Megan L. Robbins

Naturalistic Observation of Health-Relevant Social Processes: The Electronically Activated Recorder Methodology in Psychosomatics

&NA; This article introduces a novel observational ambulatory monitoring method called the electronically activated recorder (EAR). The EAR is a digital audio recorder that runs on a handheld computer and periodically and unobtrusively records snippets of ambient sounds from participants’ momentary environments. In tracking moment-to-moment ambient sounds, it yields acoustic logs of people’s days as they naturally unfold. In sampling only a fraction of the time, it protects participants’ privacy and makes large observational studies feasible. As a naturalistic observation method, it provides an observer’s account of daily life and is optimized for the objective assessment of audible aspects of social environments, behaviors, and interactions (e.g., habitual preferences for social settings, idiosyncratic interaction styles, subtle emotional expressions). This article discusses the EAR method conceptually and methodologically, reviews prior research with it, and identifies three concrete ways in which it can enrich psychosomatic research. Specifically, it can a) calibrate psychosocial effects on health against frequencies of real-world behavior; b) provide ecological observational measures of health-related social processes that are independent of self-report; and c) help with the assessment of subtle and habitual social behaviors that evade self-report but have important health implications. An important avenue for future research lies in merging traditional self-report–based ambulatory monitoring methods with observational approaches such as the EAR to allow for the simultaneous yet methodologically independent assessment of inner, experiential aspects (e.g., loneliness) and outer, observable aspects (e.g., social isolation) of real-world social processes to reveal their unique effects on health. Abbreviations EAR = electronically activated recorder SECSI = Social Environment Coding of Sound Inventory

Linguistic Indicators of Patient, Couple, and Family Adjustment following Breast Cancer

This study examined how language reflective of emotional and social processes during a cancer‐related discussion relates to patient, couple, and family adjustment after breast cancer. It investigated whether emotional expression or relational focus, manifested in language use, indicates healthy family coping following breast cancer.

Naturalistically Observed Swearing, Emotional Support, and Depressive Symptoms in Women Coping With Illness

OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to explore the intra- and interpersonal consequences of swearing. Specifically, it investigated what implications swearing has for coping with and adjustment to illness. METHODS The present project combined data from two pilot studies of 13 women with rheumatoid arthritis and 21 women with breast cancer. Participants wore the Electronically Activated Recorder, an unobtrusive observation sampling method that periodically records snippets of ambient sounds, on weekends to track spontaneous swearing in their daily interactions, and completed self-reported measures of depressive symptoms and emotional support. RESULTS Naturalistically observed swearing in the presence of others, but not alone, was related to decreases in reported emotional support and increases in depressive symptoms over the study period. Further, decreases in emotional support mediated the effect of swearing on disease-severity adjusted changes in depressive symptoms. CONCLUSION These exploratory results are consistent with the notion that swearing can sometimes repel emotional support at the expense of psychological adjustment. This is one of the first studies to examine the role of swearing, a ubiquitous but understudied psychological phenomenon, in a medical context.

New Evaluation of the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR): Obtrusiveness, Compliance, and Participant Self-selection Effects

The Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) is a method for collecting periodic brief audio snippets of participants’ daily lives using a portable recording device. The EAR can potentially intrude into people’s privacy, alter their natural behavior, and introduce self-selection biases greater than in other types of social science methods. Previous research (Mehl and Holleran, 2007, hereafter M&H) has shown that participant non-compliance with, and perceived obtrusiveness of, an EAR protocol are both low. However, these questions have not been addressed in jurisdictions that require the consent of all parties to recording conversations. This EAR study required participants to wear a button bearing a microphone icon and the words “This conversation may be recorded” to comply with California’s all-party consent law. Results revealed self-reported obtrusiveness and non-compliance were actually lower in the present study than in the M&H study. Behaviorally assessed non-compliance did not differ between the two studies. Participants in the present study talked more about being in the study than participants in the M&H study, but such talk still comprised <2% of sampled conversations. Another potential problem with the EAR, participant self-selection bias, was addressed by comparing the EAR volunteers’ HEXACO personality dimensions to a non-volunteer sample drawn from the same student population. EAR volunteers were significantly and moderately higher in Conscientiousness, and lower in Emotionality, than non-volunteers. In conclusion, the EAR method can be successfully implemented in at least one all-party consent state (California). Interested researchers are encouraged to review this procedure with their own legal counsel.

