Positionality statements in science.

The goal of this essay is to clarify positionality as an epistemological scientific concept and address related misunderstandings to help researchers assess whether statements thereof contribute to their work. Positionality statements can be useful for various research designs across scientific fields, when they are used knowingly.

Vitality structures in 'addictive' game design.

For decades, research on technology use and mental health has been based on the assumption that identifiable structures of 'design' are psychologically relevant for their users. This has been central especially for the nosological emergence of 'behavioural addictions', which currently involve two formal diagnoses involving technology: problems related to playing gambling games (gambling disorder) and videogames (gaming disorder). Alas, the research on identifying 'addictive' design structures has suffered from major construct validity issues. To make progress across those issues, I draw from the history of 'vitality affects' in psychiatry and introduce vitality structures as a design-phenomenological framework that can help researchers conceptualise clinically (and non-clinically) relevant 'bonds' between entities of game design and corresponding player phenomenology. Vitality structures are not natural kinds to be discovered but pragmatic constructs to be created and used: they are useful as long as they communicate what is both identifiable and empirically prevalent. As a demonstration of practice, I propose working conceptualizations of three vitality structures, which surface in videogames that have been prevalent sources of self-identified problems among gaming treatment-seekers. Systematic programs of research for identifying relevant vitality structures across technological, psychological, and psychiatric contexts can lead to construct-valid and replicable design effects.

A guide for social science journal editors on easing into open science.

Journal editors have a large amount of power to advance open science in their respective fields by incentivising and mandating open policies and practices at their journals. The Data PASS Journal Editors Discussion Interface (JEDI, an online community for social science journal editors: www.dpjedi.org ) has collated several resources on embedding open science in journal editing ( www.dpjedi.org/resources ). However, it can be overwhelming as an editor new to open science practices to know where to start. For this reason, we created a guide for journal editors on how to get started with open science. The guide outlines steps that editors can take to implement open policies and practices within their journal, and goes through the what, why, how, and worries of each policy and practice. This manuscript introduces and summarizes the guide (full guide: https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/hstcx ).

Measuring digital intervention user experience with a novel ecological momentary assessment (EMA) method, CORTO.

Digital interventions often suffer from low usage, which may reflect insufficient attention to user experience. Moreover, the existing evaluation methods have limited applicability in the remote study of user experience of complex interventions that have expansive content and that are used over an extensive period of time. To alleviate these challenges, we describe here a novel qualitative Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) method: the CORTO method (Contextual, One-item, Repeated, Timely, Open-ended). We used it to gather digital intervention user experience data from Finnish adults (n = 184) who lived with interview-confirmed major depressive disorder (MDD) and took part in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) that studied the efficacy of a novel 12-week game-based digital intervention for depression. A second dataset on user experience was gathered with retrospective interviews (n = 22). We inductively coded the CORTO method and retrospective interview data, which led to four user experience categories: (1) contextual use, (2) interaction-elicited emotional experience, (3) usability, and (4) technical issues. Then, we used the created user experience categories and Template Analysis to analyze both datasets together, and reported the results qualitatively. Finally, we compared the two datasets with each other. We found that the data generated with the CORTO method offered more insights into usability and technical categories than the interview data that particularly illustrated the contextual use. The emotional valence of the interview data was more positive compared with the CORTO data. Both the CORTO and interview data detected 55 % of the micro-level categories; 20 % of micro-level categories were only detected by the CORTO data and 25 % only by the interview data. We found that the during-intervention user experience measurement with the CORTO method can provide intervention-specific insights, and thereby further the iterative user-centered intervention development. Overall, these findings highlight the impact of evaluation methods on the categories and qualities of insights acquired in intervention research.

Network structures of internet gaming disorder and gaming disorder: Symptom operationalization causes variation.

