Keywords

Cognitive Abilities, mental health, pro-social skills, video games

Abstract

Video games are becoming an integral part of society, as more than 90% of adolescents play them often, and the industry is growing in revenue every year (Granic et al., 2014). However, many mainstream media outlets portray video games as detrimental to mental health and damaging to cognitive abilities, with initial research into video games initially corroborating such claims and finding correlations to violent behavior (Ferguson, 2020). These early research methods could have been more robust; moreover, focusing on only the negative aspects of gaming research significantly reduced their ability to properly understand gaming’s full impact. Video games typically encourage players to think creatively and develop pro-social skills in an environment that is fun and engaging, providing unique learning opportunities (Romer et al., 2013). Although video games have been linked to addictive behavior and online harassment in particularly vulnerable populations (e.g., adolescents and young adults), video games should be acknowledged as having an overall positive effect on young people’s mental health, because gaming platforms typically provide spaces for individuals to express and regulate emotions, allow for opportunities to grow cognitively and solve problems, and foster healthy relationships among players.

Document Type

Class Project or Paper

Publication Date

2023-11-29

Language

English

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Psychology

University Standing at Time of Publication

Senior

Course

Psychology 307

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Included in

Psychology Commons

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