Theme 3: Research and Theory (Pre-blog)

Journal: Computers in Human Behavior

Impact Factor: 2.694

This journal mainly focuses on the use of computers from a psychological perspective. On the one hand the actual use of computers is of interest, on the other hand also the impact of this use on individuals, groups and society is researched and published in this journal. This includes psychological effects on human development, learning, cognition and social interactions. The computer itself isn't being researched, but rather the computer as a medium through which behaviors are expressed. 

The current edition included topics like the impact of media use before sleeping, the role of SNS within adult romantic relationships and computer game misuse and addiction. 

I selected Alt's paper on "College students’ academic motivation, media engagement and fear of missing out", which was published on the 12th of March 2015 in the high quality journal Computers in Human Behavior. 

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College students’ academic motivation, media engagement and fear of missing out

Alt, D. (2015)

In the ages of social media, people spend more and more time online. That can also have a negative effect on those, who might be offline for awhile and experience a fear, that they might miss out on something happening in the online world while they're offline. In this paper Alt uses the new phenomenon named Fear of Missing Out (FoMo) to investigate possible links between FoMo, social media engagement and three motivational constructs: Intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation for learning (amotivation means absence of motivation). While it already has been researched (to some extent) how FoMO is related to Social Media usage, it hasn't been researched in the academic arena. The present study focuses on the social media usage in the classroom. Results showed that students would be more likely to use social media tools in the classroom if they were extrinsically or amotivated students. FoMo was indeed a mediator variable. 

Critical examination 

While the study addresses one of the most current topics in the age of new media, it also has some flaws. First of all the hypotheses aren't well formulated (see example H2):

H2. Based on the assumption that psychological need deficits can lead some toward a general sensitivity to FoMO, it is hypothesized that FoMO would serve as a mediator linking motivational deficits to social media engagement. Furthermore, background variables, such as gender, age, and socio-economic status, will also be addressed in this research in order to assess how these variables intersect and may contribute to the measured variables. Fig. 1 demonstrates the theoretical structure of the proposed framework. 

 I'd say these are rather research questions than hypotheses. They're too long, there are too many variables involved, it's not clear what is going to be the independent or dependent variables etc.

The data was gathered by 296 undergraduate Social-Science students - but over 85% of them were female, which under-represents the male students a lot. I think especially when it comes to media use, gender differences can be found. Also, they only surveyed one college, which makes it hard to generalize the results on other students from other regions/countries.

Furthermore, self-report scales were used. There will always be problems regarding social desirability. Some students might have felt uncomfortable to admit how much they use social media during class and thus adjusted their answers towards a slightly less extreme use in the survey. 

Another flaw is the use of an "unvalidated" new scale of Social Media Engagement (SME). Of course, it is sometimes necessary to develop new scales, but then you have the problem, that you don't really know for sure how reliable the scale is. 

1) Briefly explain to a first year university student what theory is, and what theory is not.

Theories answer the questions of why. They are used to find causal relationships among phenomena, or as Sutton and Staw (1995) say, " to understand the systematic reasons for a particular occurrence or nonoccurence" . A good theory explains, predicts, and delights (Weick, 1995). 

A theory is not the references used to develop the work, or the data which serves as a basis for the study. It is also not the constructs or variables defined in a paper. Nor is it the diagrams used to illustrate the idea, or the hypotheses, which are the conceptual arguments of the work. 

2) Describe the major theory or theories that are used in your selected paper. Which theory type (see Table 2 in Gregor) can the theory or theories be characterized as?

Alt uses the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as basis. This theory has initially been developed by Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan. From the SDT Alt explores FoMO, because SDT is a particularly useful perspective regarding learning motivation. Regarding Gregor's theory types I might say it's the II type, called explanation. SDT provides more background on why people do what they do through analyzing the motivation. This could represent the causality and methods for argumentation. The SDT determines if people  are motivated because of intrinsic or extrinsic reasons. Internal factors can be enthusiasm and pleasure. These people are motivated, because they love what they do. External factors are incentives, such as passing an exam or getting rewarded differently. As Gregor says, this provides us with more insight on why we do what we do. 

3) Which are the benefits and limitations of using the selected theory or theories?

The benefit of this theory is, that is has been used and shaped over the past years, so that it's up to date and useful. There is a lot of research backing it up. There are even six Mini-SDT theories that explain other motivationally based phenomena, that have emerged over the years through field research. 

Limitations would be that Deci and Ryan only propose three psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness). Shouldn't humans have more needs than that?

Sources

Alt, D. (2015). College students' academic motivation, media engagement and fear of missing out. Computers in Human Behavior. 49, 111-119. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.02.057

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior.  New York: Plenum.

Sutton, R., Staw, B. M. (1995). What theory is not. Administrative Science Quartely. 40 (3). 371-384.

Weick, E. K. (1995). What theory is not, theorizing is. Administrative Science Quartely. 40 (3). 385-390.