Competition or Cooperation: The Effect of Video Game Play on Anxiety and the View of. Others. Andrew Pennington, Nate Hickman and Kari Brown

Transcription

1 RUNNING HEAD: Competition or cooperation: anxiety and the view of others Competition or Cooperation: The Effect of Video Game Play on Anxiety and the View of Others Andrew Pennington, Nate Hickman and Kari Brown Hanover College

2 Competition or cooperation: anxiety and the view of others 2 Abstract Video games are increasingly prevalent in today s society and have gained the interest of the social sciences in recent years. The question at hand is whether a competitive or cooperative video game play condition will have an effect on anxiety and the individual s view of the other participant. The researchers hypothesized that in a competitive game play condition participants would report higher levels of anxiety and a less positive view of the other participant following playing Wii Tennis. It was predicted that in the cooperative game play condition reverse results would be true. The results of this study were unable to support these hypotheses, but should encourage the further development of studies on video game play and a competitive or cooperative condition.

3 Competition or cooperation: anxiety and the view of others 3 Competition or Cooperation: The Effect of Video Game Play on Anxiety and the View of Others In today s society, there is an increasing prevalence of technology-mediated interactions. Social networking domains, such as Facebook, Twitter and online video game play are at the forefront of such interactions. Although video game play is a less direct form of social networking, it is very popular within society to date. There are many different styles of video games, for example; first person shooters, sports, fantasy and MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) games. One aspect that all of the game consoles have recently begun to incorporate into their system is a focus on the potential of creating a space for competition between their customers. Competition and Anxiety At the center of video game use is the existence of first person shooters, such as video game series including, but not limited to, Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Halo. Such games are often criticized for the violent and gruesome acts they sometimes portray; social psychologists have focused attention on the ability of such competitive situations to alter levels of violence and aggression (Willoughby, Adachi & Good, 2011). A study done by Willoughby, Adachi & Good (2011) found that adolescent s violent video game play was significantly related to an increase in aggressive behavior over time. Another study found that more competitive video games lead to a rise in aggression regardless of the amount of violence within the game (Adachi & Willoughby 2011). Although there are many studies that connect the effect of violent video games on aggression, the effect of video games on anxiety is sparse. However, there are a sufficient

4 Competition or cooperation: anxiety and the view of others 4 amount of studies connecting aggression and anxiety. For example, Marsee, Weerns and Taylor (2008) examined the association among aggression and anxiety disorder symptoms of youth, finding that there was an association between anxiety and aggression. Kashani, Deuser, and Reid (1990) also looked at children and adolescents between the ages of 8 and 17 and found significantly more anxiety in high-physically aggressive subjects. Another study found that aggression and anxiety are two traits commonly held by video game addicts (Mehroof & Griffiths, 2010). The connection found between video games and aggression, taking into account aggression s known effect on anxiety, produces a direct link between video game play and anxiety. In order to understand this possible connection, an overall source of anxiety as a result of game play must be determined. A possible source of anxiety within play is the competition factor. A study done by Gilbert, McEwan, Bellew, Mills and Gale (2009) found that elevated competitive behavior can have a dark side. They found that it can create a hierarchical view of themselves and others, with fear of rejection which may lead to an increase in vulnerability to depression, anxiety, and stress. Abenza, Alarcón, Pinar and Ureña found that the anxiety of athletes increased when competing with rival teams, which led to a decrease in performance. We have demonstrated that competition in game play can have a variety of effects on the affective components of individuals. In order to better understand the effect of competition on anxiety, it has become necessary to assess cooperation s effects on anxiety in comparison. Competition, Cooperation and Perception of Other Another realm affected by videogame play is that pertaining to the perception one has of others. One study in particular combined cooperation and competition in a popular violent

