Effect of Self-Affirmation on Smartphone Use Reduction Among Heavy Users.

Recent studies have shown an association between excessive smartphone use and health problems. Along with such mounting concerns, health risk information on excessive smartphone use has been presented through various media. Such information is usually aimed at making smartphone users understand the associated health risks, thereby preventing excessive use or reducing current use. However, according to self-affirmation theory, such information may pose a threat to heavy smartphone users because it implies that they are engaging in maladaptive behavior. Therefore, to defend themselves, they may not accept the information and may not be highly motivated to reduce their usage. According to self-affirmation theory, such maladaptive defensive responses can be reduced through the affirmation of important values. We examined whether self-affirmation prior to reading health risk information increased heavy users' motivation to reduce smartphone usage. Participants (142 undergraduate students aged 18-22 years) reported their mean daily smartphone use. They then completed a writing task that affirmed/did not affirm an important personal value. Next, they read an article on the health risks of smartphone overuse and reported their motivation to reduce smartphone use. As a result, when heavy users did not self-affirm, they were significantly less motivated to reduce use than light users. However, when heavy users self-affirmed, their motivation was significantly higher than when they did not self-affirm. This effect of self-affirmation was not shown in light users. These results suggest that health risk information combined with self-affirmation is effective in reducing smartphone usage by heavy users.

Effects of Coping Flexibility in Young Women on Depressive Symptoms during Chronic Pain.

Chronic pain is a worldwide problem that has a high prevalence rate and is often comorbid with depression. Coping flexibility, which is defined as the ability to discontinue an ineffective coping strategy-evaluation coping-and to produce and implement an alternative strategy-adaptive coping-has attracted much interest as an important factor that attenuates pain-induced stress responses, including depression. This study hypothesized that greater coping flexibility would be associated with lower depression in both women with chronic pain and those with menstrual pain. The participants included women with chronic pain (n = 292) and those with menstrual pain (n = 181) who completed questionnaires on pain intensity, pain acceptance, psychological inflexibility, and coping flexibility for chronic pain. The hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that both evaluation coping and adaptive coping predicted depression even after controlling for the effects of pain intensity, pain acceptance, and psychological inflexibility, which are well-known for their association with depression in patients with chronic pain. The hypothesis was supported in our samples. Our findings may contribute to the development of self-management without self-medication using over-the-counter analgesics by acquiring coping flexibility for chronic pain.

[An attempt to construct a Japanese version of the Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test (IPANAT)].

The Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test (IPANAT) is an instrument for the indirect assessment of positive and negative affect. A Japanese version of the IPANAT was developed and its reliability and validity were examined. In Study 1, factor analysis identified two independent factors that could be interpreted as implicit positive and negative affect, which corresponded to the original version. The Japanese IPANAT also had sufficient internal consistency and acceptable test-retest reliability. In Study 2, we demonstrated that the Japanese IPANAT was associated with explicit state affect (e.g., PANAS), extraversion, and neuroticism, which indicated its adequate construct validity. In Study 3, we examined the extent to which the Japanese IPANAT was sensitive to changes in affect by assessing a set of IPANAT items after the presentation of positive, negative, or neutral photographs. The results indicated that the Japanese IPANAT was sufficiently sensitive to changes in affect resulting from affective stimuli. Taken together, these studies suggest that the Japanese version of the IPANAT is a useful instrument for the indirect assessment of positive and negative affect.

[Evaluation of "Japanese Journal of Psychology" using citation analysis].

This study investigated the professional impact of "Japanese Journal of Psychology." Thirty four psychological journals written in Japanese were selected to register articles in a new database. This database included approximately 23,900 articles published through 2010. Using citations extracted from the references and footnotes in these scholarly journals, the Psychology Citation Index for Japanese Papers was created. The citation impact factors in Japanese psychology was determined on the basis of the number of times a journal was cited, cumulative impact factors, and the cited half-life of the journal; five years was a valid period for impact factor of psychological journals in Japan. The changes in the 5-year impact factors of "Japanese Journal of Psychology" were reviewed by comparing it with other journals.