Term of Award

Spring 2020

Degree Name

Master of Science in Experimental Psychology (M.S.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Psychology

Committee Chair

Janie Wilson

Committee Member 1

Rebecca Ryan

Committee Member 2

Lawrence Locker

Abstract

Due to the multifaceted capabilities of the smartphone, college students have become increasingly susceptible to the overuse of and addiction to smartphone use. This susceptibility has led to many negative effects both mentally and physically in addition to the creation of new pathologies. There are many scales to measure cellphone addiction; however, scales to measure smartphone addiction in particular are scarce and have limitations that call into question their validity and reliability, especially for use on U.S. college students. This study aimed to investigate the validity and reliability of a diagnostic tool to measure smartphone addiction in U.S. college students. We aimed to account for the limitations that were present in previous scales and to further the support of smartphone addiction as a valid diagnosis that should be recognized by reputable resources. We found the Smartphone Addiction Measure to be reliable across time in addition to having internal consistency. Additionally, the evaluation of construct validity through the use of positive and negative correlations indicated support for a valid measure. This study provided a new smartphone addiction measurement tool that may allow for a way to clinically diagnosis addiction among college students.

OCLC Number

1157283104

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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