Thank you for volunteering to take part in this study.

This study aims to examine possible relationships between personality traits and online communication. For this study, ‘online communication’ refers to the use of Facebook, and the study aims to look at how Facebook is used for communication in relation to the personality traits of Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Narcissism and Loneliness. This will be done via an online questionnaire. The first part of questionnaire will examine information relating to personality, with the second part collecting information regarding online communication via Facebook. In total, the questionnaire is comprised of 4 shorter questionnaires (3 for personality, 1 for online communication, and 1 for Facebook use).

This study is looking for participants aged 18 years old and over who have a Facebook account. You have been chosen to take part in this study because you fit into this category. Participation in this study is completely voluntary. If you do decide to take part you will be given this information sheet to keep and be asked to sign a consent form. If you decide to take part you are still free to withdraw at any time, without giving a reason should you so desire. If you have already completed the questionnaire but later decide you wish for your data not to be used, you are free to withdraw and ask for your data to be destroyed. The researcher will comply with your wishes.

This research is not designed to be invasive in any way. Should you agree to take part in this study, you will be asked to complete four short questionnaires which are designed to measure personality traits and Facebook usage for online communication. This is because a degree of research has been conducted in the past examining personality in relation to both general internet use, and general Facebook use, while little appears to have been conducted into examining online communication specifically.

The belief is that personality traits will be related to specific uses of Facebook for communication. This questionnaire should take no more than a maximum of 20 minutes of your time. This research is not designed to be invasive or harmful in any way. There are no predicted disadvantages, however, should you find it harmful, you are free to withdraw and contact the researcher.

There are no known direct benefits of taking part. However, by doing so, you will be helping expand upon understanding of the relationship between internet use and personality. All information collected from you will be stored, analysed and reported in compliance with the Data Protection Act (1998). You will be in no way identified. The results of this study will be used to identify any relationships between personality and online communication. This will be included in a research paper.

This study has been approved by the MCS Ethics Committee of the University of the West of Scotland (pin: MCS-UG-PYS-SMcD-14-11-16).

If you require any further information please contact:

Dr Graham Scott

University of the West of Scotland,

High Street,

Paisley,

PA1 2BE

Scotland

E-mail address: [email protected]