CLO 5

Section 1:

I used the search term Internet Addiction on HCT library page.

Section 2:

The first article was:

Internet addiction

Volume 22, issue 5, 2008, Pages 353-365

Martha Shaw

Donald W. Black

Abstract:

Internet addiction is characterized by excessive or poorly controlled preoccupations, urges or behaviors regarding computer use and internet access that lead to impairment or distress. The condition has attracted increasing attention in the popular media and among researchers, and this attention has paralleled the growth in computer (and Internet) access. Prevalence estimates vary widely, although a recent random telephone survey of the general US population reported an estimate of 0.3-0.7%. The disorder occurs worldwide, but mainly in countries where computer access and technology are widespread. Clinical samples and a majority of relevant surveys report a male preponderance. Onset is reported to occur in the late 20s or early 30s age group, and there is often a lag of a decade or more from initial to problematic computer usage. Internet addiction has been associated with dimensionally measured depression and indicators of social isolation. Psychiatric co-morbidity is common, particularly mood, anxiety, impulse control and substance use disorders. Aetiology is unknown, but probably involves psychological, neurobiological and cultural factors. There are no evidence-based treatments for internet addiction. Cognitive behavioural approaches may be helpful. There is no proven role for psychotropic medication. Marital and family therapy may help in selected cases, and online self-help books and tapes are available. Lastly, a self-imposed ban on computer use and Internet access may be necessary in some cases.

Keywords:

Internet addiction

Compulsive behavior

Pathological behavior

The second article was:

Internet Addiction or Excessive Internet Use.

Volume 36, Issue 5, 2010, Pages 277-283

Aviv Weinstein

Michel Lejoyeux

Abstract:

Background: Problematic Internet addiction or excessive Internet use is characterized by excessive or poorly controlled preoccupations, urges, or behaviours regarding computer use and Internet access that lead to impairment or distress. Currently, there is no recognition of internet addiction within the spectrum of addictive disorders and, therefore, no corresponding diagnosis. It has, however, been proposed for inclusion in the next version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM). Objective: To review the literature on Internet addiction over the topics of diagnosis, phenomenology, epidemiology, and treatment. Methods: Review of published literature between 2000–2009 in Medline and PubMed using the term “internet addiction. Results: Surveys in the United States and Europe have indicated prevalence rate between 1.5% and 8.2%, although the diagnostic criteria and assessment questionnaires used for diagnosis vary between countries. Cross-sectional studies on samples of patients report high comorbidity of Internet addiction with psychiatric disorders, especially affective disorders (including depression), anxiety disorders (generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder), and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Several factors are predictive of problematic Internet use, including personality traits, parenting and familial factors, alcohol use, and social anxiety. Conclusions and Scientific Significance: Although Internet-addicted individuals have difficulty suppressing their excessive online behaviours in real life, little is known about the patho-physiological and cognitive mechanisms responsible for Internet addiction. Due to the lack of methodologically adequate research, it is currently impossible to recommend any evidence-based treatment of Internet addiction.

Keywords:

Behavioural addiction

Excessive internet use

Internet addiction

The third article was:

Computers in Human Behavior

Volume 29, Issue 3, May 2013, Pages 959-966

138352 ||

Internet addiction in students: Prevalence and risk factors

Daria J. Kuss

Mark D. Griffiths

Jens F. Binder

Abstract:

The last decade has witnessed a large increase in research on the newly emerging mental health problem of Internet addiction. Rather than looking at Internet addiction per se, this study focused on particular activities on the Internet that might be potentially addictive and linked them to personality traits that might predispose individuals to Internet addiction. The aims of this study were (i) to assess the prevalence of clinically significant levels of Internet addiction, and to (ii) discern the interplay between personality traits and specific Internet uses in increasing the risk for Internet addiction. This cross-sectional online survey used data from 2257 students of an English university. Results indicated that 3.2% of the students were classified as being addicted to the Internet. The included personality traits and uses of online activities explained 21.5% of the variance in Internet addiction. A combination of online shopping and neuroticism decreased the risk for Internet addiction, whereas a combination of online gaming and openness to experience increased it. In addition to this, frequent usage of online shopping and social online activities, high neuroticism and low agreeableness significantly increased the chances of being addicted to the Internet. Findings and their implications are discussed.

