Australian Psychology Society This browser is not supported. Please upgrade your browser.

InPsych 2019 | Vol 41

October | Issue 5

InPsych 2019 | Vol 41

Education and research : Research snapshot

Analyse this

Analyse this

Who you gonna call?

Not using your smartphone regularly may be linked to loneliness.

The overuse of smartphones and addiction to technology in general is a hot topic in psychological fields. But new research in the field investigates the health implications for those who own a smartphone but barely use it. A team in Spain aimed to uncover the sociodemographic variables and health indicators associated with so-called smartphone ‘nonusers’. Based on stratified random population sampling, 6820 people aged between 15 and 65 who own a smartphone were surveyed. Of these, about 7.5 per cent (n= 511) claimed to not regularly use a smartphone. This group contained a higher proportion of males, a higher average age, people from a lower social class, people from less developed areas, and overall lower levels of education. The group also displayed poorer mental health indicators, reported higher perceived feelings of loneliness, a lower quality-of-life, higher rates of sedentarism, and a greater chance of being overweight or obese. A regression model of these variables found that – in addition to sex, age, social class and education level – the only significantly associated health indicator among members of this group was a perceived feeling of loneliness. The study suggests that while smartphone abuse is associated with health problems, nonregular use of smartphones does not necessarily indicate better health. Further study of nonusers is needed on the nature of the groups’ perceived loneliness.

doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2019.0130

Talk about sibling rivalry

When it comes to developing strong language skills it pays to have a big sister.

A team of French researchers found that the number of older siblings a child has is negatively correlated with their verbal skills. This is possibly due to the overall competition this dynamic creates in a family for parental attention. The study explored the role of siblings’ sex and age gaps as moderating factors, reasoning that these elements may impact upon the older siblings’ tendency to compensate for reduced parental attention. The hypothesis for the study was that children with an older sister have more developed language skills than those with an older brother, particularly when a large age gap occurred between siblings. Using data from the sizeable EDEN mother-child cohort (n = 1154), the team extracted and reanalysed data and found children with an older sister had better language skills than those with an older brother. Contrary to predictions, the findings suggest that an age gap between siblings was not associated with language skills and did not interact with sex. The negative effect of older siblings on the development of language may be entirely due to the role of older brothers. Limitations and the potential for future lines of inquiry are also explored.

doi:10.1177/0956797619861436

When love fades away

In terms of past romances, good memories may be beaten by the bad.

The fading affect bias (FAB) is thought to make the negative emotions associated with memories fade faster than positive ones, which in turn, may help us more readily forget bad experiences. A team from the UK and US asked more than 200 individuals to describe events from a current or former relationship and how remembering the romance made them feel now. Less than 50 per cent of the group chose memories from their current romance, and the positive memories were found to be stronger on average than their negative ones. Both nonsexual memories and sexual memories showed the FAB. The FAB was found to emerge for memories of current relationships, but not for memories of past failed relationships. Interestingly, the bias was found for securely attached individuals, but not for those with other attachment styles. Overall, the study found that negative emotions were more likely to be sustained if the individual felt insecure about the relationship. In addition, the FAB was moderated by relationship quality, a need to belong, sexual esteem and sexual depression.

doi.org/10.1002/acp.3527

Measuring academic clout

Research productivity and impact are key to assessing the performance of academic psychologists.

An Australian study set out to establish new normative data on the productivity and citation impact of publications by Australian academic psychologists at each level. These ranged from lecturer to professor, and represented each university grouping. The team extracted citation and publication data for a representative sample of 732 academics from the psychology field using the Scopus database. Norms for citations, lifetime publications and h-indexes were then generated for each academic level and compared with those outlined in earlier studies. The findings suggest that the perception of academic level based upon the number of publications, citations and h-indexes is highly reliable. Lifetime publication means have increased by a factor of 2 to 3 since the norms were published nearly a decade ago (which is in keeping with the notion that rates of scholarly publication have increased in the past 10 years). As a group, academic psychologists at the research-intensive Go8 universities had significantly higher publication averages at all levels than those from other universities. Despite this, the differences varied notably in size across the university groupings. Overall, the team found that the research conducted offers current and representative norms, and that indices of research productivity and impact are important when assessing the performance of Australian academic psychologists.

doi:10.1111/ajpy.12248

References

Disclaimer: Published in InPsych on October 2019. The APS aims to ensure that information published in InPsych is current and accurate at the time of publication. Changes after publication may affect the accuracy of this information. Readers are responsible for ascertaining the currency and completeness of information they rely on, which is particularly important for government initiatives, legislation or best-practice principles which are open to amendment. The information provided in InPsych does not replace obtaining appropriate professional and/or legal advice.

Search

Submit