5 Competition or cooperation: anxiety and the view of others 5 fighting game called Mortal Kombat. The intention of the Mortal Kombat study was to discover how violent video games affect the perceptions people have of themselves and others. The findings produced two conclusions. First, the involvement in violent video game play reduces perceptions of one s own qualities typically associated with being human. Second, our perceptions of others are likewise reduced when those others are the target of our videogame violence. (Bastian, Jetten & Radke, 2012) Competition and Cooperation Overall, competition and cooperation have been found to vary in their effects on individuals. Competition has been established as the determining factor of aggression resulting from videogame play, more so than purely violence in the video games played. A study examining cooperation and competition in a real-life setting, however, found that levels of intrinsic motivation and performance increased when cooperation was introduced in a competitive situation (Tauer & Harackiewicz, 2004). This positive effect, though due to the interaction, would not have occurred without the addition of cooperation. Though the effect discussed was not related to video game play, it did show the possibility for positive outcomes of a game experience when cooperation is present. Therefore, we decided to focus our efforts on some specific potential factors that might be affected by video game play when cooperation and competition are compared. Namely, we expected that non-violent competition would decrease a person s view of their competitor as well as increase their anxiety. In comparison, we made the prediction that non-violent cooperation would increase a person s view of their teammate and reduce their anxiety.

6 Competition or cooperation: anxiety and the view of others 6 Method Participants The participants in the study were twenty undergraduate college students between the ages of (n=20). The convenience sample of participants consisted of 10 male students and 10 female students. Two of the male students were African-American, accounting for 10% of our sample, the rest were Caucasian. They were gathered by signing up on a bulletin board outside a psychology classroom at a private college in the Midwest. Materials This experiment used a video game console known as the Nintendo Wii. The Nintendo Wii was first introduced in It is a small, white console with a disc drive and 1-4 remotes. The remotes are cordless and use accelerometers to measure player movement. This experiment took place in a psychology classroom; therefore we used a projector and screen provided by the college, distanced about ten feet apart. The project used was a Sharp Notevision PG-F310X. The videogame used for this study was Wii Tennis, which was created by the Nintendo Corporation, and selected for its relative simplicity and capability to support both a competitive and a cooperative condition. Two surveys were used before and then after the videogame play in order to measure change in our dependent variables of anxiety and the view of the other participant. To measure anxiety level, ten questions were selected for analysis by the researchers as having the most relevance to anxiety from a 21-item list portion of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale which the participants were asked to rate. Participants were informed to rate how much each statement applied to them over the past week on a Likert scale from zero to three, zero being Did not apply to me at all and three representing Applied to me very much, or

7 Competition or cooperation: anxiety and the view of others 7 most of the time. Examples of these statements were I found it hard to wind down and I felt that I was using a lot of nervous energy. To measure the participant s view of the other participant a survey deemed the Partner Assessment Scale was created by the researchers. For this survey the participant was presented with ten adjectives and asked to measure how much each adjective applied to the other participant on a Likert scale from zero to three, with zero being, Did not apply to them at all and three being, Applies to them very much. The adjectives used for this survey were personality traits such as trustworthy, honest, generous, and powerful. Eight of these adjectives were positively scored while two, cold and rude, were negatively scored to calculate the participant s view of other. Procedure For this experiment, there were two conditions with ten participants in each. Data was collected over five days. During the first four days of data collection, condition was randomly assigned based upon the day of data collection. To determine the condition for the first day of participants, a coin toss was used. The subsequent days then switched condition, leading up to the last day of data collection. For the fifth day, it was necessary to have one set of participants in each condition, thus the coin toss was used to determine which condition the first group would be in, and then next group was then in the alternate condition. Each trial consisted of two participants who were either playing Wii Tennis on the same team (cooperative play) or against each other (competitive play). Before the participants were told what their task was, they were given two surveys that assessed their anxiety level and their feelings about their partner in the experiment.

