“Intensive Online Videogame Involvement: A New Global Idiom of Wellness and Distress” (original) (raw)
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Online Gaming Involvement and Its Positive and Negative Consequences: A Cognitive Anthropological “Cultural Consensus” Approach to Psychiatric Measurement and Assessment
IN PRESS: Computers in Human Behavior This is a pre-publication review version of an article currently accepted for publication (pending minor revisions) by Computers in Human Behavior. Abstract: We employ ethnographic methods more attentive to insider gamer perspectives to develop culturally-sensitive scale measures of online gaming involvement and its positive and negative consequences. Our inquiry combines relatively unstructured in-game participant-observation, semi-structured interviews, and a web survey. The latter derived from both ethnography and theory, and contained 15 items for involvement and 21 for positive and negative consequences. Cultural consensus analysis revealed broadly shared understandings among gamers about online gaming involvement and its positive consequences, but less agreement about negative scale items. Our findings suggest the need for caution in employing current tools to assess “addictive” and “disordered” gaming, as our gamer respondents judged commonly used scale items, such as cognitive salience, withdrawal, and tolerance, as not fitting with their own understandings and experiences. We argue that our approach, rooted in gamers’ actual experiences and also current theory, would produce more valid psychiatric assessments of online gaming experiences, though more research is needed to refine the new measures we present.
The cross-cultural expression of internet gaming distress in North America, Europe, and China
Addictive Behaviors Reports, 2018
We compare the forms online gaming-related distress takes cross-culturally, and examine how much such distress resembles the World Health Organization's (WHO) "Gaming disorder," understood to be an "addiction." Our preliminary exploratory factor analysis (EFA) in North America (n = 2025), Europe (n = 1198), and China (n = 841) revealed a constant four-factor structure across the three regions, with classic "addiction" symptoms always clustering together on the first and most important factor, though with some variability in regional factors' exact item composition. In the present study, we use second-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to further examine this factor structure and the cultural similarities and differences. Specifically, we focus on confirming the regional structure and composition of an ethnographically developed 21-item gaming distress scale, which contains a wider symptoms pool than typical gaming disorder scales, and thus allows us to better separate generalized gaming distress's "addictive" from other culturally-influenced "problem" experiences and behaviors in each regional case. We use propensity score matching to separate the impact on gaming-related distress of regional culture from demographic variables (North America/Europe: n = 1043 pairs; North America/China: n = 535 pairs). Although our results support current WHO formulations of gaming-related distress as an addictive disorder, we show how cultural forces can shape how "addictive" and "problem" gaming are experienced and thus psychiatrically presented in different parts of the world. In particular, generalized gaming distress's addictive and problematic dimensions seem to be shaped by culture-specific expressions of achievement motivations, social connection and disconnection, and unique psychosomatic experiences. Health Organization, 2018). This follows the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) introduction in 2013 of "Internet Gaming Disorder" (IGD) in its emerging measures appendix (Section III) of the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), where it still resides as "a condition warranting more clinical research and experience," not yet formally included in the manual's main book (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Both the WHO and APA classify their gaming disorders with other addictions: for WHO, Gaming disorder is classified under "Disorders due to addictive behaviors"; for the APA, Internet Gaming Disorder is tentatively classed alongside "Substance-related and addictive disorders," akin to gambling, with the latter currently the only formally recognized behavioral addiction in the DSM-5 (American
Challenges for Game Addiction as a Mental Health Diagnosis
In this paper, we outline the proposed PhD project: "Challenges for Game Addiction as a Mental Health Diagnosis". The project aims to bridge gaps between the perspectives, theories and data of current research trajectories that engage with the concept of game addiction; from psychology, psychiatry, cognitive neuroscience to media and game studies. The project has several proposed outcomes. Based on a review of the literature, the adequacy of 'game addiction' as a concept is questioned. The concept is further discussed in a historical perspective of game related pathologies and media/moral panics. The validity of the prevalent instruments used to assess the prevalence of computer game addiction is examined in a cross-disciplinary context. The argument of the project is that research on computer game addiction is limited by mono-disciplinary approaches that fail to capture significant nuances at the cost of validity of results and instruments. The lack of communication between researchers has resulted in qualitative research that deny the existence of computer game addiction and quantitative research that assert the existence and prevalence of the phenomenon. Qualitative research cannot claim to capture as wide a sample as quantitative research and quantitative research cannot claim to capture the deep understanding and nuances of qualitative research. When the two methods produce conflicting results it stands to reason that a dispassionate review and analysis is necessary.
Computers in Human Behavior, 2011
This study examined problematic gaming behavior and depressive tendencies among people who play different types of online-games. Other game-related variables were investigated to determine if other differences between three game types could be established. Participants in the current research (n = 468) can be classified into three independent groups. Subjected users either solely played massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) or they preferred online-ego-shooters (OES) or real-time-strategy games (RTS). Results indicate that MMORPG users show more often problematic gaming behavior, depressive tendencies and lower self-esteem compared to users playing other online-games. MMORPG users reported to playing significantly more often in order to escape from real-life problems, which might be a valuable coping strategy but might also lead to problematic gaming behavior.
