Group observation

Question 1

What was Radesky et al’s study?

Answer 1

Radesky et al looking into cellphone use at the dinner table. using an observation on 55 caregivers with at least 1 child. They found that 40 caregivers went on their phone during the meal.

Question 2

What background did we do?

Answer 2

Radesky et al.
Cell Phone Use While Walking Across Campus: An Observation and Survey

Question 3

What was the Cell Phone Use While Walking Across Campus: An Observation and Survey study?

Answer 3

Conducted a survey to find out uni students phone use and a field observation in 4 popular spots on campus.
They got 65 responses to the survey and found that 95.4% owned an iphone. 2 students owned an android and 1 didn’t own a smartphone.
They observed over 200 students and found that 43.5% were either texting or holding their cell phone. 35.6% didn’t have their phone out at all.

Question 4

What behaviours did we choose to observe while observing phone use?

Answer 4

Picking up the phone, scrolling and tapping.

Question 5

What 2 conditions did we choose to compare?

Answer 5

The older and younger generation.

Question 6

What location did we choose to complete the experiment?

Answer 6

We chose to conduct this at home making it a field experiment.

Question 7

What was the aim of this study?

Answer 7

The aim of this investigation is to find out whether age has an impact on the amount of phone use.

Question 8

What is the IV?

Answer 8

The age of the person being observed.

Question 9

What is the DV?

Answer 9

How much the participants tap/scroll/pick up their phones in a five minute period.

Question 10

What was our directional hypothesis?

Answer 10

There will be a difference between how much and how younger generations use their phones when measured against tapping, scrolling, and picking up their phones compared to older generations.

Question 11

What was the null hypothesis?

Answer 11

There will be no difference in behaviours displayed by phone usage between the older and younger generation.

Question 12

What were the possible confounding variables?

Answer 12

-real life conversations
- participants knowing they are being observed
- phone dying/needing charging

Question 13

What were the possible extraneous variables?

Answer 13

• time of day
• distractions typical of a home environment

Question 14

What was the methodology of this study?

Answer 14

Observe each participant for 5 minutes each at the same time of day.

Question 15

Why did we observe the participants for 5 minutes?

Answer 15

In order to get an observation of a decent length to get the most accurate data, but also without being too long.

Question 16

Why did we observe the participants at the same time of day?

Answer 16

It would be an unfair comparison if someone uses their phone more in the day than someone else who may use their phone more in the evening.

Question 17

What experimental design did we use?

Answer 17

Independent groups.

Question 18

Why did we choose experimental groups design?

Answer 18

Matched pairs wouldn’t work for the comparison between generations, and repeated measures wouldn’t work due to the fact that each participant is only experiencing one level of the independent variable (age).

Question 19

What was our target population?

Answer 19

Families within the Milford Haven area.

Question 20

What was our sampling frame?

Answer 20

Children from 11-14 and adults from 40-50.

Question 21

What sampling method did we use?

Answer 21

Opportunity sampling.

Question 22

Why did we use opportunity sampling?

Answer 22

Most effective, cost efficient and its easy to gain consent.

Question 23

What sampling procedure did we use?

Answer 23

An event sample.

Question 24

What descriptive statistic did we use?

Answer 24

Mode.

Question 25

Why did we use the mode?

Answer 25

We recorded our results and data as a tally, so the mode would show the most frequent activity out of the behavioural categories.

Question 26

What graphical representation is most appropriate?

Answer 26

Bar chart or a pie chart.

Question 27

Why is bar chart or pie chart appropriate?

Answer 27

As our results will be nominal data these graphs will allow us to easily compare the 2 age groups.

Question 28

What level of measurement was gathered in this research?

Answer 28

Nominal.

Question 29

Which statistical test is appropriate?

Answer 29

Chi squared.

Question 30

Why is chi squared most appropriate?

Answer 30

We have nominal data, we used an independent measures design and we aren’t looking for correlation.

Question 31

What methods of reliability did we use?

Answer 31

Inter-rater reliability - pilot study to see how similar we tallied
Test-retest - we observed the participants twice and compared their scores.

Question 32

How did we implement these reliability methods?

Answer 32

Have multiple observers observe the same participants at the same time, to make sure our inter-rater reliability is accurate we can conduct a pilot study with students from our year 13 psychology class and compare to see whether we get similar results.

Question 33

What were the potential validity issues?

Answer 33

Demand characteristics and social desirability.

Question 34

What methods of assessing validity did we use?

Answer 34

Content validity and face validity.

Question 35

How did we implement these validity methods?

Answer 35

content validity test would look at whether “picking up”, “tapping”, and “swiping” are valid categories to get an accurate picture of the amount of phone use for each age category in order to determine whether it is a fair test.
Face validity would look at how clear it is that the test measures what it claims to and that the purpose is clear, so it could be concluded that “picking up the phone”, “tapping the phone”, and “scrolling on the phone” are at face value, assumed to be categories in observing phone use.

Question 36

What ethical issues might we face?

Answer 36

Confidentiality, risk of harm, valid consent and working with vulnerable individuals.

Question 37

How did we deal with confidentiality?

Answer 37

When displaying our results, the participants will remain anonymous, only the age and possibly the gender of the participant will be known to others, and that is also something that we would gain consent for.

Question 38

How did we deal with risk of harm?

Answer 38

We will explicitly inform the participant of their free will to withdraw from the study so they shouldn’t feel harmed by the study physically or emotionally.

Question 39

How did we deal with valid consent and working with vulnerable individuals?

Answer 39

We are going to ask for parental permission as well as the permission of the participant themselves ensuring they understand exactly what it is we plan on doing.

Question 40

What equipment did we need?

Answer 40

Laptop/phone to make a tally.
Table to make a list of behaviours and tally the number of them.

Question 41

What were the steps to our procedure?

Answer 41

Conduct a pilot study amongst students in the psychology class (of those who have given consent to be observed) in order to check inter-rater reliability between observers
Observe how many times the participants pick up their phone, tap their screen, or scroll within a five minute period
Calculate how similar the results are between the 3 observers in order to work out inter-rater reliability
If the inter-rater reliability score is over 80%, then it can be assumed that even if during the actual observation only one observer is present, the results can be considered reliable anyway
If the inter-rater reliability is below 80%, repeat the pilot study to try to improve it
Gain valid consent from all participants, and parental consent for participants under the age of 18
Within a 5 minute period for each participant, observe how many times they either pick up their phone, tap the screen, or scroll
Tally the results
Analyse the findings using descriptive and inferential statistics