Computer Game Research

This website details my Psychology Honours thesis. It was conducted part time over 2006-2007, at Victoria University (Melbourne, Australia), and was not funded. Although the domain name indicates a broader focus on computer game studies, this site currently presents the results of only one. As I engage in future research and also provide opinions and links to past and emerging research, the site will encompass more studies related to computer games and cyber-psychology.

View the full thesis here

What is an addiction?

Addictions are an imbalance in a persons’ life. They have severe negative consequences for the addict and those close to them. They often result in huge financial debts and the destruction of long fostered social relationships, and can even end in death (e.g. organ damage, overdose, suicide). They are characterised by an inability to stop or reduce a particular behaviour/substance, despite wanting to and despite the behaviour/substance resulting in negative consequences. Although I have used the term addiction in this website, its use is contentious in professional and academic communication as its meaning often differs across contexts, and as such may contain inferences that were not intended. Instead, terms such as 'pathological gambling' or 'substance abuse' are used in the diagnosis of addiction related diseases.

Video Game Addiction

Researchers have explored the notion of video game addiction since the mid eighties, however the research on the topic is disparate and preliminary. Due to the abovementioned shortfalls of the term 'addiction', the phenomnon has also been referred to in research by other prefixes and suffixes such as excessive, intemperate, overuse, pathological, compulsive and problematic.

Researchers turned attention to the topic after reports surfaced of arcade gamers becoming alarmingly preoccupied with gaming and displaying anti-social behaviours to support play, including stealing to fund play and neglecting social responsibilities such as school or work.

Research on the topic has explored how similar video game playing can be to more established addictions, which can be separated into two broad categories - chemical and behavioural. Chemical based addictions are better understood and have been researched for longer. They are driven by chemical substances, such as heroin or alcohol. Behavioural addictions show very similar characteristics to chemical based addictions, but a particular behaviour (e.g. gambling) is the source rather than a drug. Behavioural addictions include other burgeoning technological addictions such as internet, computer and television addiction.

Pathological Gambling

It is useful to illustrate how video game addiction has been studied by first looking at pathological gambling. Pathological gambling is an example of a behavioural addiction, and is also the model most used to explore excessive video game play. Pathological gambling is well recognised by medical authorities and it has a diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or DSM, currently at version DSM-IV-TR, with DSM V due to be published sometime after 2012), produced by the American Psychiatric Association and used for diagnosis by mental health professionals worldwide.

The current diagnostic criteria in the DSM IV-TR for pathological gambling are:

· Persistent and recurrent maladaptive gambling behavior as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

is preoccupied with gambling (e.g., preoccupied with reliving past gambling experiences, handicapping or planning the next venture, or thinking of ways to get money with which to gamble)
needs to gamble with increasing amounts of money in order to achieve the desired excitement
has repeated unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop gambling
is restless or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop gambling
gambles as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving a dysphoric mood (e.g., feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, depression)
after losing money gambling, often returns another day to get even ("chasing" one's losses)
lies to family members, therapist, or others to conceal the extent of involvement with gambling
has committed illegal acts such as forgery, fraud, theft, or embezzlement to finance gambling
has jeopardized or lost a significant relationship, job, or educational or career opportunity because of gambling (sometimes referred to as conflict)
relies on others to provide money to relieve a desperate financial situation caused by gambling

· The gambling behavior is not better accounted for by a Manic Episode.

Applied to Video Game Playing

Video game addiction has often been studied by adapting the diagnostic criteria for pathological gambling to fit video game playing, and analysing relationships with other psychological characteristics such as self esteem or personality. Below is a table showing the items in the scale I used (called the Problem Video Game Playing Scale, or PVP) in my thesis to measure video game addiction, in order of endorsement (or how many participants answered ‘yes’). The similarities to the above criteria are obvious.

