Theory gaps in Psychology

Representative open questions

Showing 22 of 25 — one per source paper, highest-quality first.

• Relational energy and coping flexibility among Chinese university students: the mediating role of optimism and the moderating influence of cognitive reappraisal (2026) · doi

  While cognitive reappraisal is identified as a moderator, alternative emotion regulation moderators remain unexplored. Future research should examine whether other moderators such as social support quality, stress appraisal tendencies, or personality traits (openness, emotional stability) strengthen or weaken the conditional indirect effect of relational energy on coping flexibility through optimism.

• Effect of Van Hiele group guided-discovery instructional approach on student engagement in learning plane geometry (2026) · doi

  The experimental group showed decreased favorable attitudes toward mathematics instruction (contrary to the control group improvement), despite higher engagement scores. Research is needed to identify why the VHGGDIA method improves behavioral and cognitive engagement in plane geometry while potentially reducing affective attitudes toward mathematics more broadly.

• Effects of AI-enhanced immersive learning environments on English proficiency, intercultural competence, and learner engagement (2026) · doi

  While Table 10 reports significant differences in behavioral analytics metrics (click count, tasks selected, dwell time) between the AI-C and other groups, the study does not establish causal mechanisms explaining how increased interaction volume and extended dwell time specifically contribute to intercultural communicative competence development versus simple performance on linguistic measures.

• MOTIVATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS IN LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: FROM THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS TO PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICE (2026) · doi

  The distinction between technostress (anxiety and fatigue from technology use) and technological barriers (system malfunctions, interface complexity, device compatibility) is identified as affecting student motivation, but no empirical framework is provided for measuring or disentangling these effects in LMS environments or for tailoring interventions to each barrier type.

• Digital displacement (2026) · doi

  The mediation analysis revealed that sense of belonging did not mediate the relationship between digital displacement and psychological distress in international students; future research should investigate the specific psychological mechanisms beyond belonging (such as technostress, unmet social needs, or recognition deficits) that explain how digital displacement directly impacts mental health outcomes in fully online higher education.

• Living with loss: environmental grief, solastalgia, and young adults’ experiences after wildfires (2026) · doi

  While the paper identifies 'active hope' and participation in physical repair as therapeutic mechanisms that re-empower wildfire survivors, empirical investigation is needed on how to systematically integrate these psychosocial dimensions—specifically emotional restoration and ecosystem recovery participation—into engineering-centric disaster response protocols to measure therapeutic efficacy.

• Living Well with Lifestyle Medicine: A group consultation approach to delivering Lifestyle Medicine Intervention in Primary Care (2021) · doi

  The paper identifies a complex inter-relationship among patient perception of well-being, confidence, motivation to make lifestyle changes, and objective physiological parameters, but does not specify which mechanisms drive the positive psychology effects observed. Future research should use longitudinal mediation analysis to determine whether improved health perceptions directly increase confidence and motivation, or whether weight loss is the primary driver of psychological improvements in lifestyle medicine group consultations.

• Rhythmic skills mediate the link between music training and cognition via attention and phonological processing (2026) · doi

  The study demonstrates that implicit timing functions differently between high and low synchronizers (high synchronizers benefit from predictable stimulus presentation while low synchronizers do not), but the neural or cognitive mechanisms underlying this differential processing remain unspecified. Neuroimaging studies or computational modeling of temporal expectation in these populations are needed to characterize the divergent implicit timing mechanisms.

• The silent accumulation: AI as mental contaminant (2026) · doi

  The environmental analogy for AI as mental contaminant may not fully capture technology's societal impacts because technological interaction involves conscious human agency and social construction, unlike passive chemical contamination. Future research should empirically explore how human agency and technological influence interact in complex ways that neither technological determinism nor social constructivism alone can explain, particularly through longitudinal analysis of cumulative AI exposure.

