Study of words and icons related to social networks: familiarity, valence and activation in Spanish university students

Social networks have become an important phenomenon in the daily lives of many people, which is why in recent years they have aroused the interest of many researchers. This fact contrasts with the lack of normative psycholinguistic and affective indexes that facilitate their study within psychology. The aim of the present work is to provide a freely accessible database with words and icons related to the most used social networks. The responses of a sample of university students on familiarity, emotional valence and arousal of 42 words related to social networks and their corresponding icons are analyzed. Most of the stimuli were familiar, had positive valence and generated high arousal in the participants. Gender differences related to familiarity were obtained in some words and icons. The findings obtained in the present work allow us to broaden the understanding of the lexicon used in the field of social networks. Also, the stimuli provided can be used in experimental studies on the use, abuse or dependence on social networks in Spain.社交网络已成为众多人群日常生活中的重要现象，这也是近年来其受到诸多研究者关注的核心动因。但这一现状却与心理学领域内缺乏助力相关研究的标准化心理语言学及情感指标形成鲜明反差。本研究的目标在于构建一套可免费获取的数据库，收录与主流社交网络相关的词汇及图标。本研究分析了大学生样本针对42个社交网络相关词汇及其对应图标在熟悉度、情感效价（emotional valence）与唤醒度（arousal）维度上的评分数据。多数实验刺激物均具备较高熟悉度，且能引发参与者的正向情感效价与高唤醒水平。部分词汇与图标在熟悉度维度上呈现出显著的性别差异。本研究所得结果有助于深化我们对社交网络领域所使用词汇体系的认知。此外，本次研究所提供的实验刺激物，可应用于西班牙境内针对社交网络的使用、滥用或依赖问题开展的各类实验研究。