Online And Offline Integration Theory: Construction, Measurement, And Verification

The role of network played in real life has aroused lots of concerns since the Internet came into people’s daily life. However, it has been a controversial issue whether the Internet has a positive or negative impact on individuals. Based on previous studies, this essay tries to construct online and offline integration theory; explain the influence of the Internet on everyday life from the integrated perspective; verify this theory by formulating the Integration between Internet and Reality Scale and conducting corresponding empirical research, Which,we hoped, could provide some useful instruction about how to draw on advantages and avoid disadvantages to individuals.This dissertation is divided into three sub-studies:(1) Based on the previous studies, Study 1 define the concept of integration between the Internet and reality and construct corresponding theory to elaborate how to integrate the Internet and the specific performance of integration between them. From the macro perspective, integrating the Internet and reality means bringing the Internet space and real life into an organic whole, which particularly requires to take the reality as the beginning and finishing point; while from the micro perspective, the integration of online and offline living means that individual’s cognition and behavior in the Internet are consistent and congruent with that in real-world life. More specifically, it includes building harmonious ego in the Internet and reality, transferring interpersonal relationship from online/offline to offline/online, and using the Internet to serve real life activities. Online and Offline Integration Theory holds the view that individuals can enhance their self-development, interpersonal relationship and the mental and social function by integrating the cognition and behaviour on the Internet and reality.(2) Study 2 develop the Integration between the Internet and Reality Scale under the theory of the integration between the Internet and reality and previous studies which are about self-concept of the Internet, the interpersonal communication on the Internet and the attitude towards the Internet. Then, through Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to determine the structure in a sample of 289 college students. It is found that Integration of the Internet and Reality Scale contains four dimensions(28 items):self consistency, serving daily-life, joining the real-wold and communication transferring validity and on this basis inspect validity and reliability of the scale through another sample of 484 college students. At last it shows that the construct validity, content-related validity, and criterion-related validity of this scale are very good according to the results of Confirmatory factor analysis, validity analysis, and reliability analysis.(3) Study 3 examine the Integration Theory of Internet Usage by analyzing the correlation and causal relationship among time online, internet using type, extroversion, internet addiction disorder(IAD), satisfaction with life, loneliness and the integration of the Internet and reality. The results shows that:a) Time online can not predict IAD, satisfaction with life and loneliness, and there was not any difference among internet using type either, but extroversion has significant correlation with them-the higher the level of extroversion was, the lower the degrees of IAD and loneliness was, also the better the satisfaction with life was. It proved that judging the relationship between the Internet and reality only by studying two-variable correlation-time online and mental health-or different internet using types. Besides, it also showed that, to some extent, Richer Get Richer Hypothesis is reasonable-people who are inclined to extroversion can get positive effects more easily.b) The ability to bring the Internet and reality together related with many factors. Both time online and extroversion have significant correlation with the integration of the Internet and reality-the longer time online is, the lower the integration of the Internet and reality-degree is; however, the higher the level of extroversion is, the higher integration of the Internet and reality-degree is. Besides, the integration of the Internet and reality scores were significantly different among different gender, grades, majors and Internet use types-the girls’ was higher than the boys’, the freshman’s was higher than the sophomore’s, the art’s was higher than the engineering’s, the communication’s and the information’s were higher than the entertainment’s.c) The integration between the Internet and reality can predict IAD and mental health significantly-the higher the integration of the Internet and reality score was, the lower the degrees of IAD and loneliness were, while the better the satisfaction with life was. Those results support the theory of the integration of the Internet and reality that integrating the cognition and behavior in the online and offline living can help people draw on advantages and avoid disadvantages on both space.d) The integration between the Internet and reality play partial intermediary role on the relation among extroversion, IAD, satisfaction with life and loneliness. In other words, te level of extroversion not only directly affect the degree of IAD and mental health, but also indirectly affect them by the integration between the Internet and reality.Finally, based on previous theoretical and empirical studies,the theory of the integration between the Internet and reality has not only great significance for the research of the relation between the Internet and reality, but also has practically significant to help individuals use the Internet healthily and regulate Internet service...