Psychological measurement and theory are afflicted with an ongoing proliferation of new constructs and scales. Given the often redundant nature of new scales, psychological science is struggling with ...arbitrary measurement, construct dilution, and disconnection between research groups. To address these issues, we introduce an easy-to-use online application: the Semantic Scale Network. The purpose of this application is to automatically detect semantic overlap between scales through latent semantic analysis. Authors and reviewers can enter the items of a new scale into the application, and receive quantifications of semantic overlap with related scales in the application's corpus. Contrary to traditional assessments of scale overlap, the application can support expert judgments on scale redundancy without access to empirical data or awareness of every potentially related scale. After a brief introduction to measures of semantic similarity in texts, we introduce the Semantic Scale Network and provide best practices for interpreting its outputs.
Translational Abstract
Psychological measurement and theory are afflicted with an ongoing proliferation of new constructs (e.g., "happiness" or "intelligence") and scales (e.g., questionnaires developed to measure these constructs). Given the often redundant nature of new scales, psychological science is struggling with arbitrary measurement, construct dilution, and disconnection between research groups. To address these issues, we introduce an easy-to-use online application: the Semantic Scale Network. The purpose of this application is to automatically detect semantic overlap between scales through a language-based algorithm called latent semantic analysis. Authors and reviewers of psychological research can enter the questions of a new scale into the application, and receive quantifications of semantic overlap with related scales in the application's corpus (i.e., collection of written texts). Contrary to traditional assessments of scale overlap, the application can support expert judgments on scale redundancy without access to empirical data (e.g., answers to the questionnaires) or awareness of every potentially related scale. After a brief introduction to measures of semantic similarity in texts, we introduce the Semantic Scale Network and provide best practices for interpreting its outputs.
Previous research has shown that passive social media use does not have the same positive effects on well-being as active social media use. However, it is currently unclear whether these effects can ...be attributed to the benefits of active use, the costs of passive use, or both. The current article investigated the effect of active and passive Facebook use on feelings of social connectedness after being ostracized. In two preregistered experiments, participants were first ostracized on a faux social media platform, followed by a measurement of social connectedness. In Experiment 1 they were then instructed to either use Facebook passively, use Facebook actively, or use a non-social website (Wikipedia), after which social connectedness was measured again. Results indicated that active Facebook use can restore social connectedness after being ostracized as compared to using a non-social website. While passive Facebook use also restored social connectedness, it did not change social connectedness significantly more so than Wikipedia use. In Experiment 2, we replicated Experiment 1, now focusing only on passive Facebook use compared to a non-social website. Results showed again that passive Facebook use did not influence social connectedness more so than the use of Wikipedia. In exploratory analyses, we found that for participants who felt close to other Facebook users, passive Facebook use did increase social connectedness compared to using a non-social website. These experiments suggest that, even though passive social media use does not restore social connectedness in the same way that active social media use does, it also does not harm social connectedness, and it may actually promote social connectedness under certain circumstances.
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative ...emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: The stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on 12 May 2020. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4878591.v1.
The COVID-19 pandemic (and its aftermath) highlights a critical need to communicate health information effectively to the global public. Given that subtle differences in information framing can have ...meaningful effects on behavior, behavioral science research highlights a pressing question: Is it more effective to frame COVID-19 health messages in terms of potential losses (e.g., “If you do not practice these steps, you can endanger yourself and others”) or potential gains (e.g., “If you practice these steps, you can protect yourself and others”)? Collecting data in 48 languages from 15,929 participants in 84 countries, we experimentally tested the effects of message framing on COVID-19-related judgments, intentions, and feelings. Loss- (vs. gain-) framed messages increased self-reported anxiety among participants cross-nationally with little-to-no impact on policy attitudes, behavioral intentions, or information seeking relevant to pandemic risks. These results were consistent across 84 countries, three variations of the message framing wording, and 560 data processing and analytic choices. Thus, results provide an empirical answer to a global communication question and highlight the emotional toll of loss-framed messages. Critically, this work demonstrates the importance of considering unintended affective consequences when evaluating nudge-style interventions.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator coordinated three large-scale psychological studies to examine the effects of loss-gain framing, cognitive reappraisals, ...and autonomy framing manipulations on behavioral intentions and affective measures. The data collected (April to October 2020) included specific measures for each experimental study, a general questionnaire examining health prevention behaviors and COVID-19 experience, geographical and cultural context characterization, and demographic information for each participant. Each participant started the study with the same general questions and then was randomized to complete either one longer experiment or two shorter experiments. Data were provided by 73,223 participants with varying completion rates. Participants completed the survey from 111 geopolitical regions in 44 unique languages/dialects. The anonymized dataset described here is provided in both raw and processed formats to facilitate re-use and further analyses. The dataset offers secondary analytic opportunities to explore coping, framing, and self-determination across a diverse, global sample obtained at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be merged with other time-sampled or geographic data.
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