Keywords:

Internet Addiction

Personality

Online activity

Risk

Section 3:

First article

Internet addiction

The participants of this survey were randomly selected adults, from Iowa City in the state of Iowa in the USA in 2008. The research approach was quantitative because the article only offers the percentages of people addicted and not the severity of their addiction. There were 2513 randomly selected adults and the survey was conducted by phone.

Results:

Of the participant 69% used the internet regularly and out of those people 5.9% felt that their relationships suffered as a result of excessively using the internet, 3.7% of the people using the internet regularly were preoccupied by the internet even when offline, 13.7% found it hard to stay away from the internet, 8.2% use the internet as a mean to escape from their problems, 12.3%tried to cut back on using the internet and 12.4% use the internet longer than they intended.

Second article

Internet Addiction or Excessive Internet Use

This article looks onto several surveys conducted between the year 2000 and 2009 from several countries like the USA, Germany, Britain, China and Korea. The researches were quantitative because they only show the percentages which suffer from internet addiction, in the USA the survey was conducted online with 17251 participants while the rest have an unknown number of participants and method of conducting the survey.

 Results:

In the USA 6% of the participants met the criteria of internet addiction, in Germany 3% of the population suffers internet addiction, in Britain using the pathological internet use scale on British students 18.3% were considered pathological internet users, in China among the responders aged 13 to 18, 10.2%used the internet moderately while 6% were severely addicted and in Korea a study among middle school students found out that 16% were potential at risk users and 3.1% were high risk users.

Third article

Internet addiction in students: Prevalence and risk factors

 

The study presented in the article was done using a cross-sectional online data gathering technique which was comprised of 2257 students from an English university in the east midlands ages from 18 to 65 years old.  The approach of this article was both quantitative and qualitative, because it gave us the percentage of people addicted and the quality of the risk factors that leads to addiction, gaming and the use of internet application that allow social functions would be considered a high risk factor

Results:

Out of the 2257 participants 3.2% were classified as internet addicts based on their overall internet use, the number of problems they experienced and their Assessment for Computer and Internet Addiction-Screener test scores.

 

 

Section 4:

In my opinion I would rank the third article as the most significant, the second as the least significant and the first article would be in the middle.

The reason why I found this article to be the most significant is that it looked at previous articles worldwide on the same topic and recorded their findings and then conducted its own survey focusing on a single group of people which are students instead of different groups and then classified them into their age groups, field and level of study and used the Assessment for Computer and Internet Addiction-Screener test to target the frequency of specific internet usage domains such as online gaming, social network applications usage and some other high risk factors and based on those it asked the participant about the negative effects of such internet usage. Those findings are important because most articles on the same subject would focus on how long a person uses the internet daily, instead of how frequently the participant uses the internet for a specific purpose, and categorize those purposes depending on their risk factor quality. This article findings may not work will with professional practice or public policy because it only tested a specific group which are student so the way the research was administered and the rankings for risk factors quality may need to be adjusted to work with different groups of people.

What I would like to know more is how well this study will work if the participants were students from different colleges around the world and how those risk factors will change and how their quality will change depending on the country the study take place in.

Gaming from S3eedo

CLO3

Section 1: Research Questions

Primary research question:

• Do violent video games affect children's behavior
• Can video games help children and science

Subtopic research questions:

•  What age group are most likely to be affected
•   How bad are the effects of violent video games

Section 2: Background Report Summary

Source 1:
Scientists have investigated the use of violent video games for more than a decade but to date, there is very limited research addressing whether violent video games cause people to commit acts of criminal violence. And no single risk factor leads a person to act violently; rather it is the accumulation of risk factors that leads to violent behaviors, and violent video games are one single risk factor.

Source 2:
The consumption of violent video games was measured against teenagers' violence rate in the past 2 decades; we found that playing violent video games leads to a fall in violence committed by teenagers.