8 Competition or cooperation: anxiety and the view of others 8 While one player was filling out the surveys the other would be brought into the experimental room to familiarize the participant with game play. All participants were introduced to the Wii Tennis game through the use of a practice period of three minutes. During this period of 3 minutes participants were brought in one at a time and an experimenter explained the practice situation. The practice consisted of an in-game practice activity which involved returning the non-human computer s serves. The computer would first serve the ball, and the participant was expected to return the serve successfully. For each successfully returned serve, the computer would serve another ball, until the participant failed to successfully return the serve. In order to gain a consistent familiarity between all subjects, the duration of 3 minutes was achieved by instructing the participant to repeat this exercise until the experimenter noted that the time was up. After the first participant completed the practice period they were directed back out of the room to complete their surveys while the next participant would have a chance to practice. Following completion of both surveys and Wii Tennis practice by each of the participants, they were brought into the experimental room together and informed about whether they were playing on the same team or against each other for the duration of ten minutes. In both conditions, participants stood side by side facing the projector screen. In the competitive condition participants played against each other and thus, the split-screen display (one for each of the players) showed the game from opposite ends of the court. To increase the notion of competition, participants were then told that each player should try to achieve the highest overall score, which was composed of the overall number of matches and sets that the player won (given that the game is scored in the same fashion as an actual tennis match). In order to motivate such

9 Competition or cooperation: anxiety and the view of others 9 competition participants were informed that the overall winner would be entered into a drawing to win a Jendy s Pizza Pack, consisting of a large pizza, a family order of breadsticks, and two large soft drinks. In the cooperative condition participants were informed that they would be on the same side of the court trying to both score against the computer (non-real person). In order to increase the level of cooperation between participants in this condition, the Jendy s Pizza Pack was also introduced. Participants were informed that if they were to beat the computer in a set of 5 matches, they would both be entered into the drawing. Results The data analyzed in this study was collected directly from participants responses to the surveys which were administered prior to and following the game play condition. To access the interaction that time and game play condition have on anxiety as well as the view of other, it was first necessary to determine the reliability of each measure used. Running a reliability test of the 10-item anxiety scale produced an impressive Chronbach s Alpha value of Given the recent creation of the Partner Assessment Scale, the researchers were proud to find a satisfactory Chronbach s Alpha of the 10-item measure of view of other (after reverse scoring the appropriate items) to be In order to determine what the effect of competitive or cooperative condition had on anxiety or the view of other over the period of time between administering the surveys, a mixed analysis of variance. This type of analysis takes into account the within subjects factor of time, comparing survey data from before with survey data after, as well as the between subjects factor of competitive or cooperative game play condition. In other words, this mixed ANOVA would

10 Competition or cooperation: anxiety and the view of others 10 take into account that no participant experienced both game play conditions, yet all participants completed surveys both before and after game play. Running the mixed analysis of variance for both anxiety and then the view of other, there were no statistically significant interactions of time and game play condition. When comparing main effects of time and of game play condition, there was an effect of time on anxiety to the statistically significant level of p = <.05 [F (1, 18) = , p = <.002]. When comparing the means of the before and after levels of anxiety for this main effect of time on anxiety seems to suggest that regardless of game play condition, anxiety is reduced somehow by participating in the study. This change can be observed in the graph below. Graph 1. Anxiety Over Time. This graph demonstrates the decrease of anxiety that is revealed in the data. The numbers 1 and 2, correspond to measures of anxiety before and after game play respectively. As can be seen, in both conditions, anxiety levels decreased to the point of a significant main effect of time as mentioned previously.

11 Competition or cooperation: anxiety and the view of others 11 When running the mixed analysis of variance on the effect of game play condition and time on the view of other, no statistically significant results were found. Although time had been a significant main effect using the anxiety scale, there was no significance for time, the game play condition, or the interaction of the two when analyzing the view of other data. When comparing the means from before and after, there appears to be a tendency toward an increased view of other over time. This difference can be seen more clearly in the cooperative condition; however, there was not a statistically significant interaction of time and game play condition. This overall trend can be seen in the following graph. Graph 2. View of Other Over Time. As can be seen from the above graph, there was some tendency for the view of other measure to increase between the first and second set of surveys being administered, particularly in the case of those in the cooperative condition. This interaction of time and game play condition was not statistically significant.

