When Gaming Gets Personal

There has been some debate and a recent Supreme Court Case about online gaming and it's effects on people, levels of violence, and personality.  The following is a short review, (with bibliography) on the matter.  Civil comments and counter points are always appreciated.

AJ

The focus of most early studies about online gaming was on those deemed "violent," has recently resulted in, what the American Psychiatric Association says is "clear and consistent" evidence that aggression is enhanced by the consistent and long term playing of violent video games, but also that, it is one of many contributing factors.  The latest meta-study looked at the last ten years of research and found that, in particular, adolescent boys between 12 and 18 were most likely to show elevated levels of aggressive behaviors after playing violent video games, and that the effects were most pronounced the longer the duration of play (the average length of time spent in a session) and the length of play (the number of weeks, months and years of consistent play).  This is of course, in regards to violent video game play like, for instance, Call of Duty. 

Recently attention has turned to the effects of other types of less violent and non-violent game play with the results being less pronounced the lower the violence in the game, as would, no doubt, be expected.  However, many researchers have expanded their conception of what is effected by online game playing and in the last ten years or so have been looking on the effects of online game playing on a persons personality.  Using the "Big Five" personality matrix (to test yourself go here: http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/results/?oR=0.925&cR=0.472&eR=0.594&aR=0.611&nR=0.344&y=1950&g=m), they have been measuring changes in personality, self concept, and morality as a result of online game playing and social media.  The results are interesting, to say the least.

First, it is found that most people, when online, are doing more than just having fun.  They are, in most cases, shaping a "cyber-personality" to reflect what, in the offline world, is closer to their "ideal self."  In other words, people do carry a sense of self into the game and they do try to enhance themselves so that the "cyber-person" presented is more in line with the desired "ideal self."  This, of course, isn't surprising to anyone.  But what might be surprising is how some groups formulate that "ideal self."

In the development of a healthy self acceptance, most adolescents move to identify themselves with a gender (not a sex) in accordance with their values, needs, vision or biology.  The process is very little understood and so political I'll say no more than that.  In any case, this movement toward becoming the desired gender, produces in the individual an "ideal self" which may or may not be healthy.  In fact, for adolescent boys the classical vision of being a "man" means they often engage in competition and trials as a rite of passage -- the "Rambo effect."  This too is commonly known and has been known for a long time.  What keeps most young men from becoming "Rambos" is that they soon realize they have not the physical or emotional makeup of that type of man and thus, in a sort move to self-preservation (or perhaps to accept an alternative meaning to what it means to be a "man") they lessen their aggressive behaviors and learn to be more accommodating of others.  At least that's what the psychological research of the last fifty years has shown.

Another thing it has shown though, is that the degree of success a adolescent has in becoming a "Rambo" the more likely he is to continue to pursue that course and the more aggression is displayed in his interactions.  This is in keeping with the research into violent online games, but also, with the effects of enacting immoral choices in situations in less violent games.  A study at the University of Indiana took a number of subjects and had them play roles in an online game.  Some were "aggressive game players" and some were non-aggressive game players.  Their willingness to inflict pain on a person was measured before and after and it was found that they were more willing to inflict a mild shock on another person, and a higher level of voltage, after playing the "aggressive game play" role, and the longer the played the role longer the effect lasted.  Thus, as one might expect, when it comes to immoral choices, especially those which harm or cause pain in other players, the more one imagines harming another the easier it gets to actually harm another.  This recognition of the power of imagination is nothing new and a method of improving athletic performance.  Most coaches, if not all, understand the power of imagination to reshape performance and have their athletes imagine things before enacting them.  I recently had a long conversation with a well known professional sports psychologist who holds that the most powerful tool to shaping an athletes performance is the imagination.

So, getting back to the "Rambo effect" and the success an otherwise "non-Rambo" type might experience online, it is quite likely that if an adolescent boy considers himself a successful "Rambo" type online, he will continue to do so to some degree other offline.   That success in enacting a positive self-image (an self image he perceives as 'positive' anyway) reinforces that self-image and if the success is imaginative, it's still success.

"Longitudinal Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggrssion in Japan and the United States" Anderson, Craig A.; Sakamoto, Akira; Gentile, Douglas A.; Ihori, Nobuko; Shibuya, Akiko; Yukawa, Shintaro; Naito, Mayumi; Kobayashi, Kumiko. Pediatrics, November 2008, Vol. 122(5), e1067-e1072.

Yee, N., & Bailenson, J. (2007). The Proteus Effect: The Effect Of Transformed Self-Representation On Behavior. Human Communication Research, 33(3), 271-290.

"The Effects of Pathological Gaming on Aggressive Behavior" Jeroen S. Lemmens, Patti M. Valkenburg and Jochen Peter

"Correlates and Consequences of Exposure to Video Game Violence: Hostile Personality, Empathy, and Aggressive Behavior" Bruce D. Bartholow, University of Missouri-Columbia, Marc A. Sestir, Edward B. Davis, University of North Carolina -- Chapel Hill

"Online Game Player Personality and Real-life Need Fulfillment" Ching-I Teng, Chang Gung University, Taiwan

"The Effect of Online Violent Video Games on Levels of Aggression" Jack Hollingsdale, Tobias Greitemeyer PLOS

"Video Games Do Affect Social Outcomes: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Effects of Violent and Prosocial Video Game Play"  Tobias Greitemeyer, Dirk O. Mugge, University of Innsbruk, Austria

"Effects of In-Game Storytelling on Immersion, Needs Satisfaction, and Affective Theory of Mind"  Daniel Bormann, Intsutite of Psychology, Albert Ludwigs University of Frieburg, Freiburg, Bresgau, Germany, and Tobias Greitemeyer, Institute of Psychology, University of Innsbruk, Innsbruk, Austria.