Monitor on Psychology - February 2012 - (Page 64)

outcasts reaching out One of social networking’s greatest benefits is its ability to bring meaningful friendships to people who might otherwise be shunned as outcasts. As research has shown, being friendless in high school can have lifelong consequences on a person’s cognitive, social and moral development. In one study, published in School Psychology Review, educational psychologist Beth Doll, PhD, of the University of Nebraska– Lincoln, found that friendless adolescents are more likely to be unemployed, aggressive or have poor mental health as adults. But thanks to text messaging and the Internet, socially anxious teens who might have been left out now have a voice. In a 2010 study with 626 children and teens, researchers at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia found that lonely adolescents reported using the Internet to make new friends, and that they communicated online significantly more frequently about personal and intimate topics than those who did not report loneliness. These teens also indicated that they communicated online more frequently because they did not feel as shy, were able to talk more comfortably and dared to say more (Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 2010). Further, in a 2010 study in Computers in Human Behavior, Malinda Desjarlais, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of Northern British Columbia, found that socially anxious teen boys who played computer games with friends reported better friendships than their socially anxious peers who used the computer by themselves. Online games, Desjarlais says, typically allow players to speak to each other via the computer — and the opportunity to communicate without making eye contact may put socially anxious boys at ease. The Internet’s capacity for social connection doesn’t only benefit shy and lonely teens. In a study of 63 Cornell University undergraduates, researchers found that people reported higher self-esteem after spending time on their Facebook profile than after time spent looking into a mirror (Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 2011). “Unlike a mirror, which reminds us of who we really are and may have a negative effect on self-esteem if that image does not match with our ideal, Facebook can show a positive version of ourselves,” says Cornell communications professor Jeffrey Hancock, PhD, one of the study’s co-authors. “We’re not saying that it’s a deceptive version of self, but it’s a positive one.” New research also suggests that youth who use blogs, websites and email to discuss politics and current events become more socially engaged over time. Students who spent more time seeking out information and participating in political and civic discussions in online communities, for example, reported higher levels of volunteerism, including raising money for charity, working on a local political 64 campaign and increased voting participation, even after controlling for their level of political interest and involvement. The three-year as-yet-unpublished study of 2,500 teens was led by Joseph Kahne, PhD, an education professor at Mills College. Lyn Mikel Brown, EdD, has seen first-hand the positive effects of the Internet on teen relationships and civic engagement in her job as director of Hardy Girls Healthy Women, a nonprofit girls’ advocacy organization based in Waterville, Maine. In one national media literacy program titled Powered by Girls and sponsored by Hardy Girls, teenage girls throughout the United States connect online via the social networking site Ning to discuss pop culture’s positive and negative media representations of girls and women and create their own e-zine to raise awareness of these issues. “It’s easy to say that the Internet is bad and filled with porn, and that’s the stuff that makes the news,” says Brown, professor of education at Colby College. “What doesn’t make the news is the degree to which girls are blogging and building coalitions around social and political projects. No, they may not be intimate, long-term relationships, but they impact girls’ sense of self in really positive ways because they connect with people who really get them.” A crisis of connection? But while the Internet may give teens a forum, it may also rob them of the richness of real-life friendships. Time spent online, after all, is time not spent with friends and could lessen the social support teens feel. For example, a 2010 study with 99 undergraduates led by Holly Schiffrin, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of Mary Washington, found that those who spent more time on the Internet reported decreased well-being. Most of the students also reported that the Internet was less useful than face-to-face communication for building relationships and increasing emotional closeness with others (Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 2010). “I definitely think that technology can be used to build and maintain in-person relations, but it’s not a satisfactory substitute for in-person relationships,” Schiffrin says. The Internet — and particularly online social networking websites — may also exacerbate the problems identified in a 2011 study in Personality and Psychology Bulletin. It found that people think their peers are happier than they really are, and this distortion of reality makes people lonely and dissatisfied with life. In the study, Dartmouth College business professor Alexander Jordan, PhD (a student in Stanford’s graduate psychology department at the time) asked 80 college freshmen about how often they thought other students had negative experiences, such as getting dumped, receiving a bad grade or feeling overloaded with work. Students were also asked to estimate how often their peers had positive experiences, such as going out with friends or acing tests. M o n i t o r o n p s y c h o l o g y • F e b ru a ry 2 0 1 2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Monitor on Psychology - February 2012

Monitor on Psychology - February 2012
Letters
President’s column
Contents
From the CEO
APA files two briefs in support of same-sex couples
New registry seeks to understand addiction recovery through ‘crowdsourcing’
APA launches a database of tests and measures
Watch for new member benefit: “APA Access”
Apply now for APA’s Advanced Training Institutes
PsycTHERAPY, APA’s new database, brings therapy demos to life
In Brief
APA scientists help guide tobacco regulation
A-mazing research
‘A machine for jumping to conclusions’
Judicial Notebook
Random Sample
Righting the imbalance
The beginnings of mental illness
Science Directions
Improving disorder classification, worldwide
Protesting proposed changes to the DSM
Interventions for at-risk students
Harnessing the wisdom of the ages
Anti-bullying efforts ramp up
Hostile hallways
R U friends 4 real?
Support for teachers
Speaking of Education
Record keeping for practitioners
Going green
At the intersection of law and psychology
Division Spotlight
Grants help solve society’s problems
Personalities

Monitor on Psychology - February 2012