Date of Award

Summer 5-2015

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Department

Graduate Department of Clinical Psychology

First Advisor

William Buhrow Jr., Psy. D.

Abstract

Abstract The introduction of smartphones and their use into the everyday lives of a significantly large population has changed the way people communicate and interact. The purpose of this study is to examine any possible negative or positive effects smart phone use may have on partner satisfaction and couple-communication within a married/partnered couple. Participants were divided into a control group and an experimental group. The constructs of communication and relationship satisfaction were measured through a repeated-measures design. The Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS) was used to measure relational satisfaction, and the Primary Communication Inventory was used to measure partner communication. Both surveys were administered at the beginning and end of a 2-week intervention period. Couples in the experimental group turned off their smartphones for 2 hours each day. Five constructs were analyzed: the total score of the PCI and the RDAS, and the RDAS’s 3 internal constructs of cohesion, satisfaction, and consensus. Five mixed-design ANOVAs were run comparing the 2 groups and measuring any change in the 5 domains. All 5 ANOVAs showed no significant change between the 2 groups after the 2-week intervention. Pearson’s correlations suggested that some factors may be related to relationship satisfaction growth, including number of years married/partnered, partner phone communication frequency, and partner perception of partner’s smartphone use.

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