QALMRI 5
Running head: QALMRI 1
QALMRI
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Questions
The purpose of this research is to determine the effects of peer influence on neural and
Behavioral responses to social media. Social media use is exceedingly pervasive among adolescents, resulting in persistent public interest in its impact on social interaction. Apprehending the neural foundation of social media manipulation allowed this research work to comprehend these effects better even though the literature on social media and the brain is, at the moment, remarkably limited. During the research process, it was indeed viable to address the very epicenter of adolescents’ attraction by social media, the photos. Is social photo-sharing tool common, and does it measure adolescents’ neural and behavioral responses to likes, a comparable form of social patronage and potential genesis of peer influence?
Alternatives
Technologic advancements have resulted in the elevation of internet use and virtual communication through cellphones, tablets, and computers. The universality of social media use is leading to an increased apprehension of the risks associated. This study back reports that about 90% of teens access the internet and its social components (Sherman, Payton, Hernandez, Greenfield, & Dapretto, 2016). The null hypothesis for this study is that neural correlates of viewing images with few or many likes to assess the responsibility of quantifiable social patronage in peer influence. Alternatively, the study looks to reject the perception that there is a correlation between neural reaction and behavior changes confounding to social media. It is, therefore, a long course research seeking to discover the behavioral and neural responses to social media exposure. This research will act as a supplementary source of information to help address the problem of cognitive-control associated with considerable activity in neural regions compromised in reward processing, imitation, social cognition, and attention.
Logic
If neural correlates of viewing images with few or many likes to assess the responsibility of quantifiable social patronage in peer influence establish then it is plausible to infer that the hypothesized statement that respondents would tend to like images liked by more peers and desist from liking less popular images is confirmed. It may also infer that neural responses to popular and unpopular photos would differ. Such revelation from the study differs from previous work and perception that adolescents viewed content displayed on social media simultaneously with enlightenment about its popularity—much as content is generally experienced online. It will thus be tested whether inceptive impressions were shaded by the content’s popularity and inspected the overall effects of favorable peer judgment on brain responses.
Method
This study applied the cross-sectional research approach. A sample size of thirty-four participants was selected with eighteen females aging between 13 to 18 years while male participants were sixteen. The sample size contemplates the maximum number of respondents that we were capable of recruiting given the financial constriction. Participants completed formal consent in compliance with the institutional review board at the University of California in Los Angeles. Sherman divided the forty photos into groups on the foundation of content to assign likes to respondents’ images. Then, each of the categories of images was randomly divided into two halves; one half was accorded many likes, and the remaining half was assigned a few likes. In the analysis, we employed a bimodal distribution of likes and clustered the majority between 30 and 45 likes (Sherman, Payton, Hernandez, Greenfield, & Dapretto, 2016).
Results
Binomial test across all photos accorded during the scan, respondents matched their peers remarkably more frequently than anticipated by chance, a p-value of less than .00001. This effect was also consequential for each type of image, including neutral photos ostensibly provided by peers with p-value equivalent to .03, images portraying risk-taking behaviors ostensibly ministered by peers with a p-value of .03, and the respondents’ mages with a p-value of less than .00001. Neural responses further differed conforming to the number of likes for risky, neutral and respondents” own photos (Sherman, Payton, Hernandez, Greenfield, & Dapretto, 2016).
When respondents viewed neutral images with many likes; they exhibited significantly greater exercise in the visual cortex expanding in the cerebellum and to the precuneus. Also, when respondents viewed risky images with many likes, notably greater activity was discovered in one collection in the left frontal cortex, expanding from the precentral gyrus into the inferior frontal gyrus and middle frontal gyrus. When respondents viewed their images, a significantly greater exercise in response to images with many likes was noted in several regions.
Inferences
The study discovered that the popularity of images had a remarkable effect on the way those images were perceived. Adolescents were conceivable to like an image (even one representing risky behaviors, including drinking alcohol or smoking marijuana) if that image had received most likes from peers. Neural responses also differed according to the number of likes. For all classifications of photos, respondents exhibited greater brain exercise for photos with more likes. This study found out that participants would tend to like images liked by more peers and desist from liking less popular images. However, several respondents in our adolescent sample established no experiences with alcohol or any drugs which may have donated to the failure to detect a peer influence in the NAcc when collating popular and unpopular risky photos (Sherman, Payton, Hernandez, Greenfield, & Dapretto, 2016).
Reference
Sherman, L. E., Payton, A. A., Hernandez, L. M., Greenfield, P. M., & Dapretto, M. (2016). The power of the like in adolescence: effects of peer influence on neural and behavioral responses to social media. Psychological science, 27(7), 1027-1035.