Source 3:
An experiment was conducted among a group of non-gamers where they were separated into two groups, the people in one group were asked to play video games for a certain amount of time per day, and then the two groups were tested; the experiment concluded that the group that was asked to play video games improved their perceptual and cognitive abilities.

Source 4:
In 2011, people playing an online game called fold it, solved a problem that researchers had been working on for 11 years, the problem was resolving the structure of an enzyme that causes an Aids like disease in monkeys. Also, people playing an astronomy game called planet hunters discovered 40 planets that could potentially support life, all of which had been previously missed by professional astronomers.

Section 3: Questionnaire Results 


The survey conducted was about gaming and violence and whether they are connected; there were 16 participants and it was conducted orally.

For the first part I found out the percentage of gamers and non-gamers among the participants and the results were 75% gamers (12) and 25% non-gamers (4)
For the second part the participants were asked a set of questions depending on whether they are gamers or not.

For the gamers group,
The first question was whether they identify as hardcore or casual gamers; only one person identified as a hardcore gamer.
The second and third questions were about how often they play and how long they usually play, the results were 33% (4) only play on weekends and holidays and the sessions vary from 2 to 4 hours, 58.33% (7) play almost every day for about 4 hours on weekends and 2 hours on weekdays while one person stated that he never plays for less than 4 hours if possible.
Questions 4 to 6 were about the platforms they play on, the game genres they play and the rating of games they like. For the platforms 75% (9) played on consoles only, 2 people played on PC only while 1 didn't have a specific platform to play on. For the genres, 75% liked first person shooters, 50% liked action, adventure, sport, sci-fi and role playing games (RPG), 33.3% liked MMORPG. For the ratings they all agreed on adult and mature oriented rated games.
Question 7 was do they like playing violent video games; 50% answered yes while the rest answered only if it was necessary for the story.
Question 8 was about if they think that violence is necessary in video games and they all agreed that everything depends on the story of the game.
The final question for the gamers group was if they thought that violence in video games leads to violent behaviors, 75% (9) people thought that there was no connection between video games and violent behavior, while the rest said that it depends on the person playing video games and whether he could tell the difference between reality and video games.

For the Non-gamers group,

The first two questions were whether they have a gamer friend or relative and how many hours do they usually play, 50% (2) said that they have a gamer friend but didn't know how long they play, 25% (1) said they have and they usually play for about 2 hours per day and 25% (1) said that they don't know.
The second two questions were what do they think are the most popular genres and rating for games, and they all agreed that the most popular genre is first person shooters and the most popular ratings were adult and mature rated games.
The next two questions were what do they know about the gaming community and what do they think when people say that they are gamers; none of the participants knew a thing about the gaming community, and 50% (2) thought that it's a hobby that they are very excited about, the rest 50% thought that they are acting childishly.
The next question was what category of gamers they think are more violent, casual or hardcore gamers; 50% (2) thought that hardcore gamers are more violent while the rest said they have no idea.
The next two questions were if they think that violent video games have an effect on people's mind and what age group are most likely to be affected, 50% (2) said that video games have no effect on people while the rest thought it may have an effect if they don't know how to vent their frustration, and the age group that is most likely to be affected are teenagers between 11 to 14 years old.
The final question was whether they think that violence is necessary in video games, and as the gamers group they also all agreed that everything depends on the story of the game.

Finally, both groups were asked if they think video games can help children, and science. For the children's part everybody thought that video games can actually help by providing an interesting and fun way to learn and improving their perceptual abilities. For the science part, two were skeptical but said if they were presented with some instances where video games helped science, they would believe that video games could help science, while the rest agreed that video games can help science.


Results:

Before starting the questionnaire I thought that non- gamers would be more than gamers, the most popular genre would be first person shooters, the most popular ratings would be adult and mature rating, most gamers would think that there is no connection between violence and video games while the non-gamers would think that violent video games would have an effect on gamers and that both groups would think that video games can help children and science. But the results were different about the first opinion as 75% were gamers and 25% were non-gamers but for the genre and ratings the result were as I thought. The most popular platform to play on were consoles. 50% of the gamers liked to play violent games while the other 50% said only if it's important to the story. For the connection between violence and video games, as I thought before in the gamers group 75% thought that there's absolutely no connection between violence and video games while only 25% thought it depends on the mentality of the person playing, but in the non-gamers group the results were interesting because 50% thought that there is no connection and the other 50% thought it may have an effect only if they don't know how to vent their frustration. Finally, on whether video games can help children and science, everybody agreed that video games can help children, while only two were skeptical about video games helping science but are willing to change their mind if they are presented with examples of video games helping science.




