images that are presented are relatively accurate-ish reflection of who we are, because if
we were too outlandish in terms of self presentation, the people who knew us in the
offline world would say, wait a minute this is a bit unusual; there seems to be a
discrepancy between how youre presenting yourself online versus how youre presenting
yourself offline. So theres only so far that people can go. But obviously, you know, there
are different online contexts where people can stretch the truth a little bit more and can
present a more idealized version of themselves, for example, a dating profile, or online
dating sites, or a chat room, or message boards/ forums, that kind of thing, where people
are interacting with strangers, particularly when there is no expectations of any face-toface contact. So, if theres an anticipation that you might, might meet the person, then
you tend to be, you tend to reign it in a little bit, because you know eventually youre
going to get called out.
Um, Im not sure if Ive actually answered your question then, but I think its an
interesting questions because, obviously, in terms of self presentation, youve got much
more flexibility, much more freedom in terms of how you present yourself, because, you

know, youre not constrained in the same way that you are offline, um, by, you know, um,
by your personality. But, you know, theres probably a really famous study, um. I cant
remember the author now off the top of my head; its gone. I can find out. Theres a very
famous study where they looked at personality traits and how those manifest in terms of
self-presentation and what they suggest is actually, is actually a connection between the
two. Generally, peoples personality traits match quite accurately with how they present
themselves online. People dont, in terms of social media context, people dont step out
of their comfort zone too much. They tend to present themselves in a way that reflects
their real personalities, and that probably is because of this anchored reality, um, you
know, because its tied to their offline networks. So, youll find that the degree to which
people experiment with self-presentation depends quite dramatically on the site or
environment in which they were interacting. Sorry, Ill probably stop about now; Im
waffling on a little bit.
IC: Thats okay. Um, so, you mentioned before about the motivation to go on social
media, and I saw that you had the Social Media Motivation scale.
CF: Mhm.
IC: How is that, um, kind of different from personalities, and how they reflect on social
media.
CF: Yeah, so, what would, what would be the theoretical underpinning, I guess, is that
that research, um, called the uses and gratifications model, which is really kind of an old
model now. Its been around since the 1970s. It was originally developed by Katz
Blumler, I think, in the 1970s. And, obviously, it was originally developed with other
types of media in mind like television, for example. The basic principal is that people
seek out, its a very user sensitive approach, and it begins to individuals as being active
rather than passive recipients. We dont just soak up the media; we actively choose
different types of media options to satisfy our own needs.
So, the basic premise is that people will seek out different types of media options to
gratify individual needs. Those individual needs are, to a large extent, dictated by ones
personality. Not just your personality, of course, there will be other factors such as social
and psychosocial factors as well which add to the variability, but personality to a large
extent. So, if youre an extravert, for example, you want to, you know, youre motivated
to spend time with other people, to make new friends. If youre open to experience youre
motivated to go to creative pursuits to satisfy your need for creativity and your need for
self-expression. So, you know, so those different, you know, you gratify them by seeking
out different media options. In terms of television, for example, if youre high in
openness, you would probably spend a lot of time watching quite creative things like
documentaries to satisfy your need for knowledge. If youre an extravert, you might
watch a lot of soap operas and reality TV so youve got something to speak with your
colleagues around the waterhole about.
So, the same is true of the Internet. A lot of earlier research viewed the Internet as
different areas people migrate to. Extraverts might enjoy social media because its got a

lot of social functions, obviously, whereas introverts might enjoy chat rooms because
they can be more anonymous. But actually what weve found is that, you know, as these
sites evolved, they started to include lots of different types of options to gratify lots of
different types of needs. So no two people necessarily use social media in precisely the
same way.
Some people go on it and spend all their time filtering through the news feed to try and
see what other people are saying. Some people go on and spend all their time telling
people how great their life is, probably; they would end up probably scoring quite high in
narcissism. Some people might go on and play lots of games, or some people might go on
and share lots of photos, you know. So theres a lot of different ways in terms of how
people can use the sites. What weve found is that peoples motivations for using the sites
do kind of match on quite nicely with their personality, but in ways that you would
anticipate. Theres nothing really on there that would make you go, wow, thats shocking,
you know, you didnt really expect that.
Whats quite interesting is that we did a similar kind of study looking at the blogosphere,
and actually, some of the, some of the motivations that people had for blogging dont
necessarily match on to their personalities in ways that you would expect. But this is
because blogs, arent tied in the same way to your offline networks like a lot of social
networking sites and social media sites are. Im not sure, did that answer the question?
IC: Yes.
CF: [Laughs] Okay. If theres anything that I havent mentioned, or havent followed up
on, or that you forgot to ask, just send me an email, Ill do my best to provide some
further clarity.
IC: Okay, thank you.
MS: You- you got that? Youve been very generous with your time; we really, really
appreciate it.
CF: Oh, my pleasure, absolutely. Is there anything you want to talk about, or, why youve
got me?
IC: Um, well, kind of just a general question. What would you say is kind of the overall
purpose behind this kind of research?
CF: Wow, thats aMS: Thats a big one.
CF: Thats a really good question, um, well, I think it would depend upon who you ask,
really. My- As a kind of- I class myself as a true academic, I dont really have a hidden
agenda. I just like to do research to find out answers to questions that Im interested in. If

