Social Anxiety and Online Gaming: A Complex Relationship, Papers of Psychology

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EXTENT OF SOCIAL ANXIETY

AMONG GAMERS

INTRODUCTION

• (^) Social anxiety disorder, sometimes also known as social phobia, is a disorder where a person experiences anxiety regarding

social situations due to an emotional discomfort and excessive fear of being judged by people. Thus, a person suffering from

social anxiety has heightened worry of interactions with people and this becomes a hindrance in the person’s life as things like

giving presentations, going for job interviews or sometimes even doing everyday things like talking to the cashier at the counter,

using public restroom, etc. feel like a task.

• As children progress into formative years, their social relationships emerge as an extremely crucial aspect of their life. This is

the period of time in their life when they start considering their group of peers as their primary source of strength.

• Social anxiety is very common and prevalent in youth today. Adolescence is a time when people are shifting from a completely

unique reliance on their own family unit and are studying the ways to have interaction with friends in a way to be able to set

them up for the relaxation of their existence.

• (^) The development of public self-consciousness intensifies an adolescent’s sensitivity to how they are being perceived by using

others. This consciousness often gives birth to vulnerability for heightened social anxiety.

• (^) Age-of-onset facts point to early teen life as a developmentally touchy duration for the emergence of the condition, at a time

when the peer group and their opinion become the centre of importance in life

• As adolescence is a sensitive developing period in anyone’s life and usually can contribute to the arise of social anxiety in a

person. There are possibly few major factors which are parenting, peer victimisation and the most prevalent one these days is

usage of social media that could lead to the persistence of the disorder. Behaviour patterns in parents like overly defensive,

directive and controlling behaviours, even when the state of affairs does not require it, and discouragement of independent

problem solving are one of the many contributors of anxiety amongst youth

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

• (^) Aderka, Shechner, (2016), conducted a literature search the use of PubMed and PsycINFO databases. Their meta-evaluation was primarily based on 22 research and covered 13, participants. Results indicated that social anxiety (a) is correlated positively with feelings of comfort on line, (b) isn't always correlated with general time spent online, email use and IM, but is correlated definitely with time spent on gamming, and (c) is correlated positively with PIU. The study also located developmental stage to be a moderator of the correlations among social anxiety and internet use variables.
• (^) Lusher, Gavriloff, (2015), did a research on Social Anxiety and Mindfulness in Online Gamers. This paper reports on a study of regular online gamers (N = 84, mean age 29 years) who played either a first-person shooter (FPS) solely, or played a massively multiplayer online role- playing game (MMORPG) either solely or in addition to FPS games, for at least 1 h per week. Findings revealed that participants who did not play MMORPGs exhibited significantly different levels of social anxiety online and offline, whereas this difference was not apparent amongst players who regularly played an MMORPG. The findings suggest that gaming has varied uses for a range of people and the beneficial aspects of online gaming should be explored further with a view to their usefulness in a clinical context.
• (^) Leeson, Lee, (2015), did a research on online gaming in the context of social anxiety. Data were collected from adult MMORPG players via an online survey (N = 626). Using structural equation modelling, the hypothesized model was tested on 1 half of the sample (N = 313) and then retested on the other half of the sample. The results indicated that the hypothesized model fit the data well in both samples. Specifically, expressing true self in game, higher levels of social anxiety, larger numbers of in-game social supports, and fewer supportive face-to-face relationships were significant predictors of higher GPIUS scores, and the number of in-game supports was significantly associated with time spent playing.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

• (^) Quandt, Domahidi, (2015), researched on the relationship between social online game use and

gaming- related friendhsips. The information was collected on everyday life as well as on gaming-

related friendships from a representative sample of 2213 gamers and 287 non-gamers in

Germany. The results show that social online gamers do not differ significantly from other gamers

or non-gamers regarding the number of their good friends. However, the study found a significant

impact of social online gaming frequency on the probability of meeting exclusively online friends.

Different social motives played an important role for modality switching processes.

• Griffiths, Chappell, (2014), did a study on Breaking the Stereotype: The Case of Online Gaming.

Despite the rise of computer games as a leisure phenomenon, there has been relatively little

research into this area. Furthermore, almost all of the research to date has concentrated on

arcade or console games. More recently, the Internet has become a new medium in which players

can play videogames. Since there is no published research in this area, some "benchmark" data

on which future research can build was collected from two online gaming fan sites.

Sociodemographic showed that the majority of players were male (approximately 85%). Over

60% of players were older than 19 years. The data provide clear evidence that the game clientele

is very much an adult profile and suggest a different picture to the stereotypical image of an

adolescent online gamer. The stereotype of the typical online player being a socially withdrawn

young male with limited sex role identity appears to be misplaced.

