Stephen Lee Murphy

Texting is the most ubiquitous form of computer-mediated communication, but its ability to satisfy relational needs in an always-on society remains under scrutiny. This study examines how message content and psychological context—specifically emotional fatigue and availability pressure—determine the relational value of texting. Analyzing 5,821 ecological momentary assessments from 112 adults, the results reveal that while texting and offline interactions positively predict connectedness, offline interactions demonstrate a meaningfully stronger effect. Within the context of texting, meaningful and affectionate interactions are associated with high levels of connectedness compared with those of small talk or practical exchanges, supporting the hierarchy of communication episodes proposed by communicate bond belong theory. Notably, neither emotional fatigue nor availability pressure significantly influences the association between texting and connectedness. These findings highlight that the relational benefits of texting are resilient to emotional fatigue and availability pressure and primarily depend on the nature of the content instead of users' psychological context.

Digital well-being is an emerging concept that refers to the balance that individuals experience between the benefits and the drawbacks of ubiquitous connectivity. This article presents a preregistered study testing a Digital Well-being Scale to measure this subjective experience. We administered the scale to 1438 Flemish adults. The psychometric analysis of the scale revealed a second-order two-factor structure, with perceived benefits (hedonic and eudaimonic) and perceived drawbacks from smartphone use (loss of control and functional impairment) as separate dimensions. These dimensions formed internally consistent subscales. The findings of this study thus point towards the Digital Well-being scale as a useful measurement tool for assessing the benefits and drawbacks that individuals experience from using digital technologies, that can be integrated in future research examining the antecedents, correlates and outcomes of digital well-being.

A conundrum of digital disconnection research is that individuals who report digitally disconnecting more often report poorer digital well-being. This article explores whether underlying differences in trait self-control might explain this conundrum. Study 1 (N = 1,315 adults) shows support for a Simpson’s paradox: Within persons, deliberate digital disconnection from the smartphone is linked to reduced smartphone ill-being, but between persons it links to increased smartphone ill-being. Negative between-person associations between trait self-control and both deliberate disconnection and smartphone ill-being suggest self-control as a confounder. Study 2 (N = 2,000 adults) explores this hypothesis further by contrasting more effortful, deliberated disconnection strategies with disengagement strategies reflecting situational goal-alignment. The findings show cognitive control associates positively with the use effortful disconnection strategies, and negatively with using less effortful disengagement strategies. Combined, the studies suggest digital disconnection takes more effort for some people than for others. This has implications for intervention design.

This study examines digital emotion regulation as a dynamic process, involving both processes of media selection and media effects. Using a large intensive-longitudinal data set with more than 50,000 experience sampling data points gathered from over 1,000 adults, we investigated cross-lagged associations between negative affect and two smartphone-based strategies for regulating negative emotions, namely emotion expression and avoidance. Results indicate that individuals are more likely to engage in both smartphone-based expression and avoidance following negative affect (i.e., media selection). However, we observed no meaningful effect of smartphone-based emotion regulation on subsequent negative affect (i.e., media effects). Additionally, we explored the person-specificity of these associations, showing that media selection effects vary meaningfully across individuals, while media effect associations do not. Finally, using passively sensed behavioral smartphone data, we found that smartphone-based emotion expression partially explained the association between negative affect and mobile communication. Similarly, smartphone-based avoidance partially explained the association between negative affect and social media use. Overall, these findings suggest that while individuals may turn to smartphone-based strategies such as negative emotion expression and avoidance in response to negative emotional states, clear evidence of their short-term effectiveness in reducing negative affect is still lacking. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

This mixed-methods study combines experience sampling and smartphone log data to explore momentary associations between passively sensed smartphone use, feeling rushed, and perceived task juggling in daily life. Using data from 774 adults, we analyze how four use features (frequency, duration, fragmentation, and notifications received) of four mobile app categories (email, social media, chat, and work communication) affect how rushed people feel, both directly and indirectly by increasing their perceived juggling load. At the between-person level, persons who use work communication apps more frequently and longer, and who receive more chat notifications, also felt more rushed on average. Findings also revealed within-person associations in the theorized direction (e.g., increased email frequency predicting increased task load and feelings of being rushed) for nearly all features of three out of four examined app categories, with social media use features as a noticeable exception. Perceived task juggling mediated these associations, suggesting that the examined smartphone use features contribute to feeling rushed by increasing the (real or perceived) load of tasks that people juggle within and across role domains. Some patterns differed based on age, gender, parenthood, and segmentation preference. Taken together, these findings support the theoretical link between technology use and experiences of time scarcity.

