Emotional Attachment to the Cell Phone

What it measures

This scale measures how emotionally bonded a person feels to their cell phone, including wanting it nearby and using it often. Song and Sela (2023) used a four-item subset of a slightly longer prior scale to assess this in a study of smartphone use and self-perception.

Response format

Likert scale, points not specified in source (a 7-point format is assumed, consistent with other measures in the study)

Scale items

• I feel lonely when my cell phone does not ring or vibrate for several hours.
• Using my cell phone relieves me of my stress.
• Using my cell phone makes me feel happy.
• I find it tough to focus whenever my cell phone is nearby.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Reliability was good (α = .87; Song and Sela 2023, Web Appendix B, p. 15), based on 152 MTurk participants. Validity was not separately discussed.

Citation

Song, Camilla Eunyoung and Aner Sela (2023), "Phone and Self: How Smartphone Use Increases Preference for Uniqueness," Journal of Marketing Research, 60 (3), 425-448.

Keywords

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