Why I choose this topic: The reason why I choose this topic is that it’s a topic that everyone will have some connection to. As playing video games becomes more and more popular people should understand its effects on us. We should educate ourselves to understand the problems and the benefits that come with our decision.
Group Topic: The effects of screen time use on humans.
My Topic: The positive effects of playing video games on mental health.
Question:
- How have video games improved mental health for gamers?
- How has playing video games had an impact on psychological development in children and teens?
- Do internet games and video games vary in the ability to improve the mental health of their players?
- Does the advancement in gaming change the effects gaming has on their mental health? [I’m not sure I understand what this question is asking. Maybe try to rephrase it.]
Source #1:
Title: The benefits of playing Video Games
Granic, I., Lobel, A., & M. E. Engels, R. C. (2014). The Benefits of Playing Video Games. American Psychologist, 69(1), 66–78. https://doi-org.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/10.1037/a0034857
Summary:
As video games become more popular in society today, there are many benefits associated with them. Playing video games has allowed benefits in four categories cognitive, motivational, emotional, and socially. The cognitive benefits of playing video games included the improvement of spatial skills, developing problem-solving skills, and increasing creativity. Gaming improves motivation by making children believe that intelligence can be obtained through hard work, and that failure is part of life and should be faced with optimism. Emotional benefits of gaming included allowing the gamer to experience positive feelings, and allow people to develop skills to help them adjust to changes around them and to negative emotions. The social benefits associated with gaming are they allow the individual to learn skills like cooperation, teamwork, leadership skills, and helping behavior. Video games have been found to be beneficial in mental health and education because video games create fun, making health treatments and learning fun. [This is a clear and concise summary. Nice work.]
Reflection:
This journal article gave an overview of how video games are beneficial to the mental health and psychological development of children and teens. Many of the benefits stated in the article are key skills people value in society to become successful. In this source, it does not have a lot of information about the mental health effects video games have on individuals. Since it focuses on the psychological effects it has on individuals playing games. There is a connection between psychological effects and mental health effects. Since psychological thought is the key component in understanding mental health in humans. The psychological effects allow individuals to develop skills that will affect the mental health of the person, which is one factor I needed to understand, in order, to understand the mental effects gaming has on us. [I think you could include a more specific example of this so that your readers understand exactly how the psychological effects are connected to mental health.] Also, as a project idea, we could see if we can use video games as a treatment to improve the mental health of individuals.
Paraphrases/Quotes: “For example, in his qualitative research on children’s play conversations, Gottman (1986) showed how children use play for emotional mastery in their real lives. Whereas adolescents and adults often use self-disclosure and direct discussion with close friends to resolve emotional issues, children use play to work them out through pretend-based narratives enacted either alone or with others” (Granic et al, 2014, p 67).
Paraphrases This Quote: Playing is important to children because it allows them to learn emotional and social skills. Adults and teens express their emotions through socialization and are more direct. [Great paraphrase!]
Reason: The reason why I choose to paraphrase this section is because the authors brought up a very interesting point about playing. It allows for a better understanding of the topics and reasons brought up after this section. I found that playing is a key component in understanding the mental effects of gaming. Since essentially gaming is a form of playing.
Quote: “For example, two large-scale survey studies have found that 3% of Dutch (van Rooij, Schoenmakers, Vermulst, van den Eijnden, & van de Mheen, 2011) and about 8% of U.S. youth (Gentile, 2009) who play video games exhibit pathological symptoms of addiction (i.e., damage to family, school, or psychological functioning)”(Granic et al, 2014, p.74).
Reason: I quoted this section because it brought up the opposing end of the argument. It shows data on the negative effects of playing video games. This section can be used as statistical evidence to make my counterclaim strong.
Source #2:
Title: Video gaming can benefit mental health, find Oxford academics
Alex Hern Technology editor. (November 16, 2020, Monday). Video gaming can benefit mental health, find Oxford academics. The Guardian (London). https://advance-lexis-com.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:619H-27N1-DY4H-K1FW-00000-00&context=1516831.
Summary:
In an Oxford study, it was found that playing video games was good for mental health. The study focuses on two games, Nintendo’s springtime craze Animal Crossing and Plant vs. Zombies: Battle of Neighborville. The Oxford study was one of the very few studies done on play-time data. The leading researcher Andrew Przybylski found that even the video game companies had very little data about their users. In his study, he found that if people play Animal Crossing, four hours a day will allow the player to be happier. [How did the researcher reach this conclusion?] Przybylski did mention that as the study continues they will find information about the negative side effects of games. Some limitations to this study included it only focused on two games that were suitable to all age groups, people’s views on gaming are different, and the intrinsic and extrinsic enjoyment. Researchers hope to bring more attention to this topic since there is not a lot of data on it, and it is a very common problem in society today.
Reflection:
The researchers do bring up a good point, there really was not that much research that has gone into looking into video game effects on mental health. Since video games have been so popular in the past decade and there are still effects we don’t understand. The study provides a good source of scientific data to support my claim. The study can connect with the research found in “The benefits of playing video games,” they both agree that playing video games can bring happiness to the player creating a better mental state. It’s surprising that even game companies don’t have a lot of data on their users. Since many would believe game companies have a lot of data on their users because data from their users are a really good source of information to analyze their markets, to create new games, understand what trends there are, and many more things the data is useful for. [This is interesting, especially since gaming has been around since the 1970s. I wonder if companies/researchers are getting more data now that most games are online?]
Paraphrase/ Quotes:
Quote: “The study, which focused on players of Nintendo’s springtime craze Animal Crossing, as well as EA’s shooter Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville, found that people who played more games tended to report greater “wellbeing”, casting further doubt on reports that video gaming can harm mental health”(Hern, November 2020).
Reason: The reason why I quote this section is because it states the outcome of the study done by Oxford. It also acknowledges the other side of the argument, which makes the statement it’s making stronger.
Quote:
“Crucially, the study was one of the first to be done using actual play-time data. Thanks to the internet-connected nature of the games, the Oxford University team was able to link up psychological questionnaires with true records of time spent playing games. Previous studies had tended to focus on self-reported time playing, which is, the study found, only weakly correlated with reality” (Hern, November 2020).
Paraphrase: The study uses play-time data because the games used were internet connectable games. The researchers used surveys to collect the actual time the individual played the game. Studies done before were using self-reported play times, which was not close to reality (Hern, November 2020).
Reason: The reason why I paraphrase this section is because this section describes the method the researcher used in this study. Including the methods of collecting, data makes the data and conclusion of the study more reliable and believable. I would include this with the previous section to make my point stronger and supported. [Great! It would be a good idea to also mention the methods/results in your summary or analysis too.]
It looks like you have found two sources that will help you with your topic. Both of them appear to address your first research question so it might be a good idea to focus on that and forget about the other questions for now. You don’t want to risk including topics that are only loosely related. Also, in your summaries, make sure you are explaining how the researchers are getting to their results. Did they observe gamers and then ask questions? Did they play games with a group of people and then have an interview? Explaining these details will give your readers a clear understanding of where these conclusions are coming from.
Research Question: I like your topic. I feel that its unique since I mostly hear about how video games have negative impact on teens. Your questions are specific and complement each other.
Annotation: Your summaries are clear well written and the articles you picked are interesting. They also do well in supporting your research topic since they provide research in supporting the positive effects of video games.
Research Question: Great choice of topic, like I can even show my mom this. I feel like they were specific enough and straight to the point.
Annotation: Your summaries were clear and supports your research question. I like how you wrote about where some parts were lacking information which can lead you to your next article that explains more on some specific parts. Study results were also very useful for your topic.