Date of Award

1-1-2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Specialization

Communication and Leadership

School or Department

School of Leadership Studies

First Advisor

Dr. Heather Crandall

Abstract

Communication is an essential part of our everyday lives, without it we would have no way to form a community or societal structure that would allow us to effectively work and live amongst one another. Advances in technology, such as texting, have created a virtual forum for people to communicate within. Due to this change, other consequences, such as vehicle injuries and fatalities have become a recurring problem. To attempt to find potential positive or negative impacts that texting has on individuals while driving, 10 face-to-face interviews were conducted and 100 surveys were sent to a random sample of participants. Findings supported driver inattention causing lane deviations, speed variations and missing light changes which has contributed to an increased chance of incident by 23 times. The Theory of Planned Behavior and Cognitive Dissonance Theory are utilized to support the findings of this study and why people choose to text while driving.

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