12 Competition or cooperation: anxiety and the view of others 12 To review, both the measure of anxiety and of the view of other produced high levels of reliability. When running mixed ANOVAs for these two dependent measures there were no statistically significant main effects of game play condition or the interaction of game play condition and time. While there was no significant main effect of time when analyzing the view of other, there was an interesting significant main effect of time for the anxiety measure. Discussion From past studies, it is thought that competition and cooperation should have differing effects on both anxiety level and an individual s perceptions of another person. Given a skewed amount of research into the effect of competition in video games, inclusion of a cooperation condition might allow for researchers to begin to spread the word about the positive rather than negative effects that video games have. From our research we hypothesize that those individuals in the competitive condition will have an increase in anxiety and a more negative view of the other participant after playing the game together. Also, relating back to the research, we felt that those individuals in the cooperative condition would have a lowered amount of anxiety and a more positive view of the other person following participation in video game play. Through our results we found no statistically significant interaction of time and game play condition for either dependent measure, and thus are unable to support our hypotheses given our current data. While we did find a significant main effect of time across both conditions on the participant s level of anxiety, this finding provides little basis for making universal claims about the ability of game play, regardless of condition, to reduce anxiety. There were several factors which we believe may have limited the results of our study. The first of these, and also the one most likely to account for the significant main effect of time

13 Competition or cooperation: anxiety and the view of others 13 on anxiety was the inconsistency between prompts for the anxiety measure. Prior to the study, participants were asked to answer questions about how much each statement applied to them over the past week. Following game play, they were then asked to rate their anxiety given their current state. This difference between prompts accounts for a difference in the amount of time that the participants were encouraged to consider. Essentially, individuals beforehand were thinking back over all the times that they might have been anxious over the course of the last week versus only over about the last twenty minutes when rating anxiety following the study. While we would enjoy the opportunity to make statements such as, Video game play reduces anxiety, this reservation of inconsistency prevents such vast claims. Another issue with our surveys arose from the Partner Assessment Scale. The problem of partner familiarity, however, was not a direct result of the scale used. To attain participants, a sign-up sheet was posted outside of the introductory psychology lab with two spaces for each time spot. While we had hoped to gain a sample of participants who were only somewhat familiar with each other, it was apparent through observation of participant behavior that some participants were very close, possibly even best friends. At the reverse end of the spectrum, there were some participant pairs who seemed oblivious to each other s existence prior to the study. This was manifested in questions like, Wait, am I supposed to rate how much I think this applies to them? Given these differences in subject familiarity it stands to reason that it would have been difficult to see much change between the view of other before and after for participants that knew each other well, and would thus have well-ingrained views of the other person. With subjects that didn t know each other at all, it would have been fairly difficult for such participants to rate the view of other at all. One way to at least address the latter of the two

14 Competition or cooperation: anxiety and the view of others 14 issues of familiarity in future studies would be to allow an introductory period in which the participants could become acquainted prior to rating the other person. One final reservation with this study was the presence of the researchers while participants were playing the video game. Although the researchers attempted to minimize the amount of interaction between the participants and themselves during game play, the mere presence of the researchers may have influenced participant anxiety and performance through social facilitation (Zajonc, 1965). Future studies might look to minimize this effect by limiting contact between participants and researchers during game play. In conclusion, the results of this study failed to support our hypotheses that competitive game play would increase anxiety and decrease the participant s view of other while the cooperative condition was predicted to reduce anxiety and improve the participant s view of other. As discussed previously, several reservations may have limited the main effects and interactions of time and game play condition on anxiety and the view of other. In order to further examine the effects that a cooperative or competitive video game play condition might have on anxiety and the view of other, it would be important to consider such reservations when constructing future study designs.

15 Competition or cooperation: anxiety and the view of others 15 References Adachi, P. C., & Willoughby, T. (2011). The effect of video game competition and violence on aggressive behavior: Which characteristic has the greatest influence?. Psychology Of Violence,1(4), doi: /a Bastian, B., Jetten, J., & Radke, H. M. (2012). Cyber-dehumanization: Violent video game play diminishes our humanity. Journal Of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(2), Gilbert, P., McEwan, K., Bellew, R., Mills, A., & Gale, C. (2009). The dark side of competition: How competitive behaviour and striving to avoid inferiority are linked to depression, anxiety, stress and self-harm. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 82(2), doi: / x Grossbard, J. R., Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., & Cumming, S. P. (2009). Competitive anxiety in young athletes: Differentiating somatic anxiety, worry, and concentration disruption. Anxiety, Stress & Coping: An International Journal, 22(2), doi: / Jackson, L. A., von Eye, A., Fitzgerald, H. E., Zhao, Y., & Witt, E. A. (2010). Self-concept, selfesteem, gender, race and information technology use. Computers In Human Behavior, 26(3), doi: /j.chb Kashani, J. H., Deuser, W., & Reid, J. C. (1991). Aggression and anxiety: A new look at an old notion. Journal Of The American Academy Of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 30(2), doi: / Lovibond, S. H., & Lovibond, P. F.(1995). Manual for the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales. (2nd. Ed.). Sydney: Psychology Foundation.

16 Competition or cooperation: anxiety and the view of others 16 Marsee, M. A., Weems, C. F., & Taylor, L. K. (2008). Exploring the association between aggression and anxiety in youth: A look at aggressive subtypes, gender, and social cognition. Journal Of Child And Family Studies, 17(1), doi: /s Meeker, B. F. (1990). Cooperation, competition, and self-esteem: Aspects of winning and losing. Human Relations, 43(3), doi: / Mehroof, M., & Griffiths, M. D. (2010). Online gaming addiction: The role of sensation seeking, self-control, neuroticism, aggression, state anxiety, and trait anxiety. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, And Social Networking, 13(3), doi: /cyber Tauer, J. M., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (2004). 'The effects of cooperation and competition on intrinsic motivation and performance': Correction to Tauer and Harackiewicz (2004). Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 87(2), doi: /h Willoughby, T., Adachi, P. C., & Good, M. (2011). A longitudinal study of the association between violent video game play and aggression among adolescents. Developmental Psychology, doi: /a Zajonc, R. B. (1965). Social facilitation. Science, 149(Whole No. 3681), doi: /science Zhao, L., Jiang, G., & Wang, Y. (2011). Related factors of game violence exposure in high school students. Chinese Mental Health Journal, 25(5),

17 Competition or cooperation: anxiety and the view of others 17 Appendix A: Depression Anxiety Stress Scale Please read each statement and circle a number 0, 1, 2 or 3 that indicates how much the statement applied to you over the past week. There are no right or wrong answers. Do not spend too much time on any statement. The rating scale is as follows: 0 Did not apply to me at all 1 Applied to me to some degree, or some of the time 2 Applied to me to a considerable degree, or a good part of time 3 Applied to me very much, or most of the time 1 I found it hard to wind down** I was aware of dryness of my mouth I couldn't seem to experience any positive feeling at all I experienced breathing difficulty (eg, excessively rapid breathing, breathlessness in the absence of physical exertion)** I found it difficult to work up the initiative to do things I tended to over-react to situations I experienced trembling (eg, in the hands)** I felt that I was using a lot of nervous energy** I was worried about situations in which I might panic and make a fool of myself** I felt that I had nothing to look forward to I found myself getting agitated** I found it difficult to relax** I felt down-hearted and blue I was intolerant of anything that kept me from getting on with what I was doing** I felt I was close to panic** I was unable to become enthusiastic about anything I felt I wasn't worth much as a person I felt that I was rather touchy I was aware of the action of my heart in the absence of physical exertion (eg, sense of heart rate increase, heart missing a beat) I felt scared without any good reason** I felt that life was meaningless **Used for data analysis, deemed as most relevant to everyday stress.

18 Competition or cooperation: anxiety and the view of others 18 Appendix B: Partner Assessment Scale Please read each statement and circle a number 0, 1, 2 or 3 that indicates how much the statement applies to the other participant. There are no right or wrong answers. The rating scale is as follows: 0 Did not apply to them at all 1 Applies to them to some degree 2 Applies to them to a considerable degree 3 Applies to them very much 1 Trustworthy Honest Cold Generous Friendly Helpful Rude Caring Powerful Likeable