Practical Suggestions for Legal and Ethical Concerns With Social Environment Sampling Methods

The capabilities offered to psychology researchers by new technology have catapulted the field toward a deeper understanding of people’s social experiences. However, it concurrently increases the need to consider the ethical and legal concerns of capturing information about bystanders. This article outlines the legal and ethical issues that researchers should consider when conducting social environment sampling research. The goal is to serve as a “quick start guide” to the unique legal and ethical challenges that arise with social environment sampling, and to offer some solutions.

Words Matter: Implementing the Electronically Activated Recorder in Schizotypy.

In schizophrenia-spectrum populations, analyzing the words people use has offered promise for unlocking information about affective states and social behaviors. The electronically activated recorder (EAR) is an application-based program that is combined with widely used smartphone technology to capture a person’s real-world interactions via audio recordings. It improves on the ecological validity of current methodologies by providing objective and naturalistic samples of behavior. This study is the first to implement the EAR in people endorsing elevated traits of schizophrenia-spectrum personality disorders (i.e., schizotypy), and we expected the EAR to (a) differentiate high and low schizotypy groups on affective disturbances and social engagement and (b) show that high schizotypy status moderates links between affect and social behavior using a multimethod approach. Lexical analysis of EAR recordings revealed greater negative affect and decreased social engagement in those high in schizotypy. When assessing specific traits, EAR and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) converged to show that positive schizotypy predicted negative affect. Finally, high schizotypy status moderated links between negative affect and social engagement when the EAR was combined with EMA. Adherence did not influence results, as both groups wore the EAR more than 90% of their waking hours. Findings supported using the EAR to assess real-world expressions of personality and functioning in schizotypy. Evidence also showed that the EAR can be used alongside EMA to provide a mixed-method, real-world assessment that is high in ecological validity and offers a window into the daily lives of those with elevated traits of schizophrenia-spectrum personality disorders.

A Comparison of Parent and Child Narratives of Children’s Recovery From Trauma:

Little is known about correspondence between parents’ and children’s narratives after a child’s exposure to trauma. We examined 24 parent and child narratives of a child’s recovery using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count, a software program that yields the percentage of words that fall into linguistic categories (e.g., personal pronouns) and psychological categories (e.g., emotion words). Analyses revealed significant parent–child associations for number of words, rate of cognitive processing words, and rate of anxiety words. No associations were found for anger or sadness words. With both similarities and differences in parents’ and children’s narratives, the current findings encourage further research in the domain of posttrauma narratives.

Naturalistically observing noncancer conversations among couples coping with breast cancer

This study revealed the landscape of noncancer conversations, identifying topics and types of everyday conversation, and examined links to psychological adjustment among couples coping with breast cancer.

Investigating the role of the faculty advisor in doctoral students’ career trajectories

ABSTRACT During graduate school, students learn to navigate the workplace that many will seek to enter. For those pursuing an academic career, the faculty advisor is invaluable. Although research has revealed associations between advisor satisfaction and specific academic outcomes, the advisor’s role in students’ career prospects is unknown. Thus, the aim of this research was to investigate the advisor’s role in PhD students’ career trajectories, specifically their goals and outcomes on the job market. Online surveys were used in two studies: Study 1 explored the advisor’s role in the career trajectories of students recently on the job market, and Study 2 surveyed PhD students just entering the job market. Study 1 revealed that those who saw their advisor as a mentor and had greater mentoring satisfaction were more likely to accept tenure-track positions and were more satisfied with their job offer. Study 2 revealed that students who talked to their advisor, regardless of mentoring satisfaction, were more likely to apply to and prioritize tenure-track positions. Taken together, our findings suggest that by serving as mentors and talking to students about the job market, advisors may facilitate the successful pursuit of tenure-track positions; however, mentoring satisfaction may depend on career outcomes.

Meta-analytic evidence that we-talk predicts relationship and personal functioning in romantic couples:

Interdependence is a hallmark of romantic relationships, and first-person plural pronoun use (“we-talk”) can indicate interdependence between self and other. We-talk often positively, but sometimes negatively, relates to relationship and personal functioning. A meta-analysis of 30 studies supported a positive association overall between one’s own and partners’ we-talk and relationship and personal functioning, as well as each of five indicators (relationship outcomes, relationship behaviors, mental and physical health, and health behaviors) for individuals in romantic relationships. Partner use of we-talk was generally more strongly related to relationship functioning than own use. Females’ and spouses’ use of we-talk was related more to males’ and patients’ functioning, respectively. In general, our results revealed that we-talk was most strongly associated with relationship functioning and that partner effects tended to be stronger than actor effects. Both patterns of meta-analytic findings support the notion that we-talk reflects interdependence between romantic partners.