Graduation Date
5-2015
Document Type
Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Department
Psychology
Department or Program Chair
Bill Philips, PhD
First Reader
Bill Philips, PhD
Abstract
Cell phones seem to create distraction and anxiety in student’s daily lives. The present study tests if distraction would occur just by the ring from a cell phone (i.e. they will score lower on the lecture quiz). The procedure will include 40 students enrolled in two sections of Introduction to Psychology. In one section, a backpack will be situated on an empty desk with a cell phone inside which is set to ring during a normal classroom lecture. Once the lecture ends (in both sections), a quiz will be issued about the PowerPoint including slides showing during the cell phone ring. A survey consisting of neuroticism and withdrawal measures (DeYoung, Quilty & Peterson, 2007) will also be issued to the classroom students as well as 70 other participants using surveymonkey.com. The survey will examine the relationships between personality and attention between those who are compulsive texters versus those who are light texters and it will also examine gender differences. It is hypothesized that 1) males text to exchange information and females text to socially connect, 2) those who are compulsive texters experience higher neuroticism and higher withdrawal versus light texters, and 3) cell phones are highly distracting in a classroom setting. Results revealed that those who use their cell phones more often tend to have higher neuroticism and withdrawal, cell phones are not distracting in a classroom setting, and males and females generally text for the same purposes.