• Teachers’ Flexibility and Coping Mechanisms among Teachers Impacted by School Closures (2026) · doi

  The research identifies adversity-as-growth cognitive transformation as enabling resilience, but does not specify what individual or contextual characteristics predict which teachers will adopt growth-oriented thinking versus helplessness-oriented thinking during institutional disruption, nor does it test interventions to facilitate this cognitive shift.

• Development, psychometric validation, and correlates of the 15-item quality of life in epilepsy scale (QOLIE-15) (2026) · doi

  The strong independent associations between cognitive complaints (ABNAS scores), stigma (ESS), anxiety (LAS-10), and QOL in QOLIE-15 regression models suggest these psychosocial factors contribute additively, but mechanistic studies examining whether cognitive impairment and anxiety interact to amplify stigma perception and QOL reduction remain absent.

• Rethinking language, cognition and assessment in psychosis: How bilingualism challenges psychiatry and how natural language processing can help (2026) · doi

  Neuropsychological studies document cognitive impairments in schizophrenia across the lifespan and associations between metabolic syndrome and neurocognition, but the excerpt does not detail whether bilingual language experience modifies the relationship between metabolic/cardiovascular adverse effects of antipsychotic drugs and neurocognitive decline trajectories.

• Examination Stress and OSCE Performance in Basic Clinical Skills: A Study Among Medical Students (2026) · doi

  The absence of a significant relationship between study duration and OSCE outcomes may be explained by differences in learning approaches, suggesting need for investigation into effective learning skills and appropriate study methods.

• Cannabis use frequency may differentially impact cognitive performance in young adults with and without HIV (2026) · doi

  There is a need for understanding effects of the full range of cannabis use for vulnerable young adults, particularly regarding how mild to moderate use may have some benefits for individuals with HIV, an inflammatory disorder.

• Impact of subanesthetic ketamine delivered via AmyloLipid nanovesicle (ALN)-based intranasal system on biobehavioral responses in an animal model of PTSD (2026) · doi

  The relationship between specific neurobiological markers (NPY, BDNF) and behavioral responses to intranasal ketamine via ALN delivery in PTSD requires deeper investigation.

• CHATGPT-SUPPORTED PROJECT-BASED LEARNING IN DEVELOPING MOTIVATION, CRITICAL THINKING, AND POETRY APPRECIATION SKILLS (2026) · doi

  The mechanisms underlying how AI scaffolding specifically reduces different types of writing anxiety (somatic, cognitive, avoidance) require deeper investigation.

• PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS AND TRANSFORMATION OF STUDENTS' ATTITUDES TOWARDS LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ONGOING WAR IN UKRAINE (2026) · doi

  The theoretical framework underlying language learning as an adaptive survival mechanism requires further development to explain the specific psychological pathways through which language practice stabilizes emotional state.

• The Interplay of ChatGPT Literacy and Sustainability Perceptions: Evidence from Tertiary-Level EFL Learners (2026) · doi

  There is a gap between cognitive awareness and behavioral actions toward sustainability; learners comprehend sustainability conceptually yet struggle to apply this understanding in daily behaviors.

• Emotional intelligence and intercultural growth: Examining affective dimensions in the EFL public speaking classroom (2026) · doi

  Future research agendas can continue to deepen the integration of EI, affective dimensions, and intercultural communication in language learning.

• Inteligencia emocional sobre los celos y la dependencia emocional en parejas de la selva peruana (2026) · doi

  The construct of emotional intelligence could be neutralized by contexts where emotions and bonds are structured collectively around needs, mandates and roles that go beyond the individual plane.

• Mathematics Anxiety and its Impact on Academic Achievement (2026) · doi

  The paper identifies the interplay of environmental, societal, and personal factors in perpetuating mathematics anxiety but does not provide detailed mechanisms or comprehensive theoretical models explaining how these factors interact.

• Digital Surveillance and Self-Censorship in Autocracies: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Kazakhstan (2026) · doi

  Approval or tolerance for state surveillance may function as a coping mechanism for cognitive and emotional stress, but this psychological mechanism remains inadequately theorized and empirically tested.