Videogame Addiction Research by Professor Douglas Gentile

               In 2009, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Iowa State University Douglas Gentile began researching video game addiction in an effort to disprove theories that it was addictive. What Gentile discovered was that video games were in fact addictive, and that the problem was much more serious than initially thought. Gentile found that nearly 1 in 10 American’s, aged 8-18, were pathological players (Iowa State University, 2009). Gentile determined this by comparing survey respondents’ gaming habits to the established symptoms for gambling in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. These habits would cause family, social, school, and psychological damage, and those who were found to be pathological were more likely to have gaming consoles in their bedrooms, to have trouble paying attention in school, to get worse grades in school, to have health problems, to commit crime, and were twice as likely to have been diagnosed with attention problems such as ADD or ADHD (Iowa State University, 2009).

In 2011, a new global study was conducted which determined that video game addiction exists internationally, and that more time spent gaming, lower social competence, as well as greater impulsivity were all risk factors for becoming addicted to gaming. In Singapore, a two-year study of students from the grades 3-8 revealed that approximately 9% were pathological gamers. This percentage of pathological gamers is comparable to other countries, like 8.5% of the United States, 10.3% of China, 8% of Australia, and 11.9% of Germany (ISU's Gentile, 2011). Researchers still had many questions that remained unanswered, like if some types of children are at greater risk of becoming pathological gamers, or how long the addiction lasts, or if pathological gaming was a symptom of another problem.  What Gentile discovered was that pathological gaming was not a symptom of another problem. It was found that once someone becomes addicted to video games, they were more likely to develop depression, increased social phobias and anxiety, and decreased grade scores as a result. As the child become more addicted to video games, these problems increased, and as the child stopped being addicted, these resulting problems decreased (ISU’s Gentile, 2011).

In 2016, Gentile determined that the accessibility of video games is the core driver of addiction. With the spread of the internet and the greater accessibility to technology, almost everyone has computers, home video game systems, and smart phones, all of which have easy access to video games. The reason video games are so addictive, explains Gentile, is that video games satisfy the “ABC” of human needs. The A is Autonomy, and video games make us feel like we are in control. The B is belonging, and video games make us feel connected to others through massive online communities. The C is Competence, and video games make us feel like we are successful and achieving something. The games constantly reward players, both physically and psychologically, making them highly addictive (Bresnahan, Worley, 2016).

Citations

Bresnahan, S., & Worley, W. (2016, January 06). When video games become an addiction. Retrieved February 18, 2016, from http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/06/health/video-games-addiction-gentile-feat

Iowa State University. (2009, April 21). Nearly 1 In 10 Youth Gamers Addicted To Video Games. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 18, 2016 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090420103547.htm

ISU's Gentile contributes to study identifying risks, consequences of video game addiction. (2011, January 16). Retrieved February 18, 2016, from http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2011/jan/addiction