Cell Phone Usage While Driving Among Males and Females

Psychology

Cell Phone Usage While Driving Among Males and Females

Hypothesis: I predict when I observe male and female drivers that mostly females will be talking on a cell phone. I say this because I think females are more social than males when talking on a phone.

Research Method: For this research the method I used was naturalistic observation of twenty-five females and twenty-five males. While they were driving, I observed how many were talking on a cell phone. I chose to do this research because when ever I would drive I mostly saw females talking on cell phones while driving. So I was curious to see the percentages of female and male drivers who talked on the phone while driving.

Procedure: First I raised a question whether who talks more on a cell phone more while driving, male or female. I then came up with a hypothesis that females talk more on cell phones while driving. I then tested my hypothesis by observing traffic of twenty-five female drivers and twenty-five male drivers. After doing that I recorded and analyzed the data. Based on the data I observed, I then came to a conclusion and thought about the different confounding variables.

Statistical results: (see attached)

Narrative Results: Based on my observations you are more likely to see a female talking on a cell phone while driving. As my data shows that out of twenty-five females four were on cell phones compared to that of one male. Or sixteen percent of females talked on cell phones while driving and only four percent males talked on cell phones while driving.

According to my results my hypothesis was correct in that females are more likely to talk on a cell phone while driving more than males. But, there are many confounding variables you must consider, which in all likelihood could change the results significantly or insignificantly.

Evaluation: Some things I might do different next time is use a larger group instead of just fifty cars half male and half female. Also categorize the types of vehicles such as SUV's, Compact, Sedans, etc. Some confounding variables are the time of day I observed my data. Also, age could be a factor as well as location of where data was collected from. Another variable could be how heavy or light traffic was at the time cell