MKTG 7213 - Dr. Greg Boller
Submitted by Indradi Soemardjan on March 5, 2001
The American public has been intrigued by the increasing number of teenagers' violent aggressions in the recent years. A report published in the American Journal of Personality and Social Psychology claims that "violent video games increase aggressive tendencies in the short term and can have long-lasting effects". Roger Bennett, Director General of the European Leisure Software Publisher's Association (ELSPA) questioned the findings by saying "There seem to me to be an awful lot of experts these days. We are very keen to listen to any research that has a decent methodology, because I don't think a lot of these experts are looking at this sort of thing objectively." Bennett conceded he had not seen the report, but argued that the research had been conducted in America "which is a gun culture and very different to what goes on here."
Assuming that the relationship between violent video games
and aggressive behavior really exists, one research study done by Dr. Greg
Boller at The University of Memphis has identified the determinants of violent
video games purchasing decisions; one of determinants is said to be of
"felt powerlessness. To further understand the different levels of “felt powerlessness”
that is believed to have existed in society, the following discussion will
attempt to prepare a questionnaire for a
sample population between the ages of 14-24 years old.
Multi-scale item using Semantic differential scales.
Questionnaire:
Respondents are to make one choice of answer for each line
presented below:
How do you feel when two or more people are arguing against
you?
|
Not Strong |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
Strong
|
|
9 |
Don’t know
|
|
Confident |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
Not confident |
|
9 |
Don’t know |
|
Bad |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
Good |
|
9 |
Don’t know |
How do you feel if you did not succeed to influence other
people around you?
|
Not Strong |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
Strong
|
|
9 |
Don’t know
|
|
Confident |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
Not confident |
|
9 |
Don’t know |
|
Good |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
Bad |
|
9 |
Don’t know |
How do you feel about being alone when an unusually
depressing situation occurs to you?
Afraid
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
Not Afraid
|
|
9 |
Don’t know
|
|
Confident |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
Not Confident |
|
9 |
Don’t know |
|
Bad |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
Good |
|
9 |
Don’t know |
It is necessary that respondents be asked with questions
that are non-leading and non-ambiguous but detailed enough to provide specific
stimuli. Each stimulus above is related to some social (or human relation)
issues that individuals between the ages of 14 to 24 would normally have
experienced in the past, i.e. being in an argument with more than two persons,
failure to influence others and being in a depressing situation.
Respondents will mainly choose from six Semantic
differential scales. The choice of six scales was designed to avoid having
non-decisive answers (such as a neutral answers) and to allow
respondents to choose the unforced extra scale marked with the phrase “don’t
know”. Instead of applying the basic adjective pairs to the objects of
interest, bipolar phrases have been anchored at the ends of the scale. The
choices of the phrases are fairly short and simple so that can be understood by
the specific population sample. Negative phrase sometimes appears at the left
side of the scale and other times at the right to prevent simple checking
without careful reading.
© 2001 Indradi Soemardjan
http://masindi.tripod.com Email:
indi@mem.net