Practical Investigation One - An investigation into the relationship between social media and quality of sleep

State the aim of your correlation. [1]

To investigate the relationship between daily social media usage and quality of sleep using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).

State the alternative/experimental hypothesis for your correlation. [3]

As daily social media use increases (as shown by weekly screentime average as measured on the iPhone or equivalent), so do sleep quality scores (as indicated by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index).

State the null hypothesis for your correlation. [2]

There will be no relationship between daily social media usage and quality of sleep (as indicated by PSQI). Any relationship found will be due to chance factors.

Explain how the co-variables were operationalised within your correlation. [2]

Explain how you operationalised sleep quality/social media use in your correlation. [2]

Social media use - operationalise by using weekly screentime average as measured on the iPhone or equivalent.

Quality of sleep - measured by asking participants to complete a PSQI immediately after waking up.

Identify one extraneous variable you considered before conducting your correlation and explain how you dealt with this. [3]

One extraneous variable I considered before conducting my correlation was medication which could affect quality of sleep, where side effects could be too severe and could limit a participants’ ability to sleep through the night.

This could be controlled for by using an exclusion criteria, and exclude participants who take prescription medicine.

This would reduce …

Briefly describe an extraneous variable that wasn’t controlled during your correlation. [2]

One extraneous variable I considered before conducting my correlation was alternative screen usage.

This is an issue because cause and effect cannot be properly established where spending time on other devices as well as social media, like television and gaming, could have been the reason for sleep quality rather than social media.

[This could be controlled for by measuring all screentime using a diary or logging system]