we wanted to be a little more cynical, for some people, it might be, um, their aim in this
kind of research might be to, to help- Well, its not that cynical I guess, but to improve
the- Theres always a, it always comes back to, to I guess uh, money. But, improving the
user experience could be one key motivation for doing the research. And obviously, by
improving the user experience, youre more likely to have users staying on enjoying the
sites, and obviously that means that there are bigger bucks to be made. But, from my
perspective, its just- its purely about understanding human behavior online. Im
interested in how being online, living online, influences people, how it influences their
psychology, but also, you know, how- trying to understand how people interact online.
Because we cant, you know, necessarily imply anything really exciting about cyber
psychology. You cant necessarily apply theories that have been tested over the last forty
or fifty years or whatever within online interactions, because I dont know whether they
always hold true. Sometimes they do. But they dont always hold true, because the
dynamics of online interactions are very different. You dont necessarily have to present a
version of yourself thats perfectly in tune with the offline version of yourself; you can be
someone completely different.
So, for me its about the thirst for knowledge, just trying to increase our understanding of
this interesting psychological phenomenon. But, for other people it might be something,
you know, related to user experience and so.
IC: Um, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to talk to me, um, I hope
you have a nice day.
CF: Could I ask you one question before you go?
IC: Yes.
CF: Is the purpose of the research that youre doing; is there a necessity for it to be novel,
to be original?
MS: We try to do that. For some students we pick topics that are so sophisticated that the
chances of doing something truly novel- um, I have a student in STEM cell research.
Thats not happening within your first four years of working on STEM cells. Yeah. So, on
the other hand I have students who have done very original, very novel topics that have
been well received.
CF: Okay, well the project that youre proposing, to what extent do you think its original
or novel?
IC: Um, I have seen a lot of research thats kind of like what I aim to do, but I think that
for the most partumits.um.
CF: Because I think, the sort of, the sort of type Looking at personality in online
behavior, I think there are quite a number of questions that still need to be answered. But,
in terms of personality and how it relates to Facebook intensity or usage of Facebook,

Im not saying that that hasnt, hasnt been done to death, but that has been done. So ,in
terms of kind of getting a novel slant to the project, you might want to think about what
you could incorporate whether that might mean, for example, including a few extra
personality traits which havent really been looked at, um, or whether it means looking at
a different aspect of Facebook use. So other than the sort of general stuff like how long
the go on, why they use it, there might be another element to, to Facebook usage. I think
that one thing that perhaps hasnt been looked at in any great detail is how people, um,
how people would present themselves if they created a profile purely for one group of
individuals in their life comparative to, or present themselves to another group of
individuals. So Facebook, at the moment, obviously there are sort of some privacy
settings that you can set. Most people tend to present themselves as the same to
everybody in their network, and some people find that quite irritating, because they might
not want to say things to their mom, they might want to say things to their friends. They
dont want certain people seeing certain aspects of their lives. So I suppose a quite
interesting option, if Facebook was a little bit more sophisticated in terms of that, how
you could set up those different networks and what different people can see, how might
different personality types present it in one context comparative to another. So, you could
do the personality traits, and narcissism, but you could ask people, imagine if youre only
on Facebook and youre only on using it with, you know, close friends, how would you
present yourselves in that context, and imagine if you were using it just to communicate
with your parents how would you- That might be an interesting slant, potentially.
IC: Um, I know that the social media site, Tumblr, does allow you to create multiple
profiles, and maybe that would be a source of experimentation, but I dont know whether
there are as many people on that site.
CF: Well, just thinking of my students, theres loads of them on it.
MS: Yeah.
CF: But, um, it depends how far, it depends, if you just wanted to recruit I mean the
thing about doing this online, is that you dont have to recruit in your local neighborhood,
you can recruit anywhere you want, and actually, there are lots and lots of sites where you
can advertise your study for free, so, social psychology network, for example, you can
join there and you can advertise it, basically all social psychology students throughout the
world. Then students will go on and theyll- and I could also potentially help, I could see
whether I could get any of my student to help But actually, I think, yeah, Facebook has
been looked at quite a lot, its not exactly a [lack] of information around Facebook.
Theres not very much research around some of these new platforms, so you might want
to consider using one of those instead, because I dont think the psychology of that is
understood quite as well, particularly in terms of more diverse self presentation. I didnt
realize actually, because Ive never used that site either, but you could say that- that
would actually be quite interesting. You know, its not like youre asking people to
imagine the scenario, youre actually- they already do it. So that will be much more
ecologically valid.

IC: Thank you.

CF: So that could be quite cool. Thatll be really interested.
MS: Thank you very, very much. I know Irene has to go to class and Im sure you have to
get back to work, but I really appreciate your time.
CF: Now Im going to make some dinner.
MS: Oh god, thank you, thank you.
CF: Ive finished for the day now, this was my last piece of work today. But it wasnt- it
didnt feel like work, it was enjoyable.
IC: Have a nice day!
CF: You too, take care!
MS: Bye.

Reflection
In my opinion, this interview started out and ended as slightly awkward, because
the beginning and end of a conversation is always the hardest to do. However, in once the
conversation started flowing, there was a lot of important information and realizations
that came out of this interview. Contrary to my last interview, Dr. Fullwood and I dived
deeper into the technical side of my research in addition to the Big Five personality traits.
Additionally, it helped that Ms. Sasser was by my side, because it gave me someone to
lean on if I was stuck, or if I didnt know how to answer something. For my next
interview, I would like to be more prepared, as I didnt really have many questions
prepared beforehand. What was difficult about the interview was the amount of time it
took to set up, but in the end the long wait was worth it.