1. Invitation
You are being invited to consider taking part in this research study. Derek Laffan is the researcher undertaking this project. The Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) is funding this project as a ‘Masters by Research’ scholarship in applied psychology. Before you decide whether or not you wish to take part, it is important for you to understand why this research is being done and what it will involve. Please take time to read this information carefully and discuss it with friends and relatives if you wish. Please ask me if there is anything that is unclear or if you would like more information. This study has been approved by the IADT Institute Research Ethics Committee.
2. Purpose of the Research
Video games have extraordinary capabilities of drawing people in, gluing people to the game and making people want to keep playing. These are considered to be features of video game engagement. Some of the negative consequences associated with video game use (such as video game addiction) may have concerning implications for ‘happiness seekers’ i.e. individuals who purposefully act on achieving happiness (Parks et al, 2012). Happiness seekers are sometimes asked to engage in video game positive psychological interventions (PPIs) to increase their happiness.
It has been argued that the structural characteristics of video games i.e. sounds, graphics, narrative, social and other physical features, play a highly engaging role, to entice the gamer to play video games in an addiction-like manner (Hull, Williams & Griffiths, 2013). Hull et al. (2013) argued that the social features of video games i.e. multiplayer, instant messaging etc. were indicative of video game addiction because social features are reinforcing and rewarding.
However, happiness may be a reward from engaging with the social features of video games and thus, result in habitual game play. This can be argued as a preliminary rationale to investigate how habitual play of social video games can benefit the context of positive psychological interventions.
The aims of the present research are two fold, 1: to predict happiness levels and high levels of video game engagement from engaging in video games with extensive social features, and 2: to investigate social video games as positive psychological interventions with an emphasis on engagement and happiness affect.
3. Do I have to take part?
You are free to decide whether you wish to take part or not. Participation is voluntary and you are thanked in advance for considering taking part. Your name is not required and any data you submit will not be identifiable back to you. If you do decide to take part you will be asked to indicate your consent through completion of a short form. You are free to withdraw from this study at any time and without giving reasons.
4. I take part, what do I have to do?
You will be asked to provide your consent plus demographic details about yourself (age, gender and technology use etc.). You will then be asked to complete the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, the Video Game Feature Taxonomy, and the Video Game Engagement Questionnaire. This will take approximately 25 minutes.
5. What are the benefits and risks (if any) of taking part?
You will become familiar with various measures psychologists use to measure happiness and experiences in video gameplay by taking the surveys. If requested, general results of the study can be emailed to you upon completion. Individual results cannot be given to participants for this study in the event of causing potential distress or injury.
6. How will information about me be used and who will have access to it?
Participant data collected will be stored on a password-protected computer. Data supplied by participants online will not be accessible to anyone other than the researcher. The website is secure and has been used by researchers all over the world for ethical research purposes. The individual data collected in this study will only be used for this study. All information is confidential and participants will be unidentifiable within the results. The data will exist for up to 5 years to allow for further examination of the results if required. When the individual data is no longer required, they will be disposed of securely and removed from secure servers and databases. The overall results of the study will be presented at international conferences and may also be published in scientific journals.
7. What if there is a problem?
If you have a concern about any aspect of this study, you may wish to speak to the researcher who will do his best to answer your questions. You can contact the lead researcher, Derek Laffan, or his project supervisors, Dr. John Greaney and Hannah Barton, for any further queries or information.
Derek Laffan at dereklaffan@student.iadt.ie
Dr. John Greaney at john.greaney@iadt.ie
Hannah Barton at hannah.barton@iadt.ie
Thank you.