University Presentation Showcase: Undergraduate Division

Personal Reactions to Offensive Messages

Presenter Hometown

Maysville

Major

Psychology

Department

Psychology

Degree

Undergraduate

Mentor

Dan Florell

Mentor Department

Psychology

Abstract

Cyberbullying has been the subject of recent attention with as many as 93% of American teens being active users of the internet. Since an overwhelming percentage of the teenage population are internet users, this population is more vulnerable to electronic harassment than in the past. The current study examines how self-concept, perceived social support, and level of aggression impact physiological reactions to cyberbullying. Participants were exposed to two different simulations over Facebook. One was an example of a casual conversation one may have with an acquaintance where there was no previous relationship. The other was an example of a cyberbullying conversation, where there is an aggressor who is verbally attacking the participant based on two specific categories. The cyberbullying situation has 12 possible categories in which the participant will be insulted. Two of those categories are used during the session, and they are decided by a self-perception scale, along with other surveys, that are given up to a week before the physiological portion of the study. These two situations occurred during the same session with messages alternating between the two different situations every minute. Each participant completed the experiment across two days. The first day consisted of the participant completing a novel learning task as well as twelve surveys, including the self-perception scale. The second day of the study was where the physiological data collection and Facebook simulations took place. Three types of data were collected, including galvanic skin response (GSR), heart rate (ECG), and spectral brain wave activity (EEG).

Presentation format

Poster

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Personal Reactions to Offensive Messages

Cyberbullying has been the subject of recent attention with as many as 93% of American teens being active users of the internet. Since an overwhelming percentage of the teenage population are internet users, this population is more vulnerable to electronic harassment than in the past. The current study examines how self-concept, perceived social support, and level of aggression impact physiological reactions to cyberbullying. Participants were exposed to two different simulations over Facebook. One was an example of a casual conversation one may have with an acquaintance where there was no previous relationship. The other was an example of a cyberbullying conversation, where there is an aggressor who is verbally attacking the participant based on two specific categories. The cyberbullying situation has 12 possible categories in which the participant will be insulted. Two of those categories are used during the session, and they are decided by a self-perception scale, along with other surveys, that are given up to a week before the physiological portion of the study. These two situations occurred during the same session with messages alternating between the two different situations every minute. Each participant completed the experiment across two days. The first day consisted of the participant completing a novel learning task as well as twelve surveys, including the self-perception scale. The second day of the study was where the physiological data collection and Facebook simulations took place. Three types of data were collected, including galvanic skin response (GSR), heart rate (ECG), and spectral brain wave activity (EEG).