The Profile Picture of the Facebook Page - Lab Report Example

FACEBOOK AND PROFILE PICTURE Name: Institution: Abstract In most cases associating the profile picture of the facebook page is not taken seriously when it comes to the management of the page. However the appearance of the profile picture and more specifically the attractiveness of the picture may dictate the number of friends that a person has on the page. In addition, the number of facebook friends is determined by many other factors and not the picture only and this led to the following research being conducted. A major factor that led to this research is to get the answer of what is in the halo effect in terms of the relationship between attractions and the number of friends on facebook. However, as attractiveness is relative each person had to fill in a questionnaire to give account of what is the attraction according to him or her (Goldman, 2009). In this study, it is hypothesized and thought that people who had approximately 300 Friends on facebook would have higher social desirable ratings than people with substantially more approximately 500 and more. This also includes the people in the bracket of 100 and below friends on facebook. People associate friends with the profile picture as many of them take the picture as the introductory to the unknown person. It is also thought that the more attractive a picture is the more friend requests that a person gets. The major hypothesis of the study was that these profiles with an attractive picture compared to a neutral picture that those profiles that are considered more attractive would be stated as more socially desirable than those who were perceived as less attractive. This is especially if the person on the opposite side is of the opposite sex. This research was done with major care and the results were properly checked and analyzed. Introduction Attraction management and other self-presentation theories have been applied in a long time in the interviews and other different networking Medias like facebook, what’s app and twitter among others. The world has become digital nowadays such that different interviewers have gone to the extent of conducting an online interview. In these interviews, the potential employers are first focused on the attractiveness of the particular interviewee and the conduct of the person. In addition, this issue of attractiveness plays a role in whether the person will get the job or not. Therefore, the usage of a personal Webpage, a social network account and site as well as a blogging site has been made to become a crucial part in the culture and vocabulary of networking with individuals and interviewing people for personal satisfaction and professional purposes. The ultimate goal that drives this research is to try and expand the use and application of this impression management in the social networks and the way of self-presentation in the sites. All the facebook pages are constructed on the basis of the life of a person if either the person is either a female or male participant, each and their pictures and the attractiveness of the profile picture (Abram & Pearlman, 2010). These networking sites in most cases are responsible for allowing in the construction of a strong and a formidable social network to include many other individuals who also are in the system and hold accounts with either facebook, what’s app, twitter or MySpace. The profile picture of the individuals in the sites helps identify the individual with other users in the network. In addition it also dictates the amount of respect that a person is accorded by other users depending on the presentability of the picture. Facebook in particular has made it easy for people to access one’s profile picture before he or she befriends you and therefore it can be a factor to determine if the person sends you a friend request or not. Therefore, it can be noted that the profile picture may determine the number of friend requests one receives or sends and hence in extension the number of friends. Method The approach used in the research process determines the methods that will be used in the research. Two main methods are used in carrying out the research. These methods include the quantitative and qualitative technique. The qualitative method is a subjective method used in carrying out the research that is based on respondent's opinion. This kind of research is subjective in nature since it is dependent on the subjectivity of the respondent’s opinion. Qualitative method of carrying out research is widely used when the researcher want to collect subjective data. In addition, qualitative research has widely been used where the research work is exploratory in nature rather than explanatory. Quantitative technique makes wide use of statistical data in the analysis. This kind of research is objective in nature and the information collected develops an argument and come up with conclusions. Quantitative method is used in most of the cases where the researcher wants to collect an objective data. This approach does not depend on the opinion of the respondent but rather on the facts on the ground. The data collected