Item Endorsement of the PVP in Order of Endorsement

Item #	Item text	% Yes
Item 9	Due to video game playing, I have reduced homework or work, or I have skipped meals, or I have gone to bed later than I wished, or I have spent less time with friends and family than I intended to	78.7
Item 3	I have tried to control, cut back or stop playing; OR I usually play video games over a longer period than I intended	59.7
Item 1	When I am not playing video games I keep thinking about them, i.e. remembering games, planning the next game, etc.	56.5
Item 6	When I lose in a game or I have not obtained the desired results, I need to play again to achieve my target	54.9
Item 5	When I feel bad, e.g. nervous, sad or angry; or when I have problems, I play video games more often	45.7
Item 7	Sometimes I conceal my video game playing, or the extent of my video game playing to others, such as parents, friends, colleagues or partners	35.4
Item 2	I spend an increasing amount of time playing video games	33.8
Item 8	In order to play video games, I have skipped classes or work, or lied, or stolen, or had an argument or a fight with someone	30
Item 4	When I can't play video games I get restless or irritable	22.5

However, recent research exploring video game addiction scales have indicated that the pathological gambling diagnostic criteria applied to video game playing may actually represent two underlying factors, and that the problematic items are those that represent interpersonal conflict (arguments with friends or loved ones), withdrawal symptoms (tension or stress resulting from lack of play), relapse (inability to cut down or stop play) and behavioural salience, while other items relate more to a preoccupation with gaming that may not be problematic (see ‘Distinguishing addiction and high engagement in the context of online game playing’, Charlton & Danforth, Computers in Human Behavior, Vol 23(3), May 2007. pp. 1531-1548). The implications of this seperation between preoccupation and pathological use is very important, and indicates that the proportion of gamers who have problems may be lower than previously thought.

Review by the American Medical Association

The notion of whether video game playing can constitute an addiction was recently reviewed by the American Medical Association (http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/17694.html). Based on the previous literature the AMA concluded that video game addicts are likely to be MMORPG players, and may be emotionally or socially isolated and lonely. The AMA has called for more research on the topic and a review of the evidence in the next revision of the DSM after 2012 to determine whether it is worthwhile to create a new diagnosis for this burgeoning psychological concept.

One current theory explaining video game addiction is that those who have social or emotional problems are attracted to game worlds to escape their difficulties, and to substitute ‘real life’ social interaction with interaction via virtual worlds, which have less anxiety provoking cues for those who are socially fearful.

My honours thesis

My study was conducted online in 2006, and examined relationships between three established questionnaires – the Problem Video Game Playing Scale (Salguero & Moran, 2002), the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1967) and the Social Skills Inventory (Riggio & Carney, 2003).

621 (560 male) primarily Australian participants completed the scales. Results indicated some very small, but statistically significant relationships between scale scores.

Social Skills

I chose to explore this concept using the vehicle of social skills. A construct evolved from social intelligence, social skills refer to a cluster of skills used in decoding, sending and regulating non-verbal and verbal information in order to facilitate positive and adaptive social interactions (Riggio, 1986). In past studies social skills have extensively predicted important markers of psychosocial health, such as the size of interpersonal and social support networks, self esteem, social anxiety, personal adjustment and psychopathology (Riggio, Watring, & Throckmorton, 1993).

I asked participants to complete the ‘Social Skills Inventory’ (or SSI). It is a detailed psychological scale which has been thoroughly validated. It covers both verbal and non-verbal skills, and has shown relationships with social characteristics through a diverse range of studies, including laboratory tests of emotional recognition (an important non verbal skill), panel ratings of sociability in observed interactions and social role-plays, as well as self reported friendship network size, social support and personality variables. The scale is often used for corporate recruitment and promotion as it has been shown to predict leadership; in fact the non-verbal subscales can even be added together to form a brief self report of the popular construct Emotional Intelligence. Additionally the scale is comprised of six subscales, so it has the potential to not only identify whether social skills are broadly related to problem video game play, but which particular subset of skills (e.g. awareness of social norms, emotional regulation, leading conversations, etc.).

