Addictive Gaming: Self-Analyses of Addiction and the Biographical Context. Life Story Interviews with Video Game Addicts

Since the 1990ties computer and video games are discussed as being addictive. In media and research the phenomenon has gained great attention and with the appearance of internet gaming disorderas research diagnosis in the appendix of the recently published fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V) addictive gaming made a further step towards official recognition. Looked at addictive gaming from a social science perspective one could say that it is considered a social problem. But how do affected gamers perceive and interpret their gaming behaviour themselves?

This presentation tries to give an answer presenting biographical narrative interviews with german male and female gamers who are or were at some point classed as video game addicts according to a psychological screening instrument (CSAS II) (Rehbein et al. 2010) and/or self-analysis. The main objective is to take the subjective perspectives of the video gamers seriously and to reconstruct their self-analyses within their complex interrelationship between everyday life and the biography and the virtual world. By presenting exemplary cases it will be shown, without idealising or pathologising from the outset, which everyday and lifestyle problems can be solved using the virtual practices and which dysfunctionalities and follow-on problems this is potentially linked to.

The project follows Grounded Theory and in the analysis also uses the method of Objective Hermeneutics.

References:

Rehbein, F., Kleimann, M., & Mößle, T. (2010). Prevalence and Risk Factors of Video Game Dependency in Adolescence: Results of a German Nationwide Survey. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 13(3), 269-277.