Psychology subject

[Mtank]

I need to decide a topic for a psychological research. i wanted to do something uncoventional...like internet behaviour! :devil:

but i cant decide what aspect of internet behaviour to focus on...theres such a wide range.

yes, this does concern you guys cause who do you think will make up my tests subjects? ;)

and i need intelligent responses, please. any links to sites with internet behaviour research will also be appreciated

[TranquilNightElf]

You could do research on how MMORPG type gamers who lead digital lives, and how it affects their normal lives.

[EdvardMunch]

Random suggestions:
- Bonding over the internet (is it any different than bonding in real life? Does it satisfy the same needs as bonding in real life? You might focus on people who meet and get married over the internet)
- How well do dating sites actually work?
- Apathy and the internet (does being on the internet make us more apathetic? Do reading news stories as opposed to watching them on
- If you use P2P, does that make you more likely to shoplift or commit any other crime?
- What are the effects of internet debate, like the intellectual roundtable? Do we become better debaters, or more ignorant? How trustworthy is the info to begin with?
- The internet's effect on social skills. Does the internet have its own set of social skills? (I once saw in a news story that for some internet users, their real-life social skills may dwindle but their social skills on the internet improve)
- Difference of opinion on various topics between hard internet users and those who barely use it at all. Topics could include: Politics (affiliation, opinion of various political figures, political views), religion, perception of other countries, morality, spirituality, various populations of society
- What skills do we gain from the internet? (I can tell you this: I couldn't type nearly as fast as I do now before I started playing StarCraft. Now, friends of mine who aren't on the internet, typically still have to look at the keyboard and do the finger pecking thing)
- Does the internet have any effect on the cognitive development of children?
- How can different types and levels of internet usage improve and worsen one's health

Although neither of these aren't very important, I still think they would be interesting to know:
- Does a screename have anything to do with the user's personality?
- Analysis of a flamewar. How it starts, escalation, climax, subsiding.

[hammocksleeper]

No offense but some of these seem difficult for a high school project. But I really like TNE's idea and the "apathy and the internet" idea. Sorry I don't have anything to add. :P

[EdvardMunch]

Who said this was high school? I assumed he was doing research for his dissertation.

EDIT: Here's a treasure trove of papers all about internet psychology http://www2.fmg.uva.nl/sociosite/topics/interaction.html#CYBERPSYCHOLOGY

Internet addiction is another interesting topic, and MMORPG addiction, although both topics may have already been researched to death.

ANOTHER EDIT: As an amendment to my above suggestion about "does P2P make you more likely to commit crimes?" You might make a distinction between internet crimes (hacking) and real life crimes.

Other suggestions:
- Does being a heavy internet user make one more likely to break the law (because of their disconnection to society) or less likely (because some internet users withdraw from society)?

[Dark_Soul74]

One thing: I am now much less likely to use guns since I can't hit anything in CS. >.<

[TheGreatBrain]

I like TNE's idea the best out of what's been mentioned.
One thing: I am now much less likely to use guns since I can't hit anything in CS. >.<I'm much less likely to take over the world since I can never complete the campaign in Rise of Nations.

[TheBB]

Who said this was high school? I assumed he was doing research for his dissertation. He's 15-16 years old?

[EdvardMunch]

Whoops, I didn't look at his profile.

Maybe he's a genetically altered super-student?

[TranquilNightElf]

I'm sure he'd like that ^_~

[Mtank]

no, seriously! im a child geneeyus! well, ill look into these suggestions...hopefully i can come up with something cool.

ps: all these suggestinos are completely doable. remember, im not jsut a high school student, im an INDIAN high school student, which makes me superhuman.

(thats what i tell myself to help myself sleep at night)

[GrassDragon]

I'm sure being an Indian high school student makes you superhuman, but isn't everyone else there superhuman too, as well as the teachers?

Superhuman genius doesn't seem so super-y if everybody else is super too :P


I have no idea for your paper. But when it's done I wanna see it. When is it due?

[Carnage]

The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on the Psyches of Essay Writers. :P

[Dark_Soul74]

Bah. I remember once on having to write an essay about why I did not have a favorite person to write about for an essay. That teacher was retarded...

[Carnage]

Bah. I remember once on having to write an essay about why I did not have a favorite person to write about for an essay. That teacher was retarded...

"In conclusion, I'd just like to restate that all humanity, to me, is stupidity in numbers."

:P

[TheBB]

Edit: Sorry, Carnage. You're right.

[EdvardMunch]

It seems you can get quite a few informative papers on the internet if you go to www.apa.org and search for "Internet".

Ah... the APA... if you're writing a psychology paper, you don't need to go anywhere else once you go there. Does India have an Indian Psychological Assocation? I'm not getting anything from Google.

[TheBB]

Uh.. never mind about that. I'm crossing the line here.

[Carnage]

Edit: Sorry, Carnage. You're right.

Thanks, man. :)

[EdvardMunch]

Here's another research topic that I'm dead curious about: Compare the effects that reading swear words online have on kids and teens, to hearing swear words in movies and in real life. I just can't imagine why movies can be rated R for language that tends to be more tame than what kids say with their friends (and by the by, research shows that kids' friends have more impact on them than their parents).

And furthermore, any kid can surf into Maddox's website and get more F bombs than 99% of theatrical releases anyway.

[Mtank]

great ideas...but i wonder if i could do something more forum related, cause i have more experience here and a great pool of guinea-er...subjects...

[singo]

Bah. I remember once on having to write an essay about why I did not have a favorite person to write about for an essay. That teacher was retarded...
hehehe one of our teachers set 2 pages on the inside of a ping-pong pall as a punishment for someone.....i remember feeling sorry fot the poor bugger, i mean how many words for white are there??

funny teacher though