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Jacqueline F. Stahl, PsyD, is a 2012 graduate of the PsyD Program in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University New England.

Dissertation Committee

  • Theodore Ellenhorn, PhD (Committee Chair)
  • Susan Hawes, PhD (Committee Member)
  • Jim Graves, PhD (Committee Member)

Keywords

social networking, identity development, young adulthood, webpages

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2012

Abstract

This study investigates young adults’ social networking web pages for aspects related to identity development. The study is primarily based on the theory of identity development presented by Berzonsky (1997). Raters assessed selected web pages for characteristics associated with different styles of identity development. A principal component analysis was used to determine that there are three components that relate to identity development that are manifested in the web pages. It was established that there were three main components that described aspects of identity within the social networking pages. These components were determined to be a “Self Focused Type,” an “Inconsistent Type” and a “Withholding Type.” Though these components were statistically distinct, the items included in each component were not the items that were hypothesized to be correlated. Implications of the results are discussed.

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