Psychological Science ›› 2017, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (6): 1449-1455.

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The Relationship between College Students’ Psychological Needs and Internet Interaction: The Role of Cognitive Assessment and Self-Regulation

1, 2,Yijun Luo1   

  1. 1. Central China Normal University
    2.
  • Received:2016-10-20 Revised:2017-02-27 Online:2017-11-20 Published:2017-11-20

大学生心理需求与网络社交:认知评估与自我调控的作用

冯雅萌,孔繁昌,罗一君   

  1. 华中师范大学
  • 通讯作者: 孔繁昌
  • 基金资助:
    2015年度湖北省教育厅人文社会科学研究专项任务项目:健康网络社交的心理机制和促进策略研究

Abstract: Social media refers to highly interactive platforms where people employ mobile and web-based technologies to share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content (Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, & Silvestre, 2011). With the development of the Internet, more and more people choose to use the Internet to interact with their offline friends as well as strangers they met online. Therefore, Internet interaction has been popular all over the world and has brought great convenience to people’s studies, work, entertainment and so on. Among all the users, the proportion of college students that constantly engaged in Internet interaction is quite high in China (China Internet Network Information Center, 2017). Researchers have revealed that Internet interaction has both positive and negative effects on college students’ physical and mental health development. However, the specific outcome might depend on whether and how Internet interaction meet users’ needs (Suler, 1999). The extant researches indicated that people prefer to use Internet interaction in order to satisfy their psychological needs that real life interaction could not achieve (Cai, Cui, & Li, 2007; Wan, Liu, & Fang, 2012). Hence, psychological needs have quite important influence on college students’ Internet interaction. Yet little is known about the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this relation. This study aimed at filling this gap. The mediation mechanism can tell us how the independent variable (psychological needs) has effect on the dependent variable (Internet interaction), and the moderation mechanism can inform us how the relationship between the independent variable (psychological needs) and the dependent variable (Internet interaction) is influenced by the moderator (self-regulation). This study proposed a moderated mediation model to examine whether the relationship between psychological needs and Internet interaction was mediated by the cognitive assessment and was moderated by the self-regulation. Psychological Needs Scale for College Students, Internet Decisional Balance Questionnaire, Self-Regulation Scale and Internet Interaction Questionnaire for University Students were administrated to 503 college students (M = 21.66 years, SD = 1.67). Data were collected and analyzed with SPSS 20.0, and the bias-corrected percentile Bootstrap method was used to analyze the mediating role of cognitive assessment and the moderating role of self-regulation. The results indicated that: (1) The relationships between each path of psychological needs, the pros of Internet, the cons of Internet, self-regulation and Internet interaction, were significantly positively related. (2) College students’ psychological needs positively predicted their Internet interaction, and this relationship was partly mediated by the pros of Internet and the cons of Internet. (3) The relationship between psychological needs and Internet interaction was moderated by the self-regulation. For college students with high self-regulation, psychological needs positively predicted their Internet interaction. However, for college students with low self-regulation, psychological needs could not predict Internet interaction. These findings highlighted the complex nature of association between college students’ psychological needs and their Internet interaction, providing constructive advises for college students to develop a healthy habit of Internet interaction.

Key words: psychological needs, Internet interaction, cognitive assessment, self-regulation, college students

摘要: 为探讨大学生心理需求、认知评估、自我调控和网络社交的关系,采用大学生心理需求量表、网络利弊权衡问卷、自我调控问卷和网络交往问卷对503名大学生进行调查,结果发现:(1)大学生心理需求可显著正向预测网络社交;对上网的好处和代价认知评估在两者间起部分中介作用。(2)自我调控在心理需求和网络社交间起调节作用。由此得出结论,大学生的心理需求可显著影响网络社交,对上网的好处和代价认知评估在二者间起中介作用,自我调控起调节作用。研究结果进一步揭示了心理需求影响网络社交的内在机制,可为网络时代大学生进行健康网络社交提供有益指导。

关键词: 心理需求, 网络社交, 认知评估, 自我调控, 大学生