Section 4: Discussion

After concluding the survey and gathering the data I found out that the majority thought that video games had absolutely no connection to violent behavior in children and teenagers, and the rest agreed that video games may have an effect if the person playing had no idea how to vent their frustration or anger. Also everybody thought that video games can help children, while only two were skeptical about video games helping science.
In conclusion, the survey answered my research question exactly as I initially thought, but in order to get more accurate results, more research should be done with on larger groups of different age and backgrounds.
 

Questionnaire results

The survey conducted was about gaming and violence and whether they are connected; there were 16 participants and it was conducted orally.

For the first part I found out the percentage of gamers and non-gamers among the participants and the results were 75% gamers (12) and 25% non-gamers (4)
For the second part the participants were asked a set of questions depending on whether they are gamers or not.

For the gamers group,
The first question was whether they identify as hardcore or casual gamers; only one person identified as a hardcore gamer.
The second and third questions were about how often they play and how long they usually play, the results were 33% (4) only play on weekends and holidays and the sessions vary from 2 to 4 hours, 58.33% (7) play almost every day for about 4 hours on weekends and 2 hours on weekdays while one person stated that he never plays for less than 4 hours if possible.
Questions 4 to 6 were about the platforms they play on, the game genres they play and the rating of games they like. For the platforms 75% (9) played on consoles only, 2 people played on PC only while 1 didn't have a specific platform to play on. For the genres, 75% liked first person shooters, 50% liked action, adventure, sport, sci-fi and role playing games (RPG), 33.3% liked MMORPG. For the ratings they all agreed on adult and mature oriented rated games.
Question 7 was do they like playing violent video games; 50% answered yes while the rest answered only if it was necessary for the story.
Question 8 was about if they think that violence is necessary in video games and they all agreed that everything depends on the story of the game.
The final question for the gamers group was if they thought that violence in video games leads to violent behaviors, 75% (9) people thought that there was no connection between video games and violent behavior, while the rest said that it depends on the person playing video games and whether he could tell the difference between reality and video games.

For the Non-gamers group,

The first two questions were whether they have a gamer friend or relative and how many hours do they usually play, 50% (2) said that they have a gamer friend but didn't know how long they play, 25% (1) said they have and they usually play for about 2 hours per day and 25% (1) said that they don't know.
The second two questions were what do they think are the most popular genres and rating for games, and they all agreed that the most popular genre is first person shooters and the most popular ratings were adult and mature rated games.
The next two questions were what do they know about the gaming community and what do they think when people say that they are gamers; none of the participants knew a thing about the gaming community, and 50% (2) thought that it's a hobby that they are very excited about, the rest 50% thought that they are acting childishly.
The next question was what category of gamers they think are more violent, casual or hardcore gamers; 50% (2) thought that hardcore gamers are more violent while the rest said they have no idea.
The next two questions were if they think that violent video games have an effect on people's mind and what age group are most likely to be affected, 50% (2) said that video games have no effect on people while the rest thought it may have an effect if they don't know how to vent their frustration, and the age group that is most likely to be affected are teenagers between 11 to 14 years old.
The final question was whether they think that violence is necessary in video games, and as the gamers group they also all agreed that everything depends on the story of the game.

Finally, both groups were asked if they think video games can help children, and science. For the children's part everybody thought that video games can actually help by providing an interesting and fun way to learn and improving their perceptual abilities. For the science part, two were skeptical but said if they were presented with some instances where video games helped science, they would believe that video games could help science, while the rest agreed that video games can help science.


