Objective: Reflect on the impact of mobile phone use from a perspective informed by social psychology and generate a hypothesis to be examined in an experiment.
Guidelines: Step 1. Reflect on the impact of mobile phone use on people’s lives. This short video is a useful resource to get you started (www.youtube.com/watch?v=OINa46HeWg8). Select one of the following two options.
• Option 1:
If you tend to spend many hours each day using a mobile phone, try cutting it down for a day or two (e.g., meeting people for coffee instead of texting, not using your phone when you are with someone). See how this affects you, particularly issues that are relevant to social psychology such as your sense of identity and your relationship with people around you.
• Option 2:
If you know of someone who spends many hours using mobile phone each day, see if you can ask them to cut it down for a day or two for this assignment. Afterward, conduct an informal interview with this person to learn their experience.
Step 2. Write your reflection. First, provide some details. For Option 1, describe your relationship with a mobile phone (e.g., how often you use it and for what purposes) and the change you introduced (e.g., during those few days, how often did you use your phone). For Option 2, provide similar details about the person you interviewed. Afterward, describe your reflection. Your goal is to demonstrate what you’ve learned about the impact of mobile phone use from the self-examination (Option 1) or interview (Option 2). Your reflection should thoughtfully put together your own view on how using mobile phone affects people’s lives.
Use 2-3
social psychology topics in the reflection. These topics should be correctly described and used appropriately within your reflection. 1 to 1.5 page is the recommended length for reflection.
Step 3.
Conduct a literature review and find out whether your view from the reflection is consistent or inconsistent with research evidence. Read and cite at least five journal articles in this review. Its fine to find out that your view is inconsistent with the research evidence. Your goal is to draw connections between your reflection and research evidence. Your review should be relevant to social psychology. I recommend somewhere in the review that you have a sentence like “these research findings are relevant to social psychology because…”
Based on your reflection and review, introduce a hypothesis, meaning a testable prediction regarding the impact of mobile phone use. Your hypothesis should be clearly stated and well justified by your reflection and review. That is, your hypothesis should not come across as a surprise to your reader. 1 to 1.5 page is the recommended length for Step 3.
Step 4.
Design an experiment that can test your hypothesis. An experiment involves the manipulation of an independent variable, with participants randomly assigned, and the measurement of a dependent variable. I recommend designing a simple (not complex) experiment. You do not actually conduct this experiment. Your description including the participants, task, and measure should be sufficiently detailed. See the example below. 1 page is the recommended length for this part.
Example: Below is an abbreviated example of Step 4. Point format is used because this is an abbreviated example. You cannot use the same hypothesis or the experimental design in your paper.
• This experiment will invite 100 university students to a laboratory. Participants will come to the laboratory in a group of three to five. First of all, participants will answer a set of questions asking their opinions on a range of issues (e.g., recycling). For example, participants will indicate the extent to which they agree or disagree with a statement such as “more should be done in primary schools to teach children the importance of recycling” on a 10-point scale.
• Next, participants assigned to the online discussion condition will be seated separately and participate in a discussion using their mobile phone. Participants will discuss the issues assessed earlier (e.g., recycling), and the group discussion will be facilitated by an experimenter. The discussion will last for 10 minutes. Participants assigned to the offline discussion condition will be seated together in a room and engage in a face-to-face group discussion for ten minutes, with the experimenter facilitating the discussion. After the discussion, participants will rate their opinions on the same issues again using the same measure.
• Independent variable in this experiment is whether the discussion takes place online or offline, and the dependent variable is the shift in participants’ opinion before and after the discussion. The hypothesis would be confirmed if a larger shift in opinions were observed among the participants in the online condition compared to those in the offline condition.
Formatting Requirements:
• Maximum of 4 pages. This excludes title page and references.
• Font: Times New Roman, 12 point
• 2.5cm borders (top, bottom, & sides)
• Double-spaced lines
• Follow APA 6th ed. guidelines for referencing. Submitting Your Report: Submit to the Turnitin portal by the due date. There is a penalty for a late submission