Nonsignificant findings in psychological research are frequently misinterpreted as reflecting the effect’s absence. However, this issue’s exact prevalence remains unclear, as does whether this issue is getting better or worse. In this pre-registered study, we sought to answer these questions by examining the discussion sections of 599 articles published across 10 psychology journals and three time points (2009, 2015 and 2021), and coding whether a nonsignificant finding was interpreted in such a way as to suggest the effect does not exist. Our models indicate that between 76% and 85% of psychology articles published between 2009 and 2021 that discussed a nonsignificant finding misinterpreted nonsignificance as reflecting no effect. It is likely between 54% and 62% of articles over this time period claimed explicitly that this meant no effect on the population of interest. Our findings also indicate that only between 4% and 8% of articles explicitly discussed the possibility that the nonsignificant effect may exist but could not be found. Differences in prevalence rates over time were nonsignificant. Collectively, our findings indicate this interpretative error is a major problem in psychology. We call on stakeholders with an interest in improving psychological science to prioritize tackling it.

How much we sleep at night is believed to impact next-day affective experiences. Yet, the existing research is encumbered by methodological limitations. To address this issue we harnessed experience sampling data (68,232 observations across 10,905 days) from 1,415 Belgian participants to examine whether normal variations in sleep duration linearly or nonlinearly influence next-day fatigue, stress, happiness, anxiety, despondence, and calmness. We also tested whether people that sleep less on average benefit more from a standard sleep increase than people that generally sleep more. We tested 10,080 models as part of a multiverse analyses in this non-pre-registered study. Findings indicate even small increases in sleep duration promote (albeit, in a small way) more positive affective experiences, that effects are generally stronger in the period after waking relative to later in the day, and that effect magnitudes differ markedly across affective experiences. Findings also tentatively indicate that the impact of sleep on fatigue and feelings of despondence soon after waking may be greater for people that sleep less on average. However, little support was gained for sleep effects being nonlinear. In short, our findings advance understanding of whether and to what extent sleep impacts various affective experiences, and reveal a range of important nuances to this relationship.

Objective: Smoking remains a global health challenge, with 1.14 billion active smokers worldwide. Many of these smokers seek cessation support. The rise of mHealth offers novel intervention methods, providing monitoring and tailored feedback. This study aimed to map the opportunities and challenges of integrating digital behaviour change interventions (mHealth) into smoking cessation practices by understanding professionals’ perceptions of these tools. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted involving semi-structured interviews with 11 experienced smoking cessation professionals in Flanders, Belgium. Data collection occurred between January and April 2023. Inductive thematic analysis was performed to identify key patterns and themes in the experts’ views regarding mHealth interventions. Results: The analysis revealed four primary themes: (1) The Inexorable March of Technology – experts acknowledged the inevitability of technology in smoking cessation but varied in enthusiasm; (2) The Shimmering Mirage of Possibility – technology was viewed as supplementary, offering efficiency and support but limited in depth; (3) The Footnotes to Enthusiasm – experts expressed concerns over privacy, inclusivity, and the potential for technology to displace human care; and (4) The Human Anchor – the irreplaceable role of human connection and therapeutic alliance, which digital tools might not be able to replicate. Conclusion: Experts believe mHealth interventions can augment smoking cessation support but should not replace human-driven care. A blended approach, integrating digital tools with traditional therapeutic relationships, offers the most promise. Addressing concerns about privacy, inclusivity, and most importantly the limits of digital therapeutic alliances is essential for successful mHealth implementation in smoking cessation.