ISS 210 Society, the Individual, & Video Games (W1)

ISS210 Society and the Individual: Video Games

Topic #5: Video Games and Addiction

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Today’s Questions • Is video game addiction “a thing”? • How big of a problem is it? • What might/can/should be done?

• Gray (assigned reading): “…we have serious withdrawals symptoms when we stop using…so we are driven to continue using…even when we know it is hurting us and we very much want to stop.”

• American Psychiatric Association: “…brain disease that is manifested by compulsive substance use despite harmful consequences. People with addiction…have an intense focus on using…to the point that it takes over their life.”

Preliminary: What is Addiction?

• American Society of Addiction Medicine: Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This is reflected in an individual pathologically pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors.

• Addiction is characterized by inability to consistently abstain, impairment in behavioral control, craving, diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships, and a dysfunctional emotional response. Like other chronic diseases, addiction often involves cycles of relapse and remission. Without treatment or engagement in recovery activities, addiction is progressive and can result in disability or premature death.

Preliminary: What is Addiction?

• ICD = International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems

• DSM: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

• 2013: Internet Gaming Disorder added to DSM-5 as “condition for further study”

• 2017: Proposes to add gaming disorder to the revised ICD…delays publishing until 2019

Diagnostic Significance

• “The ‘gamers’ play compulsively, to the exclusion of other interests, and their persistent and recurrent online activity results in clinically significant impairment or distress. People with this condition endanger their academic or job functioning because of the amount of time they spend playing. They experience symptoms of withdrawal when kept from gaming.”

DSM5 and IGD

• Gaming disorder is characterized by a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour (‘digital gaming’ or ‘video-gaming’), which may be online (i.e., over the internet) or offline, manifested by: 1) impaired control over gaming (e.g., onset, frequency, intensity, duration, termination, context); 2) increasing priority given to gaming to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other life interests and daily activities; and 3) continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences. The behaviour pattern is of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning. The pattern of gaming behaviour may be continuous or episodic and recurrent. The gaming behaviour and other features are normally evident over a period of at least 12 months in order for a diagnosis to be assigned, although the required duration may be shortened if all diagnostic requirements are met and symptoms are severe.

ICD and IGD (Beta draft, 5/11/18)

IGD Scale (Lemmens et al. 2015)

What Do Gamers Think? • Carras et al. (2018): Ask gamers to describe

what game addiction might look like

• Focus group sessions in 2016 and 2017 at MAGFest

• Prompt: “What are signs of video game addiction, Internet gaming disorder, or disordered gaming?”

• Get list from a bunch of people, display, discuss, ask individuals to rank their top 10

Carras et al. (2018, Table 1)

Carras et al. (2018, Table 1)

Carras et al. (2018) • Comparison between IGD criteria

and what gamers said

• Two questions: • Is there a match? • How much gamer consensus?

Comparing Gamers vs. IGD • Matched, High Consensus: Displacement,

Withdrawal, Persistence

• Matched, Low Consensus: Deception, preoccupation, escapism, conflicts

• Unmatched, High Consensus: Avoiding socializing, isolation/social phobia, games control your schedule, loss of reality/ dissociative attitude

• Unmatched, Low Consensus: Separating game world from real world

• N = 1205 college students in Chicago and Utah

• Explanatory variables: ADHD, cognitive function, mental health, physical health, somatic disturbances, BMI, anxiety, depression, positive affect, aggression, hypermasculinity, companionship, emotional support, tobacco/drug use, pornography use, gambling

Stockdale and Coyne (2018)

• 87 coded as being addicts • This is strange to me

• Matched with 87 non-addicts as “control” units

• Matching includes: geography (Chicago vs. Utah), age, sex, ethnicity, marital status

Stockdale and Coyne (2018)

Stockdale and Coyne (2018)

Cannot be certain about causal direction!

• How to respond to gaming addiction? • Limit availability (e.g., shutdown

system)

• Reduce risk or harm (e.g., warning messages)

• Provide help services (e.g., treatment programs)

Kiraly et al. (2017)

Summary • Today: Addiction and video games • Readings

• Gray (2018) • Bean et al. (2017)

• Next Time: Economics and politics of video games