Background and aims: The current DSM-5 diagnosis of Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013) has led to a number of issues and concerns that we highlighted in our recent paper (Kuss, Griffiths, & Pontes, 2017). Experts in the field responded to our evaluation of these issues resulting in six commentaries. Methods: In this paper, we offer responses to the six commentaries to move the scientific field forward. All of the responses to our original paper highlighted many conceptual, theoretical, and/or methodological problems with the proposed IGD diagnosis as outlined in the DSM-5. We outline some ways forward in overcoming issues and concerns in the gaming studies field. Results: We argue that rather than stigmatizing gaming per se, the role of scientists and practitioners is to establish a clear-cut distinction between someone who may use games excessively but non-problematically and someone who is experiencing significant impairment in their daily lives as a consequence of their excessive gaming. This responsibility needs to be shared by popular media who are often quick to build a moral panic around gaming behaviors, often based on cherry-picking specific case studies and pieces of research which support their headlines. Conclusion: Researchers, practitioners, gaming developers, and the media need to work together and collaboratively to build a realistic and comprehensive understanding of gaming as a normal, enjoyable, and often beneficial sociocultural practice, which for a small minority of excessive users may be associated with the experience of addiction-related symptoms that may require professional support.
Abstract: Research has established loneliness as a good predictor of intensive Internet use. But it is not fully understood whether Internet activity lessens lonely individuals’ felt distress (known as positive psychosocial “compensation”), or by contrast further magnifies it (the “poor-get-poorer” hypothesis). Focused on online videogames in particular, we use qualitative cultural psychiatric interviews (N=20) and path analysis of online survey data (N=3629) to model pathways connecting loneliness, videogame involvement, and positive and negative online gaming experiences. Informed by social signaling theory, we hypothesize that lonely individuals who are intensively involved in online videogames (as opposed to playing casually) will experience more positive play experiences, given the way that such gamers’ costly expenditures of time, energy, and resources “signal” their commitment and also their insiderness to gaming communities, thus fostering for them a greater sense of social inclusion and support. By contrast, lonely gamers who fail to engage videogames in this intensive and socially supportive manner can instead compound their life distress with additional problems related to their online play. Ironically, it is thus gamers displaying dimensions of what seems on the surface to be “addictive” play—but is better described in this context as intensive gaming involvement—who experience the greatest psychosocial benefits from their play. Our research aims to add nuance to debates about how the Internet shapes the mental health of distressed emerging adults in particular. Rather than posing a single solution, we posit that the answer depends on the manner in which lonely and distressed individuals engage with life online. Key words: Online computer games; Virtual worlds; Loneliness; Social support; Positive gaming engagement; Internet addiction; Problematic gaming Highlights Considering videogame involvement helps distinguish healthy from problem play. More involved gamers “signal” greater passion, thus winning social support. More intensive videogame involvement psychosocially compensates for loneliness. Lonelier gamers playing casually suffer greater adverse gaming-related consequences. Study combines cultural psychiatric interviews with a path analysis of survey data.
A Vacation from Your Mind: Problematic Online Gaming Is a Stress Response
Problematic online play is a response to life stress.Online games divert players’ attention from offline problems and thus provide stress relief.Both relaxing and stimulating online play provide stress relief.Too much in-game cognitive diversion leads to problems in more highly stressed gamers.In-game stress relief mediates between life stress and problematic online play.We present ethnographically-informed survey and interview data suggesting that problematic online gaming in the World of Warcraft (WoW) can be conceptualized as a response to pre-existing life stress, which for highly stressed individuals magnifies rather than relieves their suffering. In particular, we explore how relaxing and arousing in-game experiences and activities provide forms of cognitive diversion that can lead to problematic play among more highly stressed individuals. Our research supports what has been called a “rich get richer” model of problematic Internet use. In this instance, less stressed individuals manage to play WoW so as to enhance their offline lives. By contrast, more highly stressed players further magnify the stress and suffering in their lives by playing problematically the online game within which they sought refuge from their offline problems.
We use survey data—interpreted through ethnographic interviews and our own game-playing experiences—to model the way culture impacts the therapeutic dynamics of play in the popular online game World of Warcraft (WOW). To do so, we utilize cognitive anthropological understandings of ‘cultural consonance’ (Dressler and Bindon 2000)—that is, the extent to which individuals embody or fail to embody socially shared and sanctioned models of success. We find that players who report more individual ‘consonance’ with culturally shared models of ‘real-life’ or offline success are more likely to play in healthier ways as assessed through players’ self-reports of the impact of WOW on their life happiness, stress relief, and patterns of problematic play. We uncover both direct relationships between an individual’s relative degree of cultural consonance and these wellness outcomes and also indirect ones mediated by ‘absorption-immersion’ (defined as the extent that players feel like they are in a virtual world and in some cases actually their character). Overall, we suggest that WOW—and more generally multiplayer online role-playing games (‘MMORPGs’ or ‘MMOs’ for short) of which WOW is one example—can be thought of as cultural-cognitive technologies promoting a partitioned or ‘dissociated’ consciousness (Lynn 2005) in which players can attribute dimensions of self to in-game characters for potential psychological benefit or harm.