OBJECTIVE: From 2022, the International Classification of Diseases, eleventh edition (ICD-11) includes the first mental disorder based on digital technology, "gaming disorder," which was previously suggested as a condition for further examination in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5). In this cross-sectional study, we provide the first large-scale network analysis of various symptom structures for these constructs to understand the complex interconnections between their proposed symptoms. METHOD: Culturally diverse samples of 2,846 digital game players (M = 25.3 years) and 746 esports players (M = 23.5 years) were recruited. A network approach was applied to explore a multiverse of gaming disorder symptom structures, effects of item operationalization, and possible external moderators. Gaming disorder was measured using the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale 9-Short Form (IGDS9-SF), Gaming Disorder Test, and several items borrowed from Chinese Internet Gaming Disorder Scale, Personal Internet Gaming Disorder Evaluation-9, and Clinical Video game Addiction Test 2.0 scales. RESULTS: Two symptoms (loss of control and continued use despite problems) present in both, the DSM-5 and ICD-11, were systematically central to most of the analyzed networks. Alternative operationalizations of single items systematically caused significant network differences. Networks were invariant across groups of play style, age, gender, gaming time, and most of the psychosocial characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: Our results caution practitioners and researchers when studying and interpreting gaming disorder symptoms. The data indicate that even minor operational changes in symptoms can lead to significant network-level changes, thus highlighting the need for careful wording. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

A primer for choosing, designing and evaluating registered reports for qualitative methods.

Registered reports are a publication format that involves peer reviewing studies both before and after carrying out research procedures. Although registered reports were originally developed to combat challenges in quantitative and confirmatory study designs, today registered reports are also available for qualitative and exploratory work. This article provides a brief primer that aims to help researchers in choosing, designing, and evaluating registered reports, which are driven by qualitative methods.

Factors Affecting Digital Tool Use in Client Interaction According to Mental Health Professionals: Interview Study.

BACKGROUND: Digital tools and interventions are being increasingly developed in response to the growing mental health crisis, and mental health professionals (MHPs) considerably influence their adoption in client practice. However, how MHPs use digital tools in client interaction is yet to be sufficiently understood, which poses challenges to their design, development, and implementation. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to create a contextual understanding of how MHPs use different digital tools in clinical client practice and what characterizes the use across tools. METHODS: A total of 19 Finnish MHPs participated in semistructured interviews, and the data were transcribed, coded, and inductively analyzed. RESULTS: We found that MHP digital tool use was characterized by 3 distinct functions: communication, diagnosis and evaluation, and facilitating therapeutic change. The functions were addressed using analog tools, digitized tools that mimic their analog counterparts, and digital tools that use the possibilities native to digital. The MHP-client communication included various media alongside face-to-face meetings, the MHPs increasingly used digitized tools in client evaluation, and the MHPs actively used digitized materials to facilitate therapeutic change. MHP tool use was generally characterized by adaptability-it was negotiated in client interactions. However, there was considerable variance in the breadth of MHPs' digital toolbox. The existing clinical practices emphasized MHP-client interaction and invited incremental rather than radical developments, which challenged the achievement of the scalability benefits expected from digital tools. CONCLUSIONS: MHPs use digitized and digital tools in client practice. Our results contribute to the user-centered research, development, and implementation of new digital solutions in mental health care by classifying them according to their function and medium and describing how MHPs use and do not use them.

Measuring Internet Gaming Disorder and Gaming Disorder: A Qualitative Content Validity Analysis of Validated Scales.

Numerous instruments have been developed to measure gaming-related health problems based on "internet gaming disorder" (IGD) in the third section of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.) and "gaming disorder" (GD) in the International Classification of Diseases (11th rev.). However, the criteria in the manuals tend to be operationalized in numerous diverse ways, which can make screening outcomes incomparable. A content validity analysis is needed to reassess the relationships between the diagnostic criteria and the items that operationalize them. The IGD and GD criteria were divided into sematic components. A qualitative content validity analysis was carried out for all items employed by the 17 instruments that claim to measure either construct by their criteria in English. In all but one instrument, the operationalizations did not include all criterion components. There were two main reasons found for this: the components had simply been left out or had been alternatively modified into other components. Criteria that were vaguely described in the manuals were sources of lower content validity items. The study implies that many of the problems in IGD and GD measurement derive from criteria operationalization and original manual descriptions. The conclusion provides practical recommendations that researchers can apply to improve the content validity of their measurement.

Reasons for qualitative psychologists to share human data.

