Thesis input needed please

sheepdogg

I know people hate surveys, but I am reaching out to the PA crowd due to the large number of gamers here. My fiance is working on her thesis and is looking for links between gaming and criminal acts. She wrote a short survey up, it is all anonymous and she needs a minimum of 100 surveys and she is shooting for 200 surveys to have solid data. Please, if you have a minute or 2, fill out the survey and send your completed survey to inkedtink(at)gmail(dot)com. I appreciate everyones time, thank you

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GAMING SURVEY

The way this survey is set up, all participants will remain anonymous.
Please place an X next to the most accurate answer.

Demographic Information:

[]Male []Female

Age: []under 15, []15-18, []19-25, []26-35, []36 and up

Siblings []Yes []No

How Many? []1 []2 []3 []other

How many? []Older []Younger

Who did you live with while growing up?
[]Both Parents []Single parent []Other Guardian

Until what age?

Does your parent(s)/guardian(s) play video games? []Yes []No

Your Education: []High school grad []Some college []College grad []Other

Criminal Information:

Have you ever stolen anything? []Yes []No

If yes, was the value []Under $500 []Over $500

Did you get caught? []Yes []No

Do you speed? []Yes []No

Have you ever been pulled over for speeding? []Yes []No

Have you ever received a ticket? []Yes []No

Do you wear your seatbelt? []Yes []No

Have you ever taken part in a physical fight? []Yes []No

Have you ever been arrested? []Yes []No

If arrested, were you convicted? []Yes []No

If convicted, did you serve jail time? []Yes []No

Was time served for a Felony Misdemeanor []Yes []No

Gaming experience:

What Gaming systems do you own?

How many games do you own (roughly)?

What is the primary genre? []RPG []Sports []First person shooter
[]Action/Adventure []Puzzles []MMO []Strategy

Why do you play? []Fun []Stress Release []Boredom []Time w/ Friends
[]Gain points []Achievements

Pick 3 adjectives from the list below to describe how you feel after you finish playing your favorite game.
1)
2)
3)

Amused Exhausted Disoriented
Relaxed Sad Hungry
Fulfilled Overwhelmed Sleepy
Flustered Frustrated Energetic
Happy Grumpy Confused
Excited Groggy Silly
Angry Indifferent Lazy
Tired Exhilarated Enlightened
Awake Moody Proud
Baffled Bummed Accomplished
Gratified Calm Relieved
Inspired Cranky Anxious

Librarian

I think almost everyone has been in a physical fight once in their lives, if you include kindergarten brawls, elementary school and all that stuff.
The question should be rephrased I think.

Also nowhere is asked how much time a person spends gaming and you would probably need a control group of non gamers and all in all this survey is just way too short and if you include parking tickets and playground fights the end result will probably be that all gamers are criminals.

sheepdogg

Librarian wrote: »

I think almost everyone has been in a physical fight once in their lives, if you include kindergarten brawls, elementary school and all that stuff.
The question should be rephrased I think.

Also nowhere is asked how much time a person spends gaming and you would probably need a control group of non gamers and all in all this survey is just way too short and if you include parking tickets and playground fights the end result will probably be that all gamers are criminals.

I originally told her to do the time spent per day/week and she chose not to use it. Her main thought I believe is that with hers and my generation had a tv for a babysitter. The current generation has game systems. She is looking more at the parenting aspect, from what I gather when we discuss it. I'll mention your ideas to her though. Thank you for the positive input.

corcorigan

Maybe you should put a box about whether parents divorced...

Find some cool correlation, like a marriage was twice as likely to break up if a SNES was involved.

sheepdogg

In my case, I would never have gotten my first nintendo if my parents didn't divorce.

Nozz

Most of these questions won't garner any good data. What if I stole 2 $500 items in my life and got caught once? Do I count board games in the number of games I own? These are the questions people answering this are going to ask (yes, people are stupid, so the questions must be designed well).

Furthermore, some of the questions may not be collectively exhaustive. For instance, what if I play video games because I'm a quality assurance tester?

sheepdogg

I spoke with her on some of the points raised. She said don't think too much into it, she wanted a short survey that disproves the studies saying gaming creates violent children. She will also being doing a survey of non-gamers to show that the gaming doesn't make you any more or less likely to make bad decisions.

So yah, hope that helps a little. Thanks again for the input guys and gals. Don't be shy filling them out, so far the average is 75 thread views = 3 surveys filled out.

Andrew_Jay

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crake

I have concerns about the foundation of this thesis.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

mspencer

Yeah -- what was her score on the analytical writing part of the GRE, if she had to take it to get admitted? If I remember, half of the analytical writing test was analyzing an argument, and they wanted to hear about flaws in methods or conclusions.

For example, ask yourself "is there a difference between a kid who stole something when he was little and a kid who grew up into an adult who continues to steal things compulsively?" -- then look at the survey, and ask if the difference between those situations is represented in the survey answers they would have to choose. If the survey makes it impossible to tell the difference, any conclusions drawn from that survey will be incapable of telling the difference.

(I got a 5.5 out of 6.0 on that part of the GRE, by the way. I'm currently a Computer Science graduate student.)

Æthelred

sheepdogg wrote: »

I spoke with her on some of the points raised. She said don't think too much into it, she wanted a short survey that disproves the studies saying gaming creates violent children. She will also being doing a survey of non-gamers to show that the gaming doesn't make you any more or less likely to make bad decisions.

So yah, hope that helps a little. Thanks again for the input guys and gals. Don't be shy filling them out, so far the average is 75 thread views = 3 surveys filled out.

.. What kind of thesis is this? You don't write a survey to 'find' a particular point (unless you're a political party).

sheepdogg

This wasn't meant to start any flames. So please, if you don't have something positive to add here, then ignore this post and move on. I posted here because I was looking for gamer input to help my fiance.

She has asked that I remove it since it has become an issue with some people. I am hoping that from here on out it can be positive. If not, I will take it down.

To those who have helped by filling it out and giving positive input, thank you, I appreciate it.