Results

This study was intended to be a preliminary investigation of whether social functioning is related to problem video game play, and if so, to identify which particular areas of social functioning should receive future research attention. If social or emotional problems lie behind problem video game play, one or many subscales should show a significant drop in scores as problematic video game play increases. However, results indicated that problem video game playing was related only minutely to one social skills subscale, and self esteem, in a sample of relatively heavy video game players (average hours of play per week was 23.78, with a standard deviation of 16.88). The magnitude of relationships found indicate that social skills, self esteem and problem video game playing are largely unrelated constructs, with the highest amount of variance shared between scales amounting to 5.2% (based on the correlation between the Problem Video Game Playing Scale and the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale). Please see the results and discussion section of the thesis for a full breakdown.

Weaknesses

However, this study does have weaknesses. Self-reports of social functioning can only be so valid, as people are often not the best assesors of themselves, and there is a clear possibility to distort traits in order to provide a more positive picture of oneself. Although this is a significant weakness in many other psychological scales, it is ironically more acceptable in scales measuring social functioning. This is because social functioning involves being a social actor, being able to perceive what is expected (or socially desirable) in a particular social situation and act it out. Therefore, choosing responses in the questionnaire that make oneself appear socially desirable actually indicates one measure of social skills. Nonetheless, the results of this study could be strengthened by triangulating them with other studies on social functioning, possibly some more nuanced and specific measures of social characteristics, rather than such a broad measure of basic social skills.

In addition, possessing social skills is not the same as using them, although previous studies have shown strong links between the two. It is possible that problem gamers are as socially skilled as their less problematic counterparts, but choose not to use them - further studies may shed more light on this.

The study was also critised becuase it was conducted online. I believe this is largely a misinterpretation of what is typical Psychological research. Asking people to complete scales and analysing the relationships between them is extremely common in Psychological research. Critising the study becuase it was conducted online merely means that the alternative would have been to post out pen-and-paper surveys to participants with reply paid envelopes. I'm not convinced that answering questions with a pen, instead of on a screen, leads to more honest responses. Ultimately, researchers end up studying people who are interested enough to participate in the first place, so it is usually a segment of the population that is interested in the topic, or interested in taking part for some reason. They may not represent the whole of the population. This is always a concern in the design of research, and is unavoidable, but can be minimised and managed. Further studies on social functioning of video game players with reports from significant others may help to corroborate the results.

Conclusion

Considering the SSI has been shown to predict a variety of indicators of social functioning (number of friends, social anxiety measures, panel reports on social functioning, emotional recognition, emotional intelligence), it was expected that as Video Game Addiction scores increased, scores on the Social Skills Inventory would decrease. Instead, the most substantial relationship indicates that video game addiction explains about 5% of scores on the social skills and self esteem scales.

This suggests that problem play is not highly related to social capacity. These findings are in conflict with contemporary explanations that assert problematic video game play is an outcome of difficulties establishing social relationships in the real world, and suggest that social variables may not explain problem video game play as well as other characteristics, such as stress, the convenient availability of the technology and behaviour moderation problems (as distinct from addiction).

The study resonates with a variety of investigations from the past thirty years that have attempted to find negative consequences of video game play, and have unearthed only statistically minute or insignificant relationships (except for, arguably, studies on aggression). These results indicate an unnecessarily pathological approach has stymied the current understanding of video games as a phenomenon, and broader (i.e. less pathologically geared) psychological studies may help to increase our understanding of the role video games have in the lives of many people.

* Please note this website is still under development.

At this stage, the website is largely a cut-copy version of the thesis - all critical feedback is welcomed, however reading this site should not be used as a substitute for reading the full thesis. For now any questions can be emailed to me at Daniel.Loton@yahoo.com.au; I will endeavour to reply as soon as possible.