The Positive Side of Video Games by Pamela Rutledge

Video Games, Problem-‐‑Solving and Self-‐‑Efficacy Pamela Rutledge, PhD, MBA Media Psychology Research Center Paper presented at American Psychological Association National Convention 2012 Orland, Florida, August 3, 2012

Table of Contents Worried about video games? It'ʹs time to exhale. ................................................................ 1 A Day in the Life of a Child with a Learning Disability ...............................................................................3 Hidden Mastery Experiences ............................................................................................................................3 Portals of Opportunity .......................................................................................................................................3

The Power of Gameplay for Learning and Growth ............................................................ 5 Games Expand the Sense of Self ......................................................................................................................6 Games Create Learning Cultures Because You Have to Learn to Play ......................................................7 Games Encourage Comfort with Decision-‐‑Making ......................................................................................9

The Potential for Positive Emotions ...................................................................................... 9 DIWO (Do It With Others) or Quests with Friends ......................................................................................9 Optimal Engagement in Flow .........................................................................................................................10 Flow Paths .........................................................................................................................................................11 Flow and Learning Zones ..............................................................................................................................11 Learning Trajectory ..........................................................................................................................................11 Flow or Success .................................................................................................................................................12

Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 13 References ............................................................................................................................... 14

Video Games, Problem-‐‑Solving and Self-‐‑Efficacy

Video Games, Problem-‐‑Solving and Self-‐‑Efficacy Video games often get a bad rap, but it’s time we give them a little more credit. Video games and interactive media can have a positive impact on self-‐‑efficacy, which increases resilience, optimism, and motivation. In this report, I describe some of the positive opportunities inherent in the structure and experience of video games that promote the sense of mastery and self-‐‑ efficacy.

Worried about video games? It'ʹs time to exhale. Earlier this year at the SxSW Interactive Media conference, I was standing in a very long line at a Starbucks and got to talking with blogger Kristin Brandt (2012). The conversation started over cowboy boots, but as often happens when I tell someone of my work in the psychology of media technologies, Kristin began to share views on video games, particularly in relation to her young son. She wasn’t a fan. Kristin told me that for the last year, her son had been ‘obsessed’ with the massively multiplayer online role-‐‑playing game (or MMORPG) Wizard 101. Wizard101 is a fantasy game world created by KingsIsle Entertainment. It was designed for preteen players but has developed a large fan base of all ages. Wizard 101 is a sort of a World of Warcraft meets Harry Potter where players take on the roll of Video Games, Problem-‐‑Solving and Self-‐‑Efficacy

students and embark on a wizard’s journey. Kristin described how her son, despite her efforts to distract and even bribe him into other activities, had spent hours learning new spells, completing quests and missions, collecting pets, crowns, capes, and gold while he steadily moved up the wizard ranks. He apparently also spent time connecting with a female friend from school, chasing her around the many lands of Wizard101. In spite of her reservations about gaming, Kristin told me that because she was away from home at the conference, she would log-‐‑in each morning and meet her son in the wizard world for 15 minutes or so. Her son would lead her around, giving her advice about survival (Don’t step off the sidewalk, mom, the troll will get you), how to deal with other wizards (duh, don’t try to chase someone who has a unicorn), which spell to cast, and also, along the way, he would tell her about his friends, school, and his day ahead. She added that her son had some learning challenges, but they had a support team in place and that this year things were really looking up for him. In fact, her son was having a very successful year. “Wow” I said, “Your son has advanced through all those levels, mastered a huge number of spells, and is confident enough to be a guide for you, his mother, around the Wizard worlds. He also has figured out how to connect with real world friends there. Do you think that his success in Wizard 101 has contributed to his confidence?” For Kristin, this was a new way of thinking about her son’s experience in Wizard101. It would be for lots of parents and that’s too bad.

