Is it the Game or the Gamer?

A recent article posted by USAToday suggests that the issues around video games begin with the player, not the content. Studies are now showing that the focus should be on each player’s personality. If your child is already one that is aggressive and violent, those kinds of video games may only encourage those actions, which is why those players should limit their violent video game content. Several studies are being conducted about the affect of video games on their players. Patrick Markey of Villanova (Pa.) University presented his research at a meeting of the American Psychological Association. "Video games are not simply good or bad for everybody," he says. "But for some individuals who have certain dispositions, if they play video games they're much more likely to be negatively affected." (Jayson, Sharon.)


For players with higher hostility personality traits, Markey found a slight increase. The results of his study were published in Review of General Psychology. There is now a new study, Psychology of Violence, that continues to support this study that violence is not the main issue. "It appears that competition in games is what may influence aggression, not the violent content," says lead author Paul Adachi, whose study was conducted at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario (Jayson, Sharon.)

Obviously, there are many other pieces to the gaming equation. Though the worry used to be that it would encourage inactivity. Now with the Wii, Wii Fit controller, XBOX Kinect, and PlayStation 3’s move, people of all ages are becoming more active. In the long run, it seems that the home environment is what truly impacts the behaviors of younger gamers. The home environment has always influenced the personalities of children, and I would expect this has not changed; therefore, if the parents have not demonstrated appropriate behavior or watch violent shows with children present, those child begin to accent those behaviors.

David Gorelick of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore, who has reviewed research on behavioral addiction, says there's not enough data yet to know what "might lead a video game player to become a video game addict." Gorelick, who appeared on the panel about video game research, suggests that some people with excessive video game habits will meet the criteria for having a behavioral addiction (Jayson, Sharon.)

You can read the full article here

Jayson, Sharon. Don't Study the Video Game, Study the Player. USAToday.