personal investigation Flashcards
what is the experiment
a non-participant observation of mobile phone use
what is the hypothesis
gender effects how much time sixth formers spend on mobile phones during breaktime
- there is no difference in the amount of time spent by male and female sixth formers on their mobile phones
what type of hypothesis is this
non-directional hypothesis - non conclusive evidence
what are the extraneous variables
- time of day
- number of people in the common room
- day of the week
variables
no IV or DV as it is an experiment
the variables being studied are gender (male and female) amount engaged (operationalised)
cofounding variables
- day of the week
- who are the participants with
- personality
how were the variables controlled
- done at breaktime
- few people ( hard to control)
- day that most people are in ( monday)
potential cofounding variables
we cant deal with everyone in sixth form, same ages , being in sixth form gives them similarities
what was the methodology/design
there is no experimental design.
The observation will consist of 10 participants (first 5 males to walk in + first 5 females to walk in)
each will be assigned to a researcher - to record who will use their phones in the first mins/secs
strengths of methodology
(non participant observation)
ecological validity
no demand characteristics
weakness of methodology
lack of reliability, no cause or effect relationship
procedures
idea was put to an ethical committee
permission from head teacher + sixth former
presumptive consent obtained
1. 10 researchers sat in varying places
2. each person was debriefed
observing 1st male and first female
event sampling
p’s were observed throughout the ‘event’ of breaktime
- so wont miss any phone acitivity
- just a snapshot
target population
males and females in sixthform
5 males and 5 females first to enter common room
issues of access
head teacher and head of sixth form
sampling technique
opportunity sampling - first 5 males and 5 females to enter
strengths and weakness of opportunity sampling
- convenience= participants from the target population are available and the researcher are able to observe but NOT REPRESENTATIVE
descriptive statistics
ratio data was collected in form of time
to work out mean, median and mode of each group= to calculate range
graphical representation
mean is in a table for comparison + pie chart to show division of use and non-use for males and females
inferential statistics
independent groups design (males females)
and times spent on mobiles (ratio data)
Mann Whitney U test
for 2 tailed test with 10 p’s the critical value of u = 2
observed value is 6.2
higher than critical value
accept null hypthesis ?
ACCEPT NULL
REJECT HYPOTHESIS
no difference in amount of time spent on males and female
issues of validity
- operationalisation of mobile phones
- demand characteristics
- researcher bias
why is timings/accuracy and issue
how was this controlled?
some researchers are more accurate than others
how was this controlled?
strict instructions were given all time
why is individual differences and issue
how was this controlled?
may affect outcome if there is a reason such as uni offers / parent to call
make sample as large as possible for obersvation
ethical issues
- lack of informed consent
- potential psychological harm
- confidentiality
- deception
- lack of right to withdraw
issues of reliability
- time of day
- timings/accuracy
3.individual differences of participants
two ethical issues and how they were dealt with
- lack of informed consent- as participants were unaware they were being observed but this was dealt with being informed after observation during debriefing
- lack of privacy - as participants privacy was invaded, dealt with by observing participants in common room (public area) therefore no expectation of privacy
issues of validity
- demand characteristics
- researcher bias
- operationalisation of mobile phone use
operationisation of mobile phone use
just looking at time is superficial - no reasons why
dealt- content validity
demand characteristics - IVal
p’s may spot the researchers watching them
dealt- be as inconspicuous as possible- blend in
researcher bias IVal
may influence outcomes if we know who uses mobile alot
dealt- first 5 males and females to walk in