Video Games, Problem-‐‑Solving and Self-‐‑Efficacy

A Day in the Life of a Child with a Learning Disability Imagine you that you are a child who struggles at school with a learning disability, like ADD or ADHD. What are your days like? More than likely, instead of feeling successful, competent and valued, you are experiencing a pattern of failures at school and in social relationships. One mom poignantly described her child’s ADHD as feeling like you’re “in a three ring circus trying to juggle five things – only you can’t juggle.”1 In some cases, parents and teachers lack that understanding, patience, and compassion and attribute bad performance at school and social difficulties to the child himself, calling it laziness, over-‐‑reaction or being oppositional and difficult (Hughes & Cooper, 2007). Hidden Mastery Experiences I’m not saying we should sign all our kids up for Wizard101. What I do want to do is suggest is that we need to reorient our point of view about gameplay and digital media because in some very fundamental ways, independent of content and format, they can have a positive impact on self-‐‑efficacy, increasing resilience, optimism, and motivation. Underlying all interactive media are potential mastery experiences just waiting to be found. Portals of Opportunity Our digital environment enables a new sense of individual and collective agency, locally and globally. While it’s tempting to say something like “our new media” or “our new digital environment,” we have to get past thinking of it as new and man up. This “new environment” is the world that we live in and that we’re not going back to 1

http://www.parenting.com/health-‐‑guide/adhd-‐‑attention-‐‑deficit-‐‑hyperactivity-‐‑disorder/childs-‐‑experience

Video Games, Problem-‐‑Solving and Self-‐‑Efficacy

pre-‐‑Internet times. It is true that communications have a completely different structure compared to 25 years ago, but we need to step outside the binary perspective of digital natives versus digital immigrants, old media versus new media, and online versus offline and accept that it’s complicated and it’s messy and there’s a lot we don’t know. At the same time, not knowing shouldn’t keep us from exploring opportunities and potential. We live in a world of peer-‐‑to-‐‑peer social networks on a global scale (Ito, 2009; Shirky, 2008). We live in a world where we have social connectivity at our fingertips and information on-‐‑demand from the mobile devices in our pockets. These aren’t phones, they are portals to opportunities of every kind, whether you’re a teen updating your Facebook status or a rural farmer getting current market prices for your crops (Manobi Development Foundation, 2011). Why does this matter? All of us make choices and take action based on our core assumptions and beliefs about our ability to have an impact on our world (Bandura, 2002). If we believe that we can master a situation and produce a positive outcome, then we are motivated to take action, to try. If we don’t think our effort will achieve anything, we won’t try. Helplessness and depression set in. In a world where we can actively engage and interact, whether it’s to find a local Starbucks, learn a new wizard spell, donate to a disaster effort or run with Zombies, the locus of control is increasingly moving into the hands of the user. Interacting with and manipulating data is now a normal behavior. This is a pervasive and significant psychological shift that has established a new baseline of expectations for all of us about our ability to act on the world in ways that matter.

Video Games, Problem-‐‑Solving and Self-‐‑Efficacy

Self-‐‑efficacy, as defined by Bandura (1982), is the belief in our ability to act and achieve positive results. Our perceptions of self-‐‑efficacy not only affect our behavior. Perhaps more importantly, they influence our goals and aspirations because it is what we use to predict the likelihood we will succeed. Positive outcomes of our actions enhance our perception of self-‐‑efficacy. The higher our perceived efficacy, the bigger the challenges we are willing to undertake, the more committed we are to them, the more optimistic we are about our chances of success, and the more resilient we are in the face of set-‐‑ backs. Positive perceptions of self-‐‑efficacy allow us to make decisions to take advantage of opportunities instead of avoiding costs and risks (Krueger & Dickson, 1994). We have seen manifestations of this increasing sense of agency in multiple ways all around the world, from the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street Movements to the emergence of crowd-‐‑sourced funding like Kickstarter.com and microloans such as offered through Kiva.org. People are no longer content to even sit and watch television passively. Increasingly television viewers actively multitask their media. According to a recent Nielsen poll, 88% of tablet owners and 86% of smartphone owners reported using their devices while watching TV at least once a month; 45% reported doing it daily. It is so prevalent, that television executives are climbing over each on in the race to develop ‘social television.’ From American Idol to Top Chef, television programming integrates real-‐‑time communications and games through extended web and mobile applications, and opportunities for fan interaction and exploration. The ability to interact, share and communicate is the new normal.

