Experiment

Hypothesis

• Experimental: There will be a difference in the number of times males and females hold their phone, text on their phone and scroll on their phone.

• Null: There will not be a difference in the number of times males and females hold their phone, text on their phone and scroll on their phone.

• We decided to do an observation, which is a non-experimental method, meaning there are no IVs and DVs.

Methodology

• A field experiment, done by observing children around the school and marking down phone usage. This increases ecological validity.

  • This was done during lunch time.

• A covert observation, meaning participants were not aware they were being observed

• We used independent groups, as there every person was only marked down once.

• Opportunity sampling, by using what children were walking around at the time.

  • We used presumptive consent.

• We made three behavioural categories; holding phones, scrolling and texting.

Descriptive statistics

• We used the mode as this was nominal data, meaning:

  • Females and males were most likely to hold their phone

Reliability

Internal

• Inter-rater reliability - The researchers conferred before each tick to ensure that they were correctly measuring the behaviour.

• There were fixed categories, decreasing confusion and allowing quantitative results to be drawn.

External

• N/A

Validity

Internal

• Inter-rater reliability - The researchers conferred before each tick to ensure that they were correctly measuring the behaviour.

• There were fixed categories, decreasing confusion and allowing quantitative results to be drawn.

External

• It was a field experiment, allowing for higher ecological validity.

• Only measured comprehensive school age children, meaning it cannot be generalised across all populations.

Assessing validity

• Face validity - We looked at the categories and they appeared to measure a range of different phone usages.

Ethical issues

• We need to consider:

  • Privacy: No identifiable information was marked down, only gender.

  • Risk of stress: Sixth formers walking around areas where phones are banned could cause the children to be scared. This was alleviated by being covert.

  • Valid consent: We asked children around the school whether they consented and they said yes, giving us presumptive consent.

  • Working with vulnerable individuals: We are working with children. They gave presumptive consent.