Results:

Before starting the questionnaire I thought that non- gamers would be more than gamers, the most popular genre would be first person shooters, the most popular ratings would be adult and mature rating, most gamers would think that there is no connection between violence and video games while the non-gamers would think that violent video games would have an effect on gamers and that both groups would think that video games can help children and science. But the results were different about the first opinion as 75% were gamers and 25% were non-gamers but for the genre and ratings the result were as I thought. The most popular platform to play on were consoles. 50% of the gamers liked to play violent games while the other 50% said only if it's important to the story. For the connection between violence and video games, as I thought before in the gamers group 75% thought that there's absolutely no connection between violence and video games while only 25% thought it depends on the mentality of the person playing, but in the non-gamers group the results were interesting because 50% thought that there is no connection and the other 50% thought it may have an effect only if they don't know how to vent their frustration. Finally, on whether video games can help children and science, everybody agreed that video games can help children, while only two were skeptical about video games helping science but are willing to change their mind if they are presented with examples of video games helping science.

Questionnaire

Are you a gamer ?



If yes

Are you a hardcore or casual gamer?

How often do you play?

On average how long do you play per session?

What platforms do you play on?

What genres of games do you play?

What kind of rated games do you play?

Do you like playing violent video games, why?

Do you feel that violence is necessary in video games?

Do you feel that violence in video games leads to violent behaviour?




If no

Do you have a gamer friend or family member?

On average how many hours do they play per week?

What kind of game genres do you think are more popular?

What kind of rated games do you think are more popular?

What do you know about the gaming community?

What comes to your mind when people say that they are gamers?

What category of gamers do you think are more violent, casual or hardcore?

Do you think violent video games have an effect on people's minds?

What age group are more likely to be affected?

Do you think that violence is necessary in video games?


For both groups

Do you think that video games can help children?

Do you think that video games can help science?

CLO phase 2

LSS 2533 Research Methods

CLO 1 – Phase 2 – Background Report and Justification (Preparation Task)

Source description:

Source 1:

do video games alter a child's behavior

Description:

this webpage provides the result of research done by the APA about the relation between violent video games and increased aggression in players, but the page states that there is insufficient evidence if that relation extend to criminal violence.

Reference:

APA Review Confirms Link Between Playing Violent Video Games and Aggression. (2015, August 13). Retrieved September 15, 2015, from http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2015/08/violent-video-games.aspx


Source 2:
video games are not making us violent
Description:
this webpage provides the result of two studies, the first between homicide rates with instances of violence depicted in motion pictures, while the second measured the consumption of violent video games against youth violence rates, the second study concluded that playing video games coincided with a fall in violent crimes perpetrated by youths, the research paper also questioned the validity of previous studies in the same category.
Reference:

Stuart, K. (2014, November 10). Video games are not making us more vIolent, study show. Retrieved September 15, 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/10/video-games-violent-study-finds


Source 3:
Cognitive benefits of playing video games
Description:
this webpage presents the result of an experiment where the participants were initially non-gamers, and some were asked to play certain video games for a certain amount of time, the results were that the group that played video games had improved their basic perceptual and cognitive abilities while the rest didn't.
Reference:

Gray, P. (2015, February 20). Cognitive Benefits of Playing Video Games. Retrieved September 13, 2015, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201502/cognitive-benefits-playing-video-games

Source 4 :
How online gamers are solving science's biggest problem
Description:
as the title say, in 2011 people playing Foldit , an online puzzle game about protein folding, resolved the structure of an enzyme that causes an Aids-like disease in monkeys. Researchers had been working on the problem for 13 years. The gamers solved it in three weeks.
Reference:

Mohammadi, D. (2014, January 25). How online gamers are solving science's biggest problems. Retrieved September 15, 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/25/online-gamers-solving-sciences-biggest-problems


justification:

I chose this topic because when most people hear video they either think of how childish playing video games or how violent they are, they don't see how important video games are to those that play and how it can actually help people by either improving basic perceptual and cognitive abilities or solve science problems.

mind map

Opening Activity

Out of the seven questions only one question had a single no while the other six had all yeses which counted for 17 yes for each question, which means all students took part in questionnaires. Most students thought the most annoying type of questionnaire was the one conducted by phone because they call at the wrong times and take more time than they say it would.