The influence of psychological needs and age on cellular phone usage among younger and older individuals

This study looked at whether or not age and different psychological needs (sexuality, connection, individuation, and self-exploration) had the ability to influence different uses of a cellular phone (specifically “vocal conversation only” and multi-tasking; texting, accessing the internet) among participants. Both older and younger individuals (between the ages of 18 and 83) were recruited using convenience sampling as a way to obtain appropriate and/or significant results. A cellular phone use questionnaire (inclusive of “Yes”/”No” items, also items in likert scale format) was completed by all participants involved as a way to gather data. Three different hypotheses stated the following: (1) Patterns of cellular phone usage are motivated or driven by different psychological needs. (2) Younger individuals use their cellular phones more as multitasking devices (access to the internet, texting). (3) Older individuals use their cellular phones more for vocal conversations (use the device as a regular phone to conduct more conversations vocally). It was found that different psychological needs did influence multi-tasking among participants; age was also an influence as younger participants used their cellular phones more than older participants for the purpose of multi-tasking. Age and the psychological needs specific to this study were not as influential on “just vocal conversation” among participants. The significance of work from this study may be relevant to future research which looks in greater detail at the impact cellular phones (or mobile technology of other kinds) have on the social and/or psychological existence of both younger and older individuals