Qualitative data sharing practices in psychology have not developed as rapidly as those in parallel quantitative domains. This is often explained by numerous epistemological, ethical and pragmatic issues concerning qualitative data types. In this article, I provide an alternative to the frequently expressed, often reasonable, concerns regarding the sharing of qualitative human data by highlighting three advantages of qualitative data sharing. I argue that sharing qualitative human data is not by default 'less ethical', 'riskier' and 'impractical' compared with quantitative data sharing, but in some cases more ethical, less risky and easier to manage for sharing because (1) informed consent can be discussed, negotiated and validated; (2) the shared data can be curated by special means; and (3) the privacy risks are mainly local instead of global. I hope this alternative perspective further encourages qualitative psychologists to share their data when it is epistemologically, ethically and pragmatically possible.

Eight Hypotheses on Technology Use and Psychosocial Wellbeing: A Bicultural Phenomenological Study of Gaming during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

In this nonconfirmatory qualitative study, we pursued a range of hypotheses regarding how gaming operates in the lives and psychosocial wellbeing of those who actively play videogames during a crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Informed by an explorative survey (N = 793), interpretive phenomenological analysis was applied to interview data from actively gaming Chinese (n = 10) and Finnish (n = 10) participants. Our findings demonstrate how the general increase of pandemic-time gaming did not manifest in all player groups, but in some life contexts gaming activity rather decreased along with reformations in subjective meaning hierarchies and values. Ultimately, eight subordinate themes were refined into testable hypotheses. The study encourages policies that promote socially supportive gaming during pandemic-like situations to consider including personally meaningful solitary play in their recommendations and highlighting context-specificity over generalization. Finally, as almost all our data points echoing experiences of decreasing gaming activity came from China, we stress the importance of culturally diverse samples in the psychological study of global phenomena. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03586-x.

Transparency of peer review: a semi-structured interview study with chief editors from social sciences and humanities.

BACKGROUND: Open peer review practices are increasing in medicine and life sciences, but in social sciences and humanities (SSH) they are still rare. We aimed to map out how editors of respected SSH journals perceive open peer review, how they balance policy, ethics, and pragmatism in the review processes they oversee, and how they view their own power in the process. METHODS: We conducted 12 pre-registered semi-structured interviews with editors of respected SSH journals. Interviews consisted of 21 questions and lasted an average of 67 min. Interviews were transcribed, descriptively coded, and organized into code families. RESULTS: SSH editors saw anonymized peer review benefits to outweigh those of open peer review. They considered anonymized peer review the "gold standard" that authors and editors are expected to follow to respect institutional policies; moreover, anonymized review was also perceived as ethically superior due to the protection it provides, and more pragmatic due to eased seeking of reviewers. Finally, editors acknowledged their power in the publication process and reported strategies for keeping their work as unbiased as possible. CONCLUSIONS: Editors of SSH journals preferred the benefits of anonymized peer review over open peer and acknowledged the power they hold in the publication process during which authors are almost completely disclosed to editorial bodies. We recommend journals to communicate the transparency elements of their manuscript review processes by listing all bodies who contributed to the decision on every review stage.

Fictosexuality, Fictoromance, and Fictophilia: A Qualitative Study of Love and Desire for Fictional Characters.

Fictosexuality, fictoromance, and fictophilia are terms that have recently become popular in online environments as indicators of strong and lasting feelings of love, infatuation, or desire for one or more fictional characters. This article explores the phenomenon by qualitative thematic analysis of 71 relevant online discussions. Five central themes emerge from the data: (1) fictophilic paradox, (2) fictophilic stigma, (3) fictophilic behaviors, (4) fictophilic asexuality, and (5) fictophilic supernormal stimuli. The findings are further discussed and ultimately compared to the long-term debates on human sexuality in relation to fictional characters in Japanese media psychology. Contexts for future conversation and research are suggested.

On the Prevalence of Addicted or Problematic Gaming in Finland.

We bring attention to a notable unreported "gaming addiction" or "problem gaming" prevalence data set that adds significantly to both the DSM-5's call for further Internet Gaming Disorder research as well as many other scientific encouragements for more wide-ranging reports on the topic.