Personality and video games: the role of personality in normal and disordered gaming, motives to play, and aggression
- Autores: Francisco Javier López Fernández
- Directores de la Tesis: Manuel Ignacio Ibáñez Ribes (dir. tes.), Laura Mezquita Guillamón (codir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Jaume I ( España ) en 2020
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Micaela Moro Ipola (presid.), Jorge Moya Higueras (secret.), Angelina Pilatti (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Psicología por la Universidad Jaume I de Castellón
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
- Resumen
Video games are popular pastimes in the developed world especially at young ages. Despite not having negative effects for the vast majority of people, a minority of players can display a disordered use with an addictive symptomatology. Furthermore, it has been claimed violent video game use could make young players more aggressive.
Video gaming is a complex behavior and is influenced by the interplay of factors of a different nature, such as psychological, social, biological or video game structural variables. From these factors, personality arises as a key element in explaining video game-related behaviors. Additionally, personality may impact on motives to play which are considered other relevant psychological variables related to different video gaming behaviors. This doctoral thesis aims to provide empirical data about the associations between personality, motives to play and video game related behaviors, as well as about the role of personality and violent video game use in aggressive behaviors. To do so, the thesis consists of 4 studies.
Study 1 explores the role of the five-factor model personality traits on disordered gaming and video game preferences in adolescents. Furthermore, the differential role according to gender and the possible moderating effect between personality traits and video gaming frequency is also examined. By the use of multiple regression analyses, the results of the study show low conscientiousness is strongly related to disordered gaming and its effect is moderated by video game frequency. Moreover, low agreeableness among boys and high introversion in girls display relevant associations in the personality-disordered gaming relationship. In addition, significant associations are found between personality and video game genre preferences.
Study 2 aims to develop and validate a scale in which the motives most recurrently found in research are reflected under unified labels, on two different samples of adolescents and young adults. Through a scoping review, the most frequent motives are tested and related to disordered gaming, gaming use and game genre uses. The scale consists of 8 motives displaying suitable scores in reliability and concurrent validity. Through multiple regression analyses, coping and social interaction motives are extensively related to disordered gaming, whereas social interaction displays a strong association with gaming time, in adolescents and young adults.
Study 3 analyzes the direct and indirect effects of personality through motives (extracted from Study 2) on weekly and disordered gaming, on a sample of adolescents. Via structural equation modeling analyses, high neuroticism and low conscientiousness are directly associated with disordered gaming; on the other hand, low agreeableness and high introversion are directly related to weekly gaming. With regard to the effects of mediation by motives, coping partially mediates between neuroticism and disordered gaming, whereas social interaction partially mediates between low agreeableness and disordered gaming.
Study 4 examines the additive and moderating role of violent video game use, personality and deviant peers in aggression among adolescents, cross-sectionally and longitudinally. The results of the study show deviant peers and low agreeableness are key factors influencing adolescent aggressive behavior. Furthermore, violent video game use displays a small association with aggressive behavior, which becomes non-significant when controlling for other potential variables. Accordingly, no longitudinal associations are found between violent gaming and aggressive behavior one year apart. Furthermore, two moderating effects are showed regarding the number of deviant peers. Thus, violent video game use has a higher association with aggression when players report having more deviant peers. Likewise, less agreeable players display more aggressive behaviors when they have a higher number of deviant peers.
The findings provided highlight the importance of studying individual differences in the understanding of regular and disordered use of video games. Therefore, personality, directly, through motives to play, and moderated by other factors, play a crucial role to explain disordered gaming, video game use and video game genre preferences. Knowing the effects of personality traits and motives to play as well as their different impact according to gender may be useful in the development of prevention and treatment programs for disordered gaming. Likewise, the additive and moderating effect of personality in aggressive behaviors, together with deviant peers, allow us to clarify the real effect of playing violent video games in aggression among adolescents.
