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And more abstracts...:
Role-Playing Gamers
Abyeta, Suzanne and James Forest. "Relationship of Role-Playing Games to Self-Reported Criminal Behaviour." Psychological Reports 69 (3, pt. 2) (1991): 1187-1192.
This is one of numerous studies of role-playing games (including Dungeons and Dragons and other games) that consider popular belief that these games impair players' ability to distinguish between reality and ultimately finds nothing to support the belief. The article cites several previous studies to establish the lack of any empirical evidence for this belief, or for the contrasting belief of role-playing game supporters that the hobby attracts particularly imaginative and intelligent persons. Abyeta and Forest's study expands on previous work by focusing on personality and socioeconomic measures of both role-players and non-role-players, and the subjects' involvement in criminal activity. Their study is based on evaluation of a questionnaire given to 20 male and female students at the University of Manitoba who were involved with role-playing games and 25 male and female psychology students with no experience with the games. The study finds no significant connection between role-playing games and criminal activity. The only significant difference it does identify between role-players and non-role-players is a slightly higher incidence of psychoticism among the non-role-players; this difference is acknowledged as a possible fluke of a small sample size, but also as a topic worthy of future study.
Carroll, James L. and Paul M. Carolin. "Relationship between Game Playing and Personality." Psychological Reports 64 (1989): 705-6.
The scope of this study includes not only fantasy adventure games such as Dungeons and Dragons, but also card games, board games, and videogames. The article cites conflicting previous literature in the discipline, some of which identifies emotional passivity, underachievement, and less interpersonal sensitivity among players of videogames, while others find that game-playing fosters autonomy, logical thinking, and conflict resolution skills. A questionnaