Computer Game Research

This website details my Psychology Honours thesis, it was conducted part time over 2006-2007, and was not funded. Although the domain name indicates a broader focus on computer game studies, the 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.  

The full thesis is linked at the bottom of this page.

Video Game Addiction - Is it real? What is it?

Researchers have explored the notion of video game addiction since the mid eighties, however the research on the topic is disparate and preliminary. 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 is the driving force rather than a drug.

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. 

Addictions are an imbalance in a persons’ life. They have severe negative consequences for the addict and those close to them, and can end in death (e.g. organ damage, overdose, suicide). They are characterised by an inability to stop a particular behaviour/substance, despite wanting to and despite the behaviour/substance resulting in impairment or distress. 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:

1. 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)
2. needs to gamble with increasing amounts of money in order to achieve the desired excitement
3. has repeated unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop gambling
4. is restless or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop gambling
5. gambles as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving a dysphoric mood (e.g., feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, depression)
6. after losing money gambling, often returns another day to get even ("chasing" one's losses)
7. lies to family members, therapist, or others to conceal the extent of involvement with gambling
8. has committed illegal acts such as forgery, fraud, theft, or embezzlement to finance gambling
9. has jeopardized or lost a significant relationship, job, or educational or career opportunity because of gambling (sometimes referred to as conflict)
10. 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 conflict, withdrawal symptoms, relapse and behavioural salience, while other items relate more to a preoccupation with gaming (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).

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.

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.

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.

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. This is often called social desiribility response bias - people will respond to questions in a way that makes them appear (even to themselves) as socially desirable. This is a normal part of many scales measuring social traits - how could social functioning be measured in self report without it including elements of social desirability? A large part of social functioning is the ability to perceive what is the accepted behaviour in social situations, and this is covered in the subscales SC and EC in the SSI. Nonetheless, the results of this study could be strengthened by triangulating them with other studies on social functioning, possibly other-reports (friends, family, employers, etc) of social functioning, panel ratings, or laboratory tests of certain skills such as emotional recognition (showing people photos of facial expressions and asking them to identify the emotion displayed, an important non-verbal communication skill). 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.

Conclusion

The lack of relationships found in this study indicate that the great majority of problem gamers who participated were able to 'fool' the social skills inventory despite its' extensive validity in past studies, which in turn suggests that they at the very least have a thorough knowledge of what constitutes social skills; or that problem play is not highly related to social capacity.

The 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 psychological constructs.

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 an entertainment and artistic phenomenon, and broader 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. 

The full thesis can be viewed here -  http://eprints.vu.edu.au/archive/00000687/01/Problemvideogameplaying.pdf