The Phobia of the Modern World: Nomophobia

"Conceptualization of Nomophobia and Investigation of Associated Psychological Constructs"

Dr. Özge Enez

• Publisher: eKitap Projesi
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9786257287647
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Clinical Psychology
• Index: Psychology

In the modern world, the mobile phone has become an indispensable part of modern life. On the one hand, the mobile phone allows maintaining interpersonal contacts and fulfilling work or school duties regardless of time and location. It enables individuals to plan their daily routines and their free times. On the other hand, a mobile phone is a tool that can cause several psychological and physical problems. Nomophobia, which is considered the phobia of the modern era, is only one of these problems. In the simplest terms, nomophobia is the fear of being without a mobile phone and the intense anxiety and distress experienced in the absence of a mobile phone. Although technological addictions such as smartphone addiction and internet addiction have been studied extensively in the psychology literature, it is striking that nomophobia is a neglected psychological problem. However, nomophobia is emerging as a common phenomenon among young adults, as most young adults use the mobile phone for about 5 hours a day. Some users define the mobile phone as a friend and the meaning of life. More importantly, prevalence studies have revealed that about half of young adults suffer from nomophobia. Since nomophobia causes many serious consequences such as physical pain, social problems and a decrease in academic achievement, nomophobia studies are important and beneficial especially for the younger generation.

This book has been written to emphasize the importance of nomophobia and to provide detailed information about the diagnosis, treatment, prevalence, predictors and symptoms of nomophobia. In addition, this book aimed to conceptualize nomophobia theoretically. Also, based on the theoretical conceptualization, psychological structures that can cause nomophobia have been identified. The theoretical conceptualization has been tested and validated using scientific methods. This book, which contains a comprehensive literature review and scientific research, can shed light on researchers for future nomophobia studies. I also believe that this book will make valuable contributions to the clinical field by providing a better understanding of the factors that should be considered in prevention programs and treatment interventions developed for nomophobia. I hope that scholars, clinicians, and students from a variety of disciplines will find my efforts helpful. Lastly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Dr. Özden Yalç?nkaya Alkar for her constant support, advice, and understanding during my doctoral process.

Dr. Özge ENEZ

ABOUT AUTHOR:

Özge Enez, PhD, graduated from Istanbul University, Department of Psychology in 2009. Özge completed her master's degree in clinical psychology at Queen Mary, University of London in 2013 and her doctorate in psychology at Ankara Y?ld?r?m Beyaz?t University in 2021. Since 2014, she is a faculty member at the Department of Guidance and Psychological Counselling, Giresun University, Turkey. Özge has extensive experience in teaching at the university. Since 2014, she has been teaching undergraduate courses such as Child Psychology, Interpersonal Communication, Developmental Psychology, Psychological Counseling Skills. Her research area is Clinical Psychology and her research interests are smartphone addiction, nomophobia, grief, death, psychopathology, and emotions.

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

In the early 2000s, information and communication technologies (ICT) have developed rapidly and the mobile phone (MP) has become an indispensable part of modern life. Today, advances in mobile technology have led to a situation where many users are permanently on the internet and connected to other people (Vorderer et al., 2016) and use it for a variety of purposes such as notepad, camera, shopping, and navigation (Lee et al., 2014; Sirakaya, 2018). Turkey Statistical Institute (TSI) reported that the number of MP subscribers was approximately 52 million in 2006, 70 million in 2013, and 81 million in 2018 (Turkey Statistical Institute [TSI], 2018). More recently, TSI reported that mobile phone ownersip rate was 94.2% for the 16-24 age range, and 98% for the 25-34 age range (TSI, 2020). While the number of MP users worldwide was 3.668 billion in 2016, it was 6.055 in 2020 (O’Dea, 2021).

Similar to MP ownership, over time, social networking sites (SNS) and MP applications have become popular among university students (Uzun et al., 2016). An average user has more than 40 apps on the MP (Deng et al., 2018). As reported by Smith (2015), 91% of youth used the MP for social media, 75% of youth used it to watch videos, and 64% of youth used it to listen to music. Additionally, 22% of youth log on to social networks at least 10 times within one day (Malik, 2018; O’Keeffe & Clarke-Pearson, 2011). Previous studies have also revealed that university students use the MP almost six hours a day (Andrews et al., 2015; Souza et al., 2020; Xu et al., 2015).

Moreover, the MP is not only a technological device because users form an emotional bond with it (Konok et al., 2016; Nie et al., 2020), and accept it as a source of safety (Fowler & Noyes, 2015; Trub & Barbot, 2016). Therefore, separation from it causes anxiety (Arpaci, 2017; Cheever et al., 2014; Clayton et al., 2015; Mannion, 2018; Parent, 2014), stress, proximity seeking behaviour (Han et al., 2017; Konok et al., 2017), and several intense negative emotions (Hoffner et al., 2015). As an axample, Vincent (2011) investigated the emotional words individuals used to describe their interaction with the MP. The most commonly expressed emotions were anxiety and panic. The participants stated that they experienced these negative emotions because of the fear of losing connectivity with others and losing personal data contained on the MP. The participants also mentioned that it provides a sense of security. These studies can be accepted as evidence of the emotional bond established with the MP. The widespread use of mobile phones causes various psychological problems. One of these problems is nomophobia. The main purpose of this book is to explain nomophobia in detail, to conceptualize nomophobia and to identify some psychological factors that cause nomophobia. Therefore, in the following sections, first of all, nomophobia is explained in detail in light the of the previous literature. Secondly, the model developed for the conceptualization of nomophobia based on the perspectives of the compensatory Internet use theory (CIUT) (Kardefelt-Winther, 2014) and the uses and gratifications theory (UGT) (Blumler, 1979) was tested. Lastly, some inferences and recommendations for the treatment and prevention of nomophobia were made based on the findings.

1.1. Nomophobia

1.1.1. Definition of Nomophobia

Nomophobia is an abbreviation for no-mobile-phone phobia and is evaluated as a disorder of the modern world (Durak, 2019; Yildirim, 2014). The nomophobia term was first used in 2008 by the United Kingdom Post Office in a study to determine the concerns of MP users. 2163 users participated in the study. It was found that 53% o...

Table of contents

• LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
• LIST OF TABLES
• CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER 2. THEORETICAL CONCEPTUALISATION OF NOMOPHOBIA
• CHAPTER 3. TESTING THE NOMOPHOBIA MODEL
• CHAPTER 4. DISCUSSION
• CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION
• 6. REFERENCES