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University of Florida Thesis Or Dissertation Formatting THE EFFECTS OF SELF CONTROL AND SOCIAL LEARNING VARIABLES ON DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL IN A VIRTUAL WORLD By AMANDA M. ADAMS A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2014 © 2014 Amanda M. Adams To my Mom and Dad, who knew I could do it even when I doubted ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my Chair, Dr. Richard Hollinger, for his wonderful guidance throughout this project. His time, energy and support were a tremendous help. I thank Dr. Lonn Lanza-Kaduce for his time spent proofing my paper and discussing analysis techniques and directions. I would like to thank Dr. Ken Wald for his assistance with creating my survey. I thank Dr. Kendal Broad for her help with proofing and clarifying concepts. I thank my parents for their support and understanding while I worked toward my goal and for never letting me forget why I was here. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 7 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS ....................................................................... 9 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 12 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................... 15 Self-Control ............................................................................................................. 15 Social Learning ....................................................................................................... 19 Social Control ......................................................................................................... 27 Online Gaming ........................................................................................................ 32 3 METHODS .............................................................................................................. 39 Sample Demographics............................................................................................ 39 Gaming Demographics ........................................................................................... 41 Survey Design and Data Collection ........................................................................ 43 Survey Response ................................................................................................... 44 Variables ................................................................................................................. 45 Types of Deviance ............................................................................................ 45 Self-Control ...................................................................................................... 48 Differential Association ..................................................................................... 48 Virtual Friendship ............................................................................................. 49 Definitions ......................................................................................................... 50 Imitation ............................................................................................................ 51 Reinforcement .................................................................................................. 52 Social Control ................................................................................................... 53 Social Bonding ................................................................................................. 54 Control Variables .............................................................................................. 56 Hypotheses ............................................................................................................. 58 Main Question 1 ............................................................................................... 58 Main Question 2 ............................................................................................... 58 Main Question 3 ............................................................................................... 59 Analytic Plan ........................................................................................................... 59 Main Question 1 ............................................................................................... 60 Main Question 2 ............................................................................................... 61 Main Question 3 ............................................................................................... 61 5 Descriptive Statistics ........................................................................................ 62 4 RESULTS ............................................................................................................... 63 Main Question 1 ...................................................................................................... 63 Hypothesis 1 ..................................................................................................... 63 Hypothesis 2 ..................................................................................................... 64 Hypothesis 3 ..................................................................................................... 65 Hypothesis 4 ..................................................................................................... 66 Main Question 2 ...................................................................................................... 68 Hypothesis 5 ..................................................................................................... 68 Hypothesis 6 ..................................................................................................... 69 Hypothesis 7 ..................................................................................................... 70 Hypothesis 8 ..................................................................................................... 71 Main Question 3 ...................................................................................................... 72 Additional Analyses of Question Responses .................................................... 72 Informal Social Control ..................................................................................... 73 Additional Comments and Insights ................................................................... 75 Summary .......................................................................................................... 77 5 DISCUSSION ......................................................................................................... 90 Summary of Results................................................................................................ 90 Self-Control and Use of Deviance Model ......................................................... 90 Self-Control and Victimization Model ................................................................ 91 Social Learning and Use of Deviance Model .................................................... 92 Social Learning and Victimization Model .......................................................... 92 Self-Control and Experienced Informal Social Control Model ........................... 93 Self-Control and the Use of Informal Social Control Model .............................. 94 Social Learning and Experienced Informal Social Control Model ..................... 95 Social Learning and the Use of Informal Social Control ................................... 96 Summation of Trends ....................................................................................... 97 Limitations ............................................................................................................... 98 Future Research ................................................................................................... 100 Ignoring and Avoidance Behavior ......................................................................... 102 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 103 APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................... 108 APPENDIX B ............................................................................................................... 118 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 153 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 159 6 LIST OF TABLES Table page 4-1 Correlations for Self Control and Use of Deviant Actions Model** ...................... 78 4-2 Regression for Self Control and Use of Deviant Actions (N=49)** ...................... 78 4-3 Mult. Imput. Regression for Self Control and Use of Deviant Actions (N=77)** .. 78 4-4 Correlations for Self Control and Victimization Model** ...................................... 79 4-5 Regression for Self Control and Victimization (N=49)** .....................................
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