On-Phone Observation Paper

840 Words2 Pages

After a few minutes observing in the Union, Jaynie and I noticed a young man who was tabling for local apartment complexes. Accompanied by three women, this man was supposed to be soliciting participation in an activity where they attempted to unlock a door by selecting the right key from a bowl, getting their contact information, and distributing a free T-Shirt. While his female counterparts were hard at work greeting potential participants, the subject was on his phone. Jaynie and I decided to observe his on-phone behavior, as defined as “phone is in his hand, eyes and head oriented towards phone (for example, taking a selfie, texting, scrolling, looking at phone); a glance of one second or less does not count.” With this behavior, Jaynie and I sat two separate tables (so as to obtain the most independent observations as possible). Surreptitiously, we sat across the Union from so we had a …show more content…

We set an observation length for 10 minutes. Using our timers, we recorded the Start and Stop time of his on-phone behavior. Based on my observations, the subject was on his phone for a total of 97 seconds whereas Jaynie found that he was on his phone for 95 seconds. When looking at agreement on each second, Jaynie and I demonstrated 97% Interobserver Agreement (IOA). Overall, this was a very strong IOA. However, I feel our qualifier, “a glance of one second or less does not count” may have been the source of our disagreements. Although we discussed that this would be helpful because it would allow him to look briefly at a notification or check the time, I feel as though it may have ultimately been the source of our disagreement. Interestingly, we both felt as though the observation was not an accurate reflection of the behavior we observed informally. He was on his

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