METHODOLOGY THEORETICAL BASIS

• (^) Excessive vs enthusiast gamers - Differentiating excessive and pathological gaming from enthusiastic gaming is paramount to forming a universal definition of the way excessive gaming is conceptualized. Research examining excessive gaming has become a popular topic in recent years (Liu & Peng, 2009), with roots tracing back to studies of the video game arcades of the 1980s (Fisher, 1995) and eventually being reshaped by Internet addiction research. Research in the area of excessive video gaming, par Enthusiastic gamers who play for upwards of 20 hours a week or more only become excessive gamers when the gaming habit becomes an obsession and interferes with their social, marital, occupational, or academic lives (Lafrenière, Vallerand, Donahue, & Lavigne, 2009). Enthusiastic gamers with harmonious passion may play just as often as excessive gamers with obsessive passion. The difference between the two is defined by the gamer’s ability to maintain control. When the amount of time spent gaming interferes with real-world functioning and the gamer is unable to stop, gaming has become excessive and problematic, particularly online gaming, has been consistently compared to the concept of 5 Internet addiction (Young, 1998a).
• (^) Consequences of excessive gaming - For some gamers, long and sustained periods of gaming may become detrimental to real world relationships, work and school performance, physical health, psychological health, and daily functioning (Li, Jackson, & Trees, 2008). Each of these areas will be briefly reviewed. When considering these consequences, diminishing quality of real-world relationships is often an indicator of detrimental gaming habits (Chappell et al., 2006).Excessive gamers may be experiencing a variety of psychopathology. Gamers may be suffering from social anxiety, depression, or other psychopathology that influences both gaming habits and the gaming media of choice
• (^) Alternative Conceptualizations of Excessive Gaming- Seay and Kraut (2007) completed a longitudinal study of online gaming activity among nearly 2800 respondents over the course of 14 months. The authors challenged the addiction conceptualization by exploring the way gaming attitudes and behaviours adapt and change over a period of time. In addition to challenging addiction model beliefs, Seay and Kraut hypothesized that the major factor affecting excessive gaming behaviour is a lapse in self-regulatory behaviour.
• (^) Problem : It is usually difficult to determine an excessive and enthusiast gamer and to identify if gaming is the cause of social anxiety or the person became a gamer to relieve anxiety.
• (^) Objective : to be able to identify excessive gamers and enthusiasts and the level of social anxiety’s effect in daily life and the gamer’s behaviour.
• (^) Research question : does the social anxiety caused by excessive gaming lead to impairment in daily life functioning and behaviour?

T O O L S Questionnaire Name: Age: Gender:

1. Do you often indulge in online gaming? Yes/ No
2. Have you made friends online while playing games easier than you do in real life? Yes/ No
3. Do you spend a sufficient amount of your free time communicating or playing with your virtual social group? Yes/ No
4. Does it concern your parents if you play for longer hours online? Yes/No
5. Do you prefer your virtual communication over the real-world communication? Yes/ No
6. Do you play games online to satisfy instant gratification? Yes/No
7. Do you avoid social situations to be able to spend time gaming? Yes/No
8. Do you find indulging in games more comforting than outdoor activities? Yes/ No
9. Do you easily become irritated when told to do a household chore when you're gaming? Yes/No

RESULTS

HERE I HAVE INSERETED A TABLE OF YES NO RESPONSES IN ORDER TO CALCULATE MEAN Mean: Number of Yes response/Total number of Mean: Number of No response / Total number of

• 1. Number of responses Yes No
• • Number of Yes response: MEAN:
  • Total number of responses:
  • 9. responses
  • Number of No response =
  • Total number of responses =
  • 5. responses

R E S U LT S The graphical representation of the scores using pie chart: In the graph shown below, we can see that 90% of gamers in our study are males. More men indulge in excessive or enthusiastic online gaming as compared to women.

C O N C LU S I O N

• Gaming disorder is commonly linked to excessive play and therefore people assume the solution is to simply limit the frequency of play. It is possible for people to play for pleasure to cope with anxiety. There is a fine line between an excessive gamer and an enthusiast.
• (^) Excessive gaming tends to create more social anxiety amongst gamers who completely get devoid of their reality, refuse to socialize for real at all, and have no friends except for those in virtual gaming.
• Those people tend to lose the social sense to actually maintain relationships completely as they find it more comforting to probably hide behind the screen, express aggression in a way acceptable and many possible reasons.
• (^) Enthusiast gamers are the ones who indulge in gaming often too but know their bounds and have not lost touch with reality, they have friends, not many, but a few close-knit group, they are passionate about the gaming world but they have other passions and ambitions as well in life as well as relationships and friendships they care about.
• (^) They might be indulging in online gaming to help cope with anxiety on daily basis, while the excessive gamers may be increasing risk of more social anxiety by totally discarding an actual social life.
• (^) Any kind of mental relief is considered harmless, till the point it does not in turn come out to

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