Video Game Addiction Primer

[Sleeping in EQ]

From Griffiths and Davies (2005):

"It is [Griffiths'] belief that video game addiction does indeed exist, but that it affects only a very small minority of players."

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"There is no doubt that for a minority of children and adolescents video games can take up considerable time. Whether these studies [Fisher, 1994; Parsons, 1995; Phillips et al., 1995; Griffiths, 1997] suggest video games may be addictive is perhaps not the most salient issue here. The question to ask is what the longitudinal effect of any activity (not just video game playing) that takes up thirty hours of leisure time a week has on the educational and social development of children and adolescents. At present we do not know the answer to such a question. However, it is our contention that any child who engaged in any activity excessively (whether defined as an addiction or not) every day over a number of years from a young age, would have their social and/or educational development negatively affected in some way.

There is also the question, "If video games are addictive, what is the addictive process?" One potential way of answering this question is to produce possible theoretical accounts of video game addiction and test the hypotheses empirically. McIlwraith (1990) proposed four theoretical models of television addiction in popular and psychological literature that would seem good models to test the boundaries of video game addiction. Substituting 'video game' for 'television' in McIlwraith's account would leave the four explanations as thus:

1. Video game addiction is a function of the video game's effects on imagination and fantasy life, i.e., people who play video games to excess have poor imaginations.

2. Video game addiction is a function of the video game's effects on arousal level, i.e., people who play video games to excess either do so for its arousing or tranquilizing effects.

3. Video game addiction is a manifestation of oral, dependent, or addictive personality, i.e., people who play video games to excess do so due to their inner personality as opposed to the external source of addiction.

4. Video game addiction is a distinct pattern of uses and gratifications associated with the video game medium, i.e., people who play video games to excess enjoy the physical act of playing or play only when they are bored, etc.

Few of these explanations for home video game playing have been empirically studied, although some empirical evidence by Griffiths and Dancaster (1995), and evidence from arcade video game addiction (Fisher, 1994) appear to support the second theoretical orientation, that video game addiction is a function of the video game's effects on arousal level. Recent research by Koepp et al. (199 demonstrated dopaminergic neourotransmission during video game playing."

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"There is no doubt that for a minority of people (particularly adolescents) that video games can take up considerable time and to all intents and purposes they are 'addicted' to them. However, the prevalence of such an addiction is still of great controversy, as is the mechanism by which people may become addicted. This is one area where research appears to be much needed....The only way of determining whether nonchemical (i.e., behavioral) addictions (such as video game addiction) are addictive in a nonmetaphorical sense is to compare them against clinical criteria for established drug-ingested addictions. However, most researchers in the field have failed to do this, which has perpetuated the skepticism shown in many quarters of the addiction research community. The main problems with the addiction criteria suggested by most researchers is that the measures used a) have no measure of severity, b) have no temporal dimension, c) have a tendency to overestimate the prevalence of problems, and d) take no account of the context of video game use. There are also concerns about the sampling methods used. As a consequence, none of the surveys to date conclusively show that video game addiction exists or is problematic to anyone but a small minority. At best, they indicate that video game addiction may be prevalent in a significant minority of individuals but that more research using validated survey instruments and other techniques (e.g. in-depth qualitative interviews) are required [emphasis mine].

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"There are case study accounts in the literature that appear to to show that excessive video game players, including those that play online (Griffiths, 2000) display many signs of addiction (e.g., Keepers, 1992). These case studies tend to show that video games are used to counteract other deficiencies and underlying problems in the person's life (e.g., relationships, lack of friends, physical appearance, disability, coping, etc.). Again, further work of a more in-depth qualitative nature is needed to confirm the existence of video game addiction (emphasis mine)."

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"Research demonstrates that males are the most excessive users of video games (Kaplan, 1983; Griffiths, 1991, 1993, 1997), and this again mirrors many other youth addictions (Griffiths, 1995). Reasons as to why males play video games significantly more than females have been generally lacking. Explanations may include:

1. The content of the games....

2. Socialization--women are not encouraged to express aggression in public and feel uncomfortable with games of combat or war (Surrey, 1982)....

3. Sex differences--males on average perform better in visual and spatial skills (particularly depth perception) (Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974) that are essential to good game playing....Therefore, the average male player would be more likely to score higher than the average female player and thus be more likely to persist in playing.

It is also apparent that there are gender differences between the types of game played....

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"There is also the question of developmental effects--do video games have the same effect regardless of age? It could well be the case that video games have a more pronounced addictive effect in young children but less of an effect (if any) once they have reached their adult years. There is also the social context of playing: does playing in groups or individually, with or against each other, affect potential addictiveness of games in any way? These all need further empirical investigation [emphasis mine]."

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"It may be that video game addiction is age-related, like other more obviously 'deviant' adolescent behaviors (e.g., glue sniffing), because there is little evidence to date of video game addiction in adults [emphasis mine]."

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I think that the satisfaction of "control" is an important element here, although I suspect age is important too. Satisfaction of control is a disturbing variable, as I've seen it crop up in research into other new media (like cell phones). The control enabled by text messaging (i.e., "where are you?") is just now being looked at in terms of enabling abusers' surveillance in abusive relationships.

Welcome to my world.

[ChinoCoug]

let me ask you this:

which studies are more valid:

1. surveys about video game addiction
2. brain scans showing comparative dopamine levels in cocaine injections and video game playing.

[MikeWaters]

Chino, if sex activates dopamine in the same places that cocaine does at the same levels, are we going to argue that sex is bad for you?

[Sleeping in EQ]

Originally Posted by ChinoCoug

let me ask you this:

which studies are more valid:

1. surveys about video game addiction
2. brain scans showing comparative dopamine levels in cocaine injections and video game playing.

Your continued attempt to associate video game playing with cocaine is discrediting your POV. I realize that you probably feel that your view is sufficiently supported, and I feel the same about my own perspective.

[Jennerstein]

I think Chino is speaking from personal experience here. NCAA Football was always his kyrptonite.