is used to develop either a deductive or an inductive judgment. This research will make use of both qualitative and quantitative research methods in undertaking the analysis. Specifically, the chapter will explore the method of sample selection, method of data collection, results validity and reliability of the results. Sample Selection This research paper seeks to evaluate the factors of the general level of number of friends and how the profile picture plays a role in facebook. Therefore, the sample space involves the persons with facebook accounts and mostly the youths. The sample space includes all levels of facebook users. In the collection of the data, there are various stakeholders, who are essential in providing information about the job satisfaction. A good representative of the sample has been chosen randomly, ensuring that all needs of the investigation are satisfied and unbiased. The sample size in the current study is considered large enough since it forms a good percentage of the users. The sample is considered random, since the researcher has not in whichever way influenced the response of any of the respondents. Data Collection Technique This research makes use of questionnaires in the quest of retrieving information from the respondents. This is considered an essential approach since the researcher is able to acquire first hand information in the process of meeting the research objectives. The interviews and the questionnaires are designed to analyze the effectiveness of motivational factors in the performance of duties among the employees. The analysis in the results review also forms an important basis for the argument developed in this study (Adatto, 2008). Results t-test Results For the Attractiveness comparison (Profile 1 vs. Profile 4) the t-test result was: t(189) = -12.64, p < .05 For the Social Desirability comparison (Profile 1 vs. Profile 4) the t-test result was: t(190) = -3.47, p < .05 For the Social Desirability comparison (Profile 2 vs. Profile 3) the t-test result was: t(208) = -4.46, p < .05 Results Template Results: Tables 1-4 present the mean scores for the experimental groups on the variables investigated. Table 1 Summary statistics for Profile 1 and Profile 4 in regard to Attractiveness Attractiveness M SD Profile 1 3.20 1.22 Profile 4 5.29 1.06 There was a difference between the Profile 1 group mean scores and the Profile 4 groups mean scores in regards to Attractiveness. An independent measures t-test showed that the difference between the data in Table 1 was significant/not significant. Table 2 Summary statistics for Profile 1 and Profile 4 in regard to Social Desirability Social Desirability M SD Profile 1 2.61 1.29 Profile 4 3.28 1.37 There was a difference between the Profile 1 group mean scores and the Profile 4 group mean scores in regards to Social Desirability. An independent measures t-test showed that the difference between the data in Table 2 was significant/not significant. Table 3 Summary statistics for Profile 2 and Profile 3 in regard to Social Desirability Social Desirability M SD Profile 2 3.88 1.31 Profile 3 2.55 1.19 There was a difference between the Profile 2 group mean scores and the Profile 3 group mean scores in regards to Social Desirability. An independent measures t-test showed that the difference between the data in Table 3 was significant/not significant. Table 4 Summary statistics for Profile 5 and Profile 6 in regard to Social Desirability Social Desirability M SD Profile 5 4.27 1.19 Profile 6 4.16 1.37 There was a difference between the Profile 5 group mean scores and the Profile 6 groups mean scores in regards to Social Desirability. An independent measures t-test showed that the difference between the data in Table 4 was significant/not significant. Discussion On all the hypotheses, all have their significant level for the hypotheses being tested being on the negative side and hence they are far much less than 0.05 levels. Therefore, all the hypotheses are accepted for the purposes of this research. In the attractiveness comparison, profile 1 vs. profile 4 is the most acceptable with a negative 12.64 while the least acceptable is the Social Desirability comparison (Profile 1 vs. Profile 4) the t-test result which was t(190) = -3.47, p less than 0.05. In essence from the results it is evident that attractiveness of the profile picture increases social desirability to people. It is evident that the more attractive a profile picture is to people the more the social desirability increases. If a profile picture is more attractive, this is reflected in the number of friends in the facebook account. The number of friends of any account is determined by the attractiveness of the picture among other things (Wittkower, 2010). References Wittkower, D. E. (2010). Facebook and philosophy: What's on your mind?. Chicago: Open Court. Adatto, K. (2008). Picture perfect: Life in the age of the photo op. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Abram, C., & Pearlman, L. (2010). Facebook for dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Pub. Goldman, J. (2009). Facebook cookbook. Sebastopol, Calif: O'Reilly Media, Inc. Read More