Psychologycal articles

Social Media Behavior, Toxic Masculinity and Depression
Men who adhere to standards of "toxic masculinity" are more likely to engage in negative behaviors on social media and are also more likely to suffer from depression, and these variables are intertwined in nuanced ways, according to a study in Psychology of Men & Masculinity (Parent, M.C., et al., advance online publication). In an online survey with 402 men, ages 18 to 74, researchers measured three areas: participants’ beliefs in toxic masculinity (sexism, heterosexism and competitiveness); their symptoms of depression; and their social media behavior, such as how often they posted positive or negative comments about things they saw online. Overall, the researchers found that men who endorsed "toxic masculinity" ideals reported more negative online behaviors and that negative online behaviors were associated with depression.

Do the Associations of Parenting Styles with Behavior Problems and Academic Achievement Vary by Culture?
Children with authoritative (high-warmth, high-control) parents have fewer behavior problems and better academic achievement compared with children of authoritarian (low-warmth, high-control) parents, and that association generally holds up across different countries and cultural groups, finds this meta-analysis in Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology (Pinquart, M., & Kauser, R., Vol. 24, No. 1). Researchers analyzed the results of 428 studies of parenting styles, with data on nearly 350,000 children from 52 countries. They found more similarities than differences in children’s responses to different parenting styles across ethnic groups and geographic regions. Authoritative parenting was associated with at least one positive outcome and authoritarian parenting was associated with at least one negative outcome in all regions. Overall, the association between parenting style and child outcomes was weaker in countries with more individualistic cultures.

The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Item and Associative Recognition Memory
Sleep deprivation degrades different kinds of memory in the same way, finds this study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition (Ratcliff, R., & Van Dongen, H., Vol. 44, No. 2). Researchers assigned 26 participants to either a sleep-deprivation group or a control group. Before and after 57 hours of sleep deprivation, the participants did two memory tests in which they were shown word pairs and asked to recognize whether a word was on the pairs list (item recognition) or whether two words were studied in the same pair (associative recognition). Using a diffusion decision model, they found that sleep deprivation, unlike aging-related memory decline, reduced the quality of the information stored in memory for both tests to the same degree.

Journal Article Reporting Standards for Quantitative Research in Psychology
This open-access article in American Psychologist lays out new journal article reporting standards for quantitative research in APA journals (Appelbaum, M., et al., Vol. 73, No. 1). The new standards are voluntary guidelines for authors and reviewers, developed by a task force of APA’s Publications and Communications Board. The recommendations include dividing the hypotheses, analyses and conclusions sections into primary, secondary and exploratory groupings to enhance understanding and reproducibility. The standards also offer modules for authors reporting on N-of-1 designs, replications, clinical trials, longitudinal studies and observational studies, structural equation modeling and Bayesian

The Relationship Between Frequency of Instagram Use, Exposure to Idealized Images, and Psychological Well-Being in Women
Frequent use of the social media photo-sharing app Instagram could contribute to negative psychological outcomes in women, suggests this study in Psychology of Popular Media Culture (Sherlock, M., & Wagstaff, D.L., advance online publication). Researchers surveyed 119 women, ages 18 to 35, about their Instagram use, mental health outcomes and self-perceptions. On average, more Instagram use was correlated with more depressive symptoms, lower self-esteem, more general and physical appearance anxiety, and more body dissatisfaction. In a follow-up experiment, the researchers showed women beauty, fitness or travel images from Instagram. Participants who saw the beauty and fitness images rated their own attractiveness lower than a control group that saw no images.

ournal Article Reporting Standards for Qualitative Research in Psychology
This American Psychologist open-access article lays out—for the first time—journal article reporting standards for qualitative research in psychology (Levitt, H.M., et al., Vol. 73, No. 1). The voluntary guidelines are designed to help authors communicate their work clearly, accurately and transparently. Developed by a working group of the APA Publications and Communications Board, the new standards describe what should be included in a qualitative research report, as well as in qualitative meta-analyses and mixed-methods research reports. They cover a range of qualitative traditions, methods and reporting styles. The article presents these standards and their rationale, details the ways they differ from quantitative research reporting standards and describes how they can be used by authors as well as by reviewers and editors.