Emotions felt after making social comparisons on social networking sites and individual variables related to these emotions

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the activities of the individuals in the social networks (Facebook and Instagram) and the social comparison processes that arise as a result of these activities along with the emotions felt after these social comparisons, by taking Smith's (2000) Theory of Social Comparison Emotions as a framework. For this purpose, in 30-minute sessions held individually with 227 university students, participants were given a 7-minute time to spend free time in social network sites and then were asked to answer questions about social comparison processes. According to the findings, participants spent more time to examine the posts sent by others (by their close ones, acquaintances and / or celebrities) than to examine their own profiles and making changes in those profiles. As expected comparisons with close ones in various comparison areas were either lateral or upward; whereas, comparisons with acquaintances and celebrities were upward except for the areas of achievement and happiness. Moreover, the expectations which the assimilation emotions are more likely to be felt after comparisons with close ones and contrast emotions are more likely to be felt after comparisons with acquaintances and celebrities were tested. The expectations that as long as participants perceive their close ones in a better position than themselves, the feeling level of UC-assimilation emotions (happiness, admiration or inspiration) will increase and as long as they perceive themselves in a better position than close ones, level of DC-assimilation emotions (worry, pity or sympathy) will increase were verified only in some comparison areas. Also, expectations that as long as participants perceive their acquaintances and celebrities in a better position than themselves, the feeling level of UC-contrast emotions (sadness, shame, anger or jealousy) will increase and as long as they perceive themselves in a better position than their acquaintances and celebrities, level of DC-contrast emotions (pride, contempt or Schadenfreude) will increase were verified only in some comparison areas. Additionally, the relationships between feeling level of all assimilation and contrast emotions and participants' cultural self-orientations (relationality/autonomy), social comparison orientation and selective self-presentation were examined. As expected, relationality was related to happiness and admiration (UC-assimilation emotions) and sympathy (DC-assimilation emotion); whereas autonomy was related to jealousy (UC-contrast) and the feelings levels of pride and contempt (DC-contrast). Furthermore, the levels of sadness, jealousy, contempt and pride were found to be positively related with selective self-presentation and social comparison orientations. These findings were compared to the existing findings in the literature and discussed within the scope of Social Comparison Theory. Key words: social networking sites, social comparison, emotions, selective self- presentation, relationality, autonomy, social comparison orientation