On the psychology of computer gaming

Abstract

This article introduces this special issue of the journal, dedicated to research into the psychology of playing computer games. The interdisciplinary character of gaming-activity research is emphasized by the example of ethnographic, culturological and psychological works. The characteristic view of ethnographic science, which sees gaming as entertainment and a way of spending spare time, is dominant in research practice, including psychological and pedagogical practice. This is connected with studies on gaming activity and the psychological qualities of computer gamers. 25 years of psychological research in computer game-related activity in Russia are reviewed. The article refers to such lines of conducted research as the study of personality traits and cognitive characteristics of gamers, their implicit beliefs, and the psychological addictions of gamers. However, the frontline of foreign research is significantly wider and some trends of these works are insufficiently represented in home scientific literature. Among them is the disputed issue about whether or not aggressive computer games cause an escalation in aggression among gamers, as well as about the specifics of cognitive processes in gamers. Contemporary approaches to finding solutions for these questions are explored on both analytical and empirical levels in the articles that constitute this special issue. In one analytical article the argument is put forward that contemporary multi-user games encourage not only gaming activity, but communicative activity as well, and to some extent represent something like a “club”.