Personal Investigation— Students Mobile Phone Usage When Alone Or In A Group

Question 1

What is the IV and DV being assessed?
-observation study a non participant observation of mobile phone usage.

Answer 1

Iv- the mobile phone usage of the Billborough College students, whether they are communicating (texting, phone call) or using the Internet (social media, games)
Dv- whether this varies when students are alone (only 1 person) or in a group (more than one person sat within a meter of each other)

Question 2

-State and operationalised hypothesis
-for a non-participant observation of mobile phone usage

Answer 2

There will be a difference in Bilborough students mobile phone usage (whether they are using their phone for communication or Internet usage) dependent on whether they are alone (1 student on their own) or within a group (more than 1 student sat within a metre of each other)

Question 3

Why was a nondirectional hypothesis chosen for the study of a non-participant observational on mobile phone usage?

Answer 3

Nondirectional, as there was no pre-existing research to base the outcome of the study on

Question 4

State appropriate, null hypothesis for a non-participant observation on mobile phone usage

Answer 4

There will be no difference in Billborough College students mobile phone usage (whether they are using their phone for communication or Internet), when they are alone (1 student on their own) or in a group (more than 1 student sat in m of each other). Any difference will be down to chance.

Question 5

What is the sample group used for a non-participant observational mobile phone usage?

Answer 5

Bilborough College students between 16 and 19 years

Question 6

What was the sampling method used for a non-participant observation on mobile phone usage and what are the strengths and weaknesses of this?

Answer 6

Opportunity
+ it is quick and easy to collect the sample as we observe Bilborough students that are present within the college during the observation
-opportunity sampling uses students who are available in the college at the time, so everyone free at the time may take the same subject, so may not be representative of all college students.
Event sampling
+

Question 7

What is a step-by-step description of your procedure for a non-participant observation on mobile phone usage

Answer 7

-The observation of the mobile phone usage of Bilborough College students depends on whether they are alone (1 student on their own), or in a group (1or more student sat in a metre of each other) will be a non-participant observation
-Billborough College, students will be observed from a distance of around 1.5 m, to see whether they are using their phone for Internet usage (games, social media) or communication (texting ,phone calls)
-when, observing the mobile phone usage of Bilborough College students, we will have predetermined behavioural categories to tally the mobile phone usage into

Question 8

Identify an appropriate descriptive statistic for a non-part of an observation on mobile phone usage and explain why this is appropriate

Answer 8

Mode
-The mode is the most appropriate measure of central tendency when looking into Billborough College, students, mobile phone usage, this is because there is no mean so standard deviation cannot be calculated and there would be no range as we have recorded the frequency of each behaviour

Question 9

What is an appropriate graphical representation for a non-participant observation on mobile phone usage and why is it appropriate?

Answer 9

Bar chart
-as the data collected from our observation on Billborough College, students, mobile phone usage, was nominal categories for communication or Internet, When students were alone, or in a group

Question 10

What is an appropriate inferential statistic test for a non-participant observation on mobile phone usage and why is it appropriate?

Answer 10

Chi Squared test
-The study was looking into the difference in mobile phone usage, when bilborough students were alone or with others
-The design of the observation was independent groups, as it was looking into two unrelated categories of whether the Bilborough students were alone, or with other students
-The data of the study was nominal as the categories of Billborough College, students, mobile phone usage we categorised of the different sub groups that fell into communication or Internet

Question 11

Briefly summarise your findings for a non-participant observation on mobile phone usage

Answer 11

Ask the observation value was 1.6426, which is less than the critical value of 3.84 the findings are not significant and therefore the null hypothesis is accepted
Mode for the category of alone was Internet
The mode for the category of group was Internet

Question 12

What conclusions did you draw from your study on a non-participant observation of mobile phone usage

Answer 12

As the observed value was 1.64, which is less than the critical value of 3.48 the findings are not significant meaning the normal hypothesis is accepted, this means any difference in mobile phone usage of Billborough College students, whether alone or in a group will be down to chance

Question 13

I identify issues with reliability, you faced in your research of a non-participant observation of mobile phone usage

Answer 13

-The observation of Billborough College students mobile phone usage was only conducted once, so would lack consistency (reliability) of measuring mobile phone usage outside of the study
-when the observation of Billborough College students mobile phone usage was carried out, he lacked consistency (reliability) as it was hard to determine which phone usage fell into what category sometimes

Question 14

Explain how you established your research on a non-participant observation of mobile phone usage was reliable

Answer 14

-During our study on Bilborough College students mobile phone usage, interobserver reliability was used as all 3 researchers who were observing students mobile phone usage stayed together whilst observing the phone usage and all agreed on the categories

Question 15

Identify two issues with validity faced in your research on a non-participant observation of mobile phone usage

Answer 15

-Event something was used during busy periods of Billborough College, this lead to us, not always being able to mark down every single Billborough College students mobile phone usage
-we only conducted the study within the morning, this would be inaccurate as not, all students would be available in bilborough college at the time to measure the phone usage

Question 16

Explain how your research on a non-participant observation of mobile phone usage was valid

Answer 16

We checked the categories of Internet and communication and within a group or on alone with a psychology teacher to check the categories were operationalised properly

Question 17

Identify two ethical issues within your research, and how you dealt with these on a non-participant observation of mobile phone usage

Answer 17

-what issue is that elect informed consent as the bilborough students being investigated in the observation didn’t consent being observed. However, the observation took part within a public area of Bilborough College, so it was appropriate as the investigation was to analyse the type of mobile usage not any other individual behaviour.
-another issue would be an invasion of privacy as we are looking at what Billborough College students are doing on their phone. However, during the observation, we stood an appropriate distance away from the student, so we could only see how they are using their phone. Not specifically what they were using their phone for.

Question 18

What are at least two ways which the research on a non-participant observation of phone usage could be improved

Answer 18

One way which the research on Bilborough colleges students mobile phone usage when alone or in a group could be improved, would be conducting the study in a public place outside of the college to increase the population used and have a larger variety of people therefore increase in the population ability as before. We were only using Billborough College students and now we’re using the whole of the general population . this also would be a better representation of how mobile phones are used in day-to-day life. Not how they used them in Billborough College as in bilborough College they are mainly used for work.
-before the observation, a more for a pilot study, could’ve been conducted to identify the different categories of Bilborough colleges students mobile phone usage better And to create more categories to accurately be able to place Bilborough students phone usage into categories.