Students distracted by cell phones

Methodology
This brief report is part of a wider project. What is stipulated and explained in this treatise will form the cornerstone of a wider project that is currently underway. A number of important questions will be answered. All of them center on the methodology that will be completed as part of the larger study that the author of this report will be doing. The questions and items that will be answered to include the general research question, the hypothesis of the study, the dependent variable, the independent variable, whether the study will use between subjects and/or within subjects, the design control that will be in place when it comes to those subjects, how participant bias will be limited, how experimenter bias will be limited and at least one potential confound or issue that might arise. While the research question in play here is not a terrible complex one, the research will need to be done carefully to get usable and applicable results.
Analysis
When it comes to experimentation, there is a huge trade-off when it comes to the two primary methods. Research that is not in a controlled environment can be tricky since it is not possible to control all eventualities or possibilities. However, the results are much better in that the research can commonly be done without the people knowing they are being tracked and tallied. This foreknowledge can lead to what is known as the Hawthorne Effect (HBS, 2018). Conversely, studies in a laboratory or similar setting can be extremely controlled and regulated. However, any people involved will know that they are being observed for at least some reason. They may not know what is being assessed with specificity. However, they know they are being watched.
With that in mind, the research question relates to people being distracted by their smartphone as they walk about. What will be tested is the following hypothesis:
H1: Bringing awareness to the dangers of distracted walking/travelling due to smartphones leads to people being more careful or cautious.
The dependent variable for this study is the degree to which people futz and fidget with their phones as they walk. The independent variable will be whether the frequency of this phone-fidgeting is modulated or changed at all by a sign that urges them to be careful and not walk or go down stairs in a distract manner. The forum for this study will be a student quad. People will be observed both without a sign present and with a sign present. The frequency with which the people mess with their phones will be measured for both situations. Only people that pass within five feet of the sign will be tracked. People that actually stop to view their phone rather than keep walking will be ignored as they are indeed being careful. This is a between-subject study in that there are multiple age groups of students. There are also faculty members amongst the people that will be present (Taylor, 2018). The design facet that will be used to account for this is that the performance of younger and older people will be tracked as well as whether a person is faculty/staff or a student. For each observation, the gender and approximate age of the subject will be noted. Participant bias should not be an issue as it will not be obvious or apparent that any sort of study or research is going on.
Conclusion
The researcher will be sitting in plain view but it will not be announced or made clear that scientific observation is going on. The way that experimenter bias will be avoided is to take a good guess as to what might occur. This was noted above with the hypothesis that a public awareness sign should help at least somewhat. However, the researcher is more than ready to be proven wrong. It could very well be that the sign has no effect. The people might actually perform worse. The experiment should be conducted and the chips should fall as they may.




















References
HBS. (2018). The “Hawthorne Effect” – The Human Relations Movement – Baker Library |
Bloomberg Center, Historical Collections. library.hbs.edu. Retrieved 28 February 2018,
from https://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/hawthorne/09.html
Taylor, J. (2018). Difference Between Within-Subject and Between-Subject Effects: The Answer
to Ice-Cream is Always Yes. Stats Make Me Cry Consulting. Retrieved 28 February 2018,
from http://www.statsmakemecry.com/smmctheblog/within-subject-and-between-
subject-effects-wanting-ice-cream.html