The Existing Conversation
Do you play video games? If not, I’m sure someone around you might, or at the very least you’ve heard of them. You’ve almost certainly heard how too much time spent playing them is detrimental, especially when it comes to school work. Usually, the argument is that the screen time hurts your eyes, it’s unproductive or lazy, or that it wastes time that could be used for studying, or doing homework or chores. Maybe you yourself even think this way. Well I’m here to tell you, not so fast! There’s an emerging body of research surfacing that explores exactly that topic. In fact, let’s unpack this subject a little bit ourselves.
So how is it at all possible that video games can be beneficial? This can be confusing for some. That’s understandable, after all, there are all kinds of video games, with all kinds of subject matters and across all kinds of platforms. So how can we possibly control for variables like these? Well turns out the focus is more on the individual’s behavior and what that says about them than the actual video games themselves. Video Game Strategies as Predictors of Academic Achievement is an article by Karla Hamlen that attempted to explore the relationship between video games and GPA. In the study, they compared the effect that video game strategies had on GPA to the effect that homework strategies had on GPA. Get this - the video games won! Specifically, they were able to point out certain strategies in gameplay that would lead to a higher GPA.
This link was also explored in a separate study. It was reported on in an article called Video Gameplay, Personality and Academic Performance by Matthew Ventura, Valerie Shute, and Yoon Jeon Kim. While this study also investigated whether there was a tie with personality, it reflected similar results as the previous study. Strategies in video games played a key part in academic performance. Not only that, but the kind of player also made a difference. For example, if you just spent a high number of hours playing video games per week, but you weren’t that picky about the game you played, there wasn’t really a benefit. The improvement was seen in students who played a medium amount, but were highly selective in the games they played. This means they were playing their favorite games most of the time, if not all of the time.
Overall, it is not simply just about the length of time, or what kind of games you play. What really does it is the fact that players are picking what strategy works for them to get through the problems. That being said, of course you still need to study the actual material, this is not to say replace homework with video games. Instead, it is more so to show a link between the way people play video games and the way they do their homework. Playing video games is a mechanism by which an individual can form certain habits of problem solving. When faced with the “problem” of studying for a test or getting homework done, they are able to then employ these previously developed habits to accomplish their given task.
While it may not seem important to know that video games can actually be beneficial, it is important to know the basics of how it all works. Because if you know why these games are supposedly good, then this can be a source for you to use when you attempt to solve problems in the future. So what’s the deal? Research like this has lead to other studies on the topic of a phenomenon called “gamification.” This is when aspects of game play are applied to the working world. So things like trophies and achievement notifications, which are usually found on a gaming platform, are now being tailored to the office environment.
Research has shown that this actually improves overall employee performance in the workplace. These “trophies” can be in the form of winning Employee of the Month, check bonuses, and much more. There is a blog all about the psychology of video games, and it talks some about gamification. It goes much more into detail about all the aspects of video games, and why they work. It also explores not just the effects of video games, but what kind of psychology has to go into making video games. Jamie Madigan is the author of the blog titled The Psychology of Video Games, and if you want to read more about it just click right here. He also wrote a book called Getting Gamers, has a podcast going more into detail about lots of topics, and has, in his own words, “appeared as an expert on the psychology of video games in dozens of print, web, and radio outlets.”
This may not be the next big thing that solves climate change, but arguably that is someone else’s area of expertise. Psychology focuses on the human experience side of things! Wouldn’t you want to actually enjoy your job? With gamification, work can be much more than a job or a career, it can be a passion. It can be a source of happiness and pride. Many people are not happy with their jobs, yet they do it because they need the money.
Imagine if a higher percentage of individuals enjoyed going to work every day instead. This would lower depression rates. People with depression have a much higher risk of getting sick regularly, such as with the flu or with pneumonia. The rates of sickness would lower right along with depression. That’s the point - provoking large scale change by invoking seemingly smaller scale interventions. That’s what psychology is for! We just want to make the world a better place, and if that means implementing skills developed by playing video games, then so be it!
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