HRPYC81 Project 2 Assignment 3 (RESEARCH PROPOSAL) 2026 - The Fear of Missing Out

This document provides detailed workings, clear explanations, and well-structured solutions for the HRPYC81 Project 2 Assignment 3 (RESEARCH PROPOSAL) 2026 - For assistance call or Whats-App us on 0.8.1..2.7.8..3.3.7.2.. Research Project The Fear of Missing Out Research Area General Psychology Number of Students Limited to 400 students Project Description Imagine Nomsa, a psychology student, is studying for an important assignment. She planned to stay home on Saturday night to intensify her studying, as she had already fallen behind. Around 6 pm, she opens Instagram “just for a minute” and sees that some of her close friends are at a new rooftop bar in Johannesburg. They’re posting photos, laughing, taking selfies, and writing captions like “Best night!” and “So much fun with the squad! Even though she knows she needs to study, she can no longer focus. By 8 pm, she hadn’t studied at all. Although she did not join her friends, she felt unsettled, lonely, and unhappy. Nomsa experienced the fear of missing out. Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), the psychological experience often described as the fear that “others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent” (Przybylski et al., 2013, p. 1841), has gained attention in psychological research since the advent of social networking sites. Social media, unlike any other technology before, has made it much easier to stay informed about social activities and thus the multitude of opportunities for social interaction. The downside is that the day has limited hours. Thus, as a consequence, people will objectively miss out on such opportunities, and they will subjectively experience the fear of missing out. However, it is essential to note that social media amplifies the fear-of-missing-out experience; it does not cause it. Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), grounded in various psychological theoretical foundations (e.g., self-determination theory, see Przybylski et al., 2013; the need-to-belong theory, see Lai et al., 2016; self-construal theory, see Dogan, 2019), is related to concepts such as belonging, social comparison, and social exclusion. Recent research suggests that the fear of missing out is related to various factors, including the need to belong, feelings of not mattering, loneliness, interdependence, personality traits such as neuroticism, self-esteem, social media engagement, mental health (e.g., anxiety and depression), life satisfaction, relationship satisfaction, and maladaptive behaviour such as risky, and consumptive behaviour, among others. The proposed research project will examine the relationship between these listed factors and individuals’ fear of missing out (FoMO). In addition, sociodemographic variables such as age, gender, relationship status, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status will be included as potential control variables. 2 The listed factors define the scope of the individual research projects that students will conduct within this research project, culminating in their research report. Specifically, each student is required to select at least two of the listed factors to formulate their individual research problem and research hypotheses for their research project on the psychological experience of fear of missing out. Fear of missing out will be assessed using a 10-item version of the Fear of Missing Out scale (Przybylski et al., 2013). Need to belong will be assessed using a pictorial measure originally introduced to measure “self-other overlap” (Aron et al., 1992) and further developed to assess Overlap of Self, Ingroup, and Outgroup (Schubert et al., 2002). We will utilise this pictorial measure to assess the degree to which people feel the need to belong to their family, friends, and community. Mattering will be assessed as anti-mattering, along with the fear of not mattering (Ding et al., 2025). Loneliness will be assessed using selected items from the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell et al., 1978, 1980, 1996). The items selected for the presented study will measure “social loneliness” (Meas et al., 2022, p. 37). Interdependence will be assessed as interdependent self-construals (Singelis, 1994; see also Markus & Kitayama, 2010). Personality will be assessed with the 10-item Big Five Inventory Scale (Rammstedt & John, 2007) Self-esteem will be assessed using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965), which has been validated for the South African context (e.g., Makhubela & Mashegoane, 2017; Westaway et al., 2025). Social media engagement will be measured using a series of questions that assess the extent to which participants use it in their daily lives, as proposed by Przybylski et al. (2013). Mental health will be assessed using the non-clinical Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF), introduced by Keyes (2009) and validated by Lamers et al. (2011). Additionally, we will also assess depression and anxiety using the non-clinical Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). Life Satisfaction will be assessed as subjective well-being using the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener et al., 1985). Stability and relationship satisfaction will be measured using items from the commitment and satisfaction subscales of Rusbult et al. (1998). Risky behaviour will be assessed using the Risky, Impulsive, and Self-Destructive Behavior Questionnaire (PISQ) (Sadeh & Baskin-Sommers, 2016). 13 Consumptive behaviour will be assessed as conspicuous consumption orientation (Roy et al., 2011). Sociodemographic variables, including age, gender, relationship status, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, will also be assessed.