The Power of Gameplay for Learning and Growth Video games have been at the forefront of interactive media and continue to be a significant part of the participatory media environment. The thought of a video game still may strike horror into the hearts of many, but video games are just a digital manifestation of a very basic human behavior: play. Playing is where we learn. Throughout history, games and gaming have been an integral part of human expression Video Games, Problem-‐‑Solving and Self-‐‑Efficacy

of culture and identity, facilitating collaboration and creativity. Play is vital to a child’s social and emotional development. Play is where we work through emotions, learn to share, negotiate joining groups or ongoing play, experience the perspectives of others, learn to cope with our own emotions, and explore our self-‐‑perceptions (Piaget, 1962). It’s only the technology that is new. The bulk of video game-‐‑related research has focused on the interactivity, cognitive resources, and impact of content (Klimmt & Hartmann, 2009). However, the experience of playing video games can impact self-‐‑efficacy in a number of ways. These include 1) the expansion and exploration of identity, 2) generation of and participation in communities of learning, 3) building social connections through collaboration and negotiation, 3) the promotion of problem-‐‑solving and decision-‐‑making in low-‐‑risk situations, 4) development of intrinsic motivation, and 4) the creation of positive emotions. Games Expand the Sense of Self No matter how simple or elaborate the technology, games are fundamentally a set of rules and goals that function within a culture of social and communication behaviors specific to the game community. The culture defines membership and create game-‐‑based social norms (Steinkuehler, 2004). In other words, games provide structure and a social identity. Video games allow people to adopt virtual identities. According to Przybylski, Weinstein, Murayama, Lynch, and Ryan (2012), the appeal of video games is in part due to the players’ ability to explore aspects of their ideal selves that might not find expression in real life. Gameplay experiences that were congruent with perceptions of a player’s ideal self were the most intrinsically motivating and emotionally engaging.

Video Games, Problem-‐‑Solving and Self-‐‑Efficacy

Klimmt and Hartmann (2009) suggest that feelings of increased self-‐‑efficacy also enhance the motivation to play. The experience of immersion in gameplay can enhance feelings of identification with self and others (Gee, 2007), which can promote self exploration (Klimmt, Hefner, & Vorderer, 2009) and results in the reevaluation and rescripting of self-‐‑narratives (Cunliffe & Coupland, 2012; Dagirmanjian, Eron, & Lund, 2007). For children with learning disabilities, they are often struggling not just with their disability but also with the label and social stigma who often view themselves as less competent across multiple domains, such as intelligence, academic skills, behavior and social acceptance (Smith & Nagle, 1995). Open-‐‑ended collaborative games, such as Wizard 101, encourage creativity and imagination. Games in general provide a learning space that functions like Erikson’s (1956) concept of psychosocial moratorium — a safe place to think, take risks and explore. Similarly, Bruner (1973) suggested that the purpose of play is to practice and explore behavioral patterns that a child can later use in other situations. Others researchers believe that play enhances the ability to understand and identify causal elements amidst irrelevant information (Weisler & McCall, 1976) Games Create Learning Cultures Because You Have to Learn to Play Whether you play with other players or alone, in order to play, you must learn. Learning and playing are often indistinguishable because game structure mirrors well-‐‑ established learning models (Van Eck, 2006). If you are learning in a game, you make progress. If you make progress in a game, you see evidence such as points or levels, reinforcing your perceptions of accomplishment and self-‐‑efficacy (Gee, 2007). In multi-‐‑player games, newcomers learn through full participation. There’s no such thing as World of Warcraft ‘Light.’ You have to play to learn and you have to play with others, because it is by negotiating social relationships and developing collaborative skills that allow players to acquire genuine expertise.

Video Games, Problem-‐‑Solving and Self-‐‑Efficacy

Expertise in in any field is social capital and valued by peers. This motivates new players to engage in an “over-‐‑learning” period of extended practice aided by immediate feedback from the game system, such as error-‐‑produced death of your avatar, and encouragement from other participants, “Dude that was awesome!” Where traditional educational outcomes tend to be score-‐‑ and grade-‐‑based, the learning in gaming environment, whether individual or collaborative, is focused on skill acquisition around an activity because the goal is mastery for future play (Steinkuehler, 2004). There is no sustained social or intellectual capital accumulation in short-‐‑term rewards. Gameplay success through mastery elicits commendations and validation from other players both within the magic circle of gameplay but also in the larger community of players who play that specific game. Games create communities of practice — groups of people who share a common competence and interest, whether it’s Farmville or Call of Duty. Participation creates a shared understanding and reinforces the social identity that comes from being included in the group (Lave & Wenger, 1990). Game knowledge and skill is a social language that provides connection and context, like any other sport, art, or specialized endeavor. The shared knowledge of a popular game creates what James Paul Gee (2007) calls “affinity groups” provide a way to identify other group members. It works for Call of Duty the same way it works for NFL Football. The common ground functions as a social bridge, allowing for social interaction with peers that has little to do with game content and a great deal to do with demonstrating competence, membership and social validation. Peer validation then reaffirms and reinforces the community-‐‑based identity and the social currency of learning as a community-‐‑valued asset (Lee & Hammer, 2011). In multi-‐‑player games like World of Warcraft, the game culture often encourages players to ask questions of those more accomplished or to offer advice to those less experienced. Game producers recognize the value in promoting these types of collaborative cultures because rewarding play experiences translate into profitable commercial ones. Thus, multiplayer games include built-‐‑in functionality to support Video Games, Problem-‐‑Solving and Self-‐‑Efficacy

player discourse, such as chat channels. Beyond demonstrating expertise or facilitating learning, game play with collaborative missions necessitate mastering a much more serious social skill, cooperation such as the negotiation of moral behaviors and trust relationships necessary to complete quests and challenges (Nardi, Ly, & Harris, 2007) . Games Encourage Comfort with Decision-‐‑Making Games, like much of life, are a series of puzzles and decisions. Unlike life, however, games make risk-‐‑taking easy. They often create situations where players not only must make decisions, they must make them quickly and must they must continually adapt to changing circumstances and rules. These circumstances encourage cognitive flexibility, the tolerance of ambiguity and comfort with decision-‐‑making without full information—excellent skills for dealing with real world situations on a daily basis at work, at school and at home (Reeves, Malone, & O'ʹDriscoll, 2008). Reeves et al (2008) go so far as to say that World of Warcraft provides an excellent training ground for effective leadership strategies, in large part because it teaching an understanding of the types of environments that facilitate adaptive decision-‐‑making.

The Potential for Positive Emotions

Many people have the image of video games as socially isolating, if not psychologically addicting. Like my friend Kristin demonstrated when she joined her in Wizard101, video games can connect families and friends across time and distances. DIWO (Do It With Others) or Quests with Friends Unlike email, texting, or even a phone call, playing a game with someone creates a sense of actually doing something together. Games create a sense of presence — the sense of being in a shared space (Ijsselsteijn, Freeman, & De Ridder, 2001). Games can provide a virtual location for social interaction and relationships beyond home or work because game environments function as Oldenburg’s (1999) “third spaces” or “great good places,” the informal places such as parks and coffee shops that encourage easy Video Games, Problem-‐‑Solving and Self-‐‑Efficacy

sociability and community (e.g., Steinkuehler & Williams, 2006). Multi-‐‑player games can be extremely social, with a high percentage of players making lifelong friends and partners (e.g., Cole & Griffiths, 2007). Optimal Engagement in Flow Csikszentmihalyi’s (1991) theory of Flow, or optimal engagement, is one of the most prominent concepts of Positive Psychology embraced by game developers (Pavlas, 2010). Several factors contribute to an individual achieving a Flow

Figure 1. Balancing Challenge and Skill to Achieve Flow

state. In the context of game development, the most notable is the balance between challenge and skill that allows an individual to be in and maintain the level of engagement defined as Flow (see chart). The skill-‐‑ challenge balance keeps emotions regulated in a productive way—it allows a player to be challenged enough to avoid boredom and not so much as to trigger anxiety. We can also map this to neuroscience in terms of arousal and the emotions that influence attention, such as conflict, complexity, novelty, and uncertainty or mystery (Rutledge, 2012). There are other factors that contribute to Flow will sound familiar in the context of video gameplay. These include: • •

•

The integration of clear goals with responsive feedback The merging of action and awareness so that the player has complete, focused concentration on the task at hand accompanied by a loss of self-‐‑awareness and the passage of time The sense of control and confidence

Video Games, Problem-‐‑Solving and Self-‐‑Efficacy

Flow Paths Flow is a description of experienced engagement in an activity over time rather than at a single point. The Flow channel represents the player’s experience path of continual interaction between challenge and learning. In well-‐‑designed games, players perform at the edge of their competency guided by clear goals and feedback. In the Flow state, the experience of play is fluid and is intrinsically psychologically rewarding independent of scores or in-‐‑game successes (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991). Flow and Learning Zones The balance of skill and challenge keeps the player’s brain aroused, attention engaged and motivation high. The acquisition of skills to meet each challenge also provides a series of mastery experiences. Games are designed with structures that create what Vygotsky (1978) called ‘zones of proximal development.’ where learning occurs due to observation and interactions that pull the player forward into more complex and demanding tasks. Scaffolding is another key concept in Vygotsky’s model of social development. Scaffolding is the on-‐‑demand support that allows people to bridge the gap between current and required skills. The responsive feedback in gameplay along with social collaboration and communities provide this scaffolding, facilitating problem-‐‑solving and learning retention (Sun, Wang, & Chan, 2011). A key feature of gameplay is that failure is not ‘failure’ in the schoolyard sense. Failure is equivalent to feedback and the risk of failing is minimal and recovery is easily achieved, encouraging exploration, experimentation and the development of new problem-‐‑solving strategies. The process of learning is a socially accepted progression providing social status through achievement in a peer-‐‑valued skill and allowing player to capitalize on their strengths. Learning Trajectory Community creates socially sanctioned support for curiosity and the motivation for scientific inquiry. Gamers frequently transform design issues into empirical questions, Video Games, Problem-‐‑Solving and Self-‐‑Efficacy

collecting data, building and comparing models to predict the system (i.e. decision rules, such as minimaxing or attempting to minimize the possible worst case or maximum loss) (Squire, 2008). Consumption stimulates mastery and motivates production. Figure 2 shows Squire’s (2008) Trajectory of Player Experience which illustrates the gradual shift from player to designer, blurring the distinction between them similar to what we see happening to the boundaries between consumers and producers of other types of media, as well as breaking down of finite channels of distribution of

Figure 2. The Trajectory of Player Experience Source: (Squire, 2008, p. 187)

media content. Like Squire (2008), Salen and Zimmerman (2004) found that committed players change the rules for their own enjoyment, exploring which rules work and which don’t, and studying the structure that is contributing to meaningful game experience. The exploration becomes an iterative process of breaking, tweaking and modifying where players become more like designers or actually become designers. Flow or Success Whether a gaming experience creates a sense of control and competence from a Flow state, connection with an ideal self through immersion, or a sense of accomplishment or ‘fiero’ through skill mastery, these are positive emotions that have longer-‐‑term ramifications.

Video Games, Problem-‐‑Solving and Self-‐‑Efficacy

Figure 3. Beliefs and Outcomes Impact Self-‐‑Efficacy

ADHD and learning-‐‑challenged children often experience more failures than others, especially in school. Failure, like mastery, impacts perceptions of self-‐‑efficacy and both build on previous experience to project future action According to research in positive psychology, negative and positive emotional experiences are not structural equivalents. Where negative emotions lead to narrowed, self-‐‑focused, inflexible or defensive behaviors, positive

emotions create upward spirals that promote increased openness and exploratory activity. According to Garland et al. (2010) and research findings based on Fredrickson’s Broaden and Build Theory (Fredrickson, 2004), positive emotions create a cognitive state that is more open, permeable, flexible and social and facilitate cognitive reappraisal of negative circumstances and beliefs (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004). A buildup of cognitive, psychological, social and physical resources from positive emotions accumulates over time. Evidence suggests that positive emotions expand our mindsets in ways that little by little reshape who we are.

Conclusion The experience my friend Kristin shared with her son online playing Wizard101 is a good example of how we can reevaluate and reframe our understanding of games as avenues to develop mastery experiences that promote self-‐‑efficacy and positive emotions. In a video game, we can: • • • •

Experience emotional and physiological arousal that focuses our attention Trigger intrinsic motivation through evidence of accomplishments and successes Observe modeled behaviors and receive mentoring through collaboration Establish meaningful social connections in communities of play

Video Games, Problem-‐‑Solving and Self-‐‑Efficacy

• •

Imagine ourselves in new ways with new strengths Practice problem-‐‑solving and behaviors in low risk environments

Video games are not a panacea for all of society’s ills but neither are they the cause. Like all tools, from hammers to virtual reality, they can be used for good and for harm. But we can use them for good if we can focus on the psychological fundamentals that underlie both the specific content-‐‑driven experience as well the meanings we make of the meta-‐‑experience of interactivity and results. We can reframe our point of view about video games recognizing that the act of playing has a positive impact on self-‐‑ efficacy, thereby increasing resilience, optimism and motivation. We can recognize that all interactive experience hold the potential to be mastery experiences just waiting to be conquered.

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