How Children Experience Playing Video Games. Jeanne B. Funk, Ph. D. Tracie Pasold. Jennifer Baumgardner. The University of Toledo

Transcription

1 How Children Experience Playing Video Games Jeanne B. Funk, Ph. D. Tracie Pasold Jennifer Baumgardner The University of Toledo Correspondence to: Jeanne B. Funk, M. S. 948, 2801 West Bancroft, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH or Copyright held by the author 1

2 How Children Experience Playing Video Games Young children in the United States have become increasingly involved in extremely violent crime, both as victims and as offenders (Osofsky, 1995; U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2001). n particular, there have been alarming increases in the lethality of violent actions (Murray, Guerra, & Williams, 1997). The cause of increased lethality is multifaceted, but repeated exposure to media violence, including playing violent video and computer games, may be one contributing factor (Donnerstein & Smith, 1997; Funk, Bechtoldt Baldacci, Pasold & Baumgardner, in press). Repeated exposure to fantasy violence may alter affective responses and cognition, for example altering the process of moral evaluation, with eventual behavioral impact (Cantor, 1998; Funk, in press). Playing video games is a favorite activity for children across gender and age groups, with violent games among the most popular (Funk & Buchman, 1996; Wright et al., 2001). Absorption in the active participation in violent actions may intensify the impact of playing violent video games, relative to the impact of exposure to other media violence (Funk, 2002a). How Playing Video Games May nfluence Behavior Violent video games condone, promote, and justify the use of violence while concealing realistic consequences. Repeated demonstrations of violent behavior, coupled with the contingent reward of "winning" for choosing built-in violent strategies, are fundamental characteristics of these games (Provenzo, 1991). Consistently choosing the pre-programmed violent alternative results in cycles of positive reinforcement. This makes the game-playing situation a potentially powerful learning environment. n addition, it has been suggested that exposure to violent video games may lead to desensitization to the real-life consequences of violence and to the development and strengthening of proviolence attitudes (Funk, et al., in press). This 2

3 could lead to an impairment in the moral screening process which normally occurs prior to actual behavioral choice. Children learn general social rules and specific behaviors from observation, practice, and reinforcement. The development and internalization of behavioral scripts is one component of this process. A behavioral script is a set of situation-specific expectations and behavioral guidelines. A behavioral script helps an individual to predict what will happen in a certain situation and to implement a pre-programmed sequence of behaviors (Huesmann & Miller, 1994). Though efficient, scripts are not always accurate and may cause an individual to misinterpret or disregard new information. Perceived experience may even be altered to conform to a script (Guerra, Nucci, & Huesmann, 1994; Huesmann & Miller, 1994). Scripts may be triggered by internal or by situational cues, causing the individual to behave based on the previously internalized set of guidelines. t is possible that, for some children, playing violent video games could lead to the development and internalization of cognitive scripts consistent with game-playing experiences. n other words, children may be more likely to automatically use violence to solve problems, bypassing the typical process of moral evaluation. Absorption The experience of becoming absorbed in playing video games is commonly reported, but little-studied. For example, one child in a focus group examining children s experience during game play stated My dad says (when m playing) m like talking to a wall" (Funk, 2002b). Writing in Salon, an on-line magazine, game designer Greg Costikyan stated that this repetition, the rhythm created, is one of the strongest draws for people to interactive entertainment. t s hypnotic (Costikyan, 1999). Psychological absorption is considered to be one type of altered state of consciousness, occurring when one becomes totally immersed in the present experience (rwin, 1999). Psychological absorption is also described as a form of nonpathological dissociation 3

4 (rwin, 1999). Nonpathological dissociation is a commonly experienced state, especially in childhood. Nonpathological dissociative experiences, for example daydreaming and fantasizing, peak before adolescence, by about age 9 or 10 (Putnam, 1993). For adults, the most commonly cited example of nonpathological dissociation is highway hypnosis in which a driver may travel for some distance and suddenly become aware that he or she has not been paying attention to the typical demands of driving (Ross, Joshi, & Currie, 1990). By definition, when an individual becomes psychologically absorbed, the logical integration of thoughts, feelings, and experiences is suspended. Psychological absorption also reduces the accessibility of affect to consciousness. Some have suggested that the state of absorption involves a temporary suspension of reality testing in which information may be appraised in idiosyncratic ways (Pekala, Wenger & Levine, 1985; Preston, 1998; Roche & Mc Conkey, 1990; Tellegen & Atkinson, 1974). When the game-playing experience is positive, psychological absorption may be equivalent to the flow state described by Csikszentmihalyi & Csikszentmihalyi (1988). Being in a flow state has been associated with enhanced learning (Moneta & Csikszentmihalyi, 1996), and possibly with enhanced susceptibility to suggestion (Center for Media Education, 1996). When the affect associated with absorption in game-playing is negative, absorption is a different experience, not yet well-studied. Some children do report negative affect while absorbed during game-play: for example, one fourth grader said t feels weird: m trapped! m trapped! (Funk, 2002b). A working conceptual model of the possible relationship between playing violent video games, flow, psychological absorption, and the development of aggressive behavioral scripts is presented in Figure 1. Game-playing may produce either a flow state or absorption. n both absorption and flow, there is a separation of thoughts, feelings and experiences, and a suspension of rational thought. When game content is violent, and in the absence of moderating factors such as strong parental influence or 4

5 positive peers, aggressive behavioral scripts may develop outside of conscious awareness. This would increase the probability of actual aggressive behavior in real life. Although there is general agreement that some individuals become completely absorbed in game-playing at times, children s game-playing experience has not yet been systematically examined. We developed the Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) to begin to examine the phenomenon of absorption while playing video games. Methods and Procedure Participants Participants were seventeen fourth through sixth grade children (6 girls) who indicated they were regular video game players. Children were recruited through local after school programs in a mid-sized Midwestern city. Measure Drawing from the descriptions children had given during previous video game projects, and from descriptions of flow experiences (Csikszentmihalyi & Csikszentmihalyi (1988), questions were designed to examine experiences which may indicate absorption in game-playing. This initial version of the Game Experience Questionnaire consists of ten questions with five response choices anchored by No (1), Sort of (3), and Yes (5) (see Table 1). Higher scores indicate stronger endorsement of absorption experiences. nstructions were given as follows: For each question, mark the response that best describes how you feel while you are playing a video or computer game. The questions were introduced by the statement, While am playing, sometimes. Results Cronbach s alpha for the GEQ for this sample was.71, and eliminating one question improved alpha to.79. Table 1 presents the distribution of children s responses to each question. The strongest endorsement occurred for the question about losing track of time. Least endorsed was things don t seem real. 5

6 Each child s responses were examined to determine if any children could be identified as more likely to experience absorption. Children were defined to be susceptible to absorption if they endorsed a 4 or 5 (Yes) on 6 or more of the 10 questions. By this definition, 8 children were included in the Absorption group, and 9 in the Non-Absorption group. Mean scores, standard deviation and range of scores are presented by group and by gender in Table 2. The mean scores between the Absorption and Non-absorption groups were significantly different (t (15) = -4.08, p =.001 (two-tailed). Discussion The goal of the present project was to begin to develop a measure to examine children s experience while playing video games. Specifically, we focused on experiences believed to represent psychological absorption. Children s responses to this initial version of the Game Experience Questionnaire indicate that there is a group of children who endorse many indicators of absorption while playing video games. Violent video games have earned permanent standing in the popular culture. Recent research with adults suggests that playing violent video games does have at least a short-term effect on behavior, including increases in aggressive cognitions, feelings, and behavior (Anderson & Bushman, 2001). Findings with child populations are less consistent, with immediate behavioral effects likely to be identified for younger children (see, for example, Silvern & Williamson, 1987), and longer term relationships between behavior and other characteristics such as a preference for violent games and lower empathy and stronger proviolence attitudes found for somewhat older children (Cohn, 1995; Funk, et al., in press). t is clear that the experience of playing a violent video game has negative impact on some individuals in some situations, making the issue of the mechanism of impact an important question. Our conceptual model presumes that some children become highly absorbed in playing video games, which 6

7 may increase their susceptibility to the messages embedded in violent video games (violence is fun and without negative consequences), and to desensitization to the true reality of violence. Propensity to become absorbed in game-playing may be one way to identify players who are at higher risk for negative impact as a result of playing violent video games. Further work is needed to develop the Game Experience questionnaire, to confirm present findings, to link absorption experiences to game type and to individual personality characteristics, and to identify the conditions under which behavioral transfer outside the game-playing situation may occur. 7

8 Table 1 Responses to Game Experience Questionnaire Response Choices No Sort of Yes 1. lose track of time Things seem to happen automatically feel different forget where am Things don t seem real feel spaced out or goofy Time seems to kind of stand still or stop t seems like something outside of me makes me move play without thinking about it Things seem to be in slow motion Notes. Numbers in bold indicate number of children who chose that response, total number of children = 17. 8

9 Table 2 Mean, Standard Deviation, and Range on the Game Experience Questionnaire for Absorption and Non-absorption Groups by Gender M SD Range Absorption Boys (n = 4) Girls (n = 4) Total (n = 8) Non-absorption Boys (n = 7) Girls (n = 2) Total (n = 9) ` Note. Possible range =

10 References Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2001). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological Science, 12, Cantor, J. (1998). Children s attraction to violent television programming. n J. H. Goldstein (Ed.), Why we watch: The attractions of violent entertainment (pp ). NY: Oxford. Center for Media Education. (1996). Web of deception: Threats to children from online marketing. Washington, DC: Author. Cohn, L. B. (1995). Violent video games: Aggression, arousal, and desensitization in young adolescent boys. Dissertation Abstracts nternational, 57, 2-B, (UM No ). Costikyan, G. (1999). Games kill people do they? Salon. Retrieved March 28, 2003 from Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Csikszentmihalyi,. S. (1988). Optimal experience: Psychological studies of flow in consciousness. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Donnerstein, E., & Smith, S. L. (1997). mpact of media violence on children, adolescents, and adults. n S. Kirschner & D. A. Kirschner (Eds.), Perspectives on psychology and the media (pp ). Washington: American Psychological Association. Funk, J. B. (2002a). Video games. n V. C. Strasburger & B. J. Wilson (Eds.), Children, adolescents, and the media (pp ). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Funk, J. B. (2002b, July). What young children experience playing violent video games. n C. A. Anderson (Chair), Violence in video games. Symposium conducted at 10

11 the meeting of the nternational Society for Research on Aggression, Montreal, CA. Funk, J. B. (in press). Children and violent video games: Strategies for identifying high risk players. n D. Ravitch and J. Viteritti (Eds.). Kid stuff: marketing violence and vulgarity in the popular culture. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Funk, J. B., Bechtoldt Baldacci, H., Pasold, T., & Baumgardner, J. (in press). Violence Exposure in Real-life, Video Games, Television, Movies, and the nternet: s There Desensitization? Journal of Adolescence. Funk, J. B., & Buchman, D. (1996). Playing violent video and computer games and adolescent self-perception. Journal of Communication, 46, Gilsky, M. L., Tataryn, D. J., Tobias, B. A., Kihlstrom, J. F., & Mc Conkey, K. M. (1991). Absorption, openness to experience, and hypnotizability. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, Glickson, J., & Avnon, M. (1997). Explorations in virtual reality: Absorption, cognition, and altered state of consciousness. magination, Cognition, and Personality, 17, Guerra, N. G., Nucci, L., & Huesmann, L. R. (1994). Moral cognition and childhood aggression. n L. R. Huesmann (Ed.), Aggressive behavior: Current perspectives (pp ). New York: Plenum. Huesmann, L. R., & Miller, L. S. (1994). Long-term effects of repeated exposure to media violence in childhood. n L. R. Huesmann (Ed.), Aggressive behavior: Current perspectives (pp ). New York: Plenum. rwin, H. J. (1999). Pathological and nonpathological dissociation: The relevance of childood trauma. The Journal of Psychology,133,

12 Moneta, G. B., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). The effect of perceived challenges and skills on the quality of subjective experience. Journal of Personality, 64, Murray, M. E., Guerra, N. C., Williams, K. R. (1997). Violence prevention for the 21st century. n R. P. Weissberg, T. P. Gullotta, R. L. Hampton, B. A. Ryan, & G. R. Adams (Eds.), Enhancing children s wellness (pp ). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Osofsky, J. D. (1995). The effects of exposure to violence on young children. American Psychologist, 50, Pekala, R. J., Wenger, C. F., & Levine, R. L. (1985). ndividual differences in phenomenological experience: States of consciousness as a function of absorption. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48, Preston, J. (1998). Mediated environments and consciousness. n J. Gackenbach (Ed.). Psychology and the nternet. San Diego: Academic Press. Provenzo, E. F. (1991) Video kids: Making sense of Nintendo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Putnam, F. W. (1993). Dissociative disorders in children: Behavioral problems and profiles. Child Abuse and Neglect, 17, Roche, S. M., & Mc Conkey, K. M. (1990). Absorption: Nature, assessment, and correlates. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, Ross, C. A., Joshi, S., & Currie, R. (1990). Dissociative experiences in the general population. American Journal of Psychiatry, 147, Silvern, S. B., & Williamson, P. A. (1987). The effects of video game play on young children's aggression, fantasy, and prosocial behavior. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 8,

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14 Figure 1. Hypothesized Relationships between Playing Violent Video Games, Flow State, Psychological Absorption, and the Development of Aggressive Behavioral Scripts 14 Psychological Absorption - altered state - feelings and emotions not accessible Game-Playing Separation of thoughts, feelings and experiences + Violent Content Development Suspension of rational thought (in the absence of moderating of aggressive Suspension of moral evaluation factors) behavioral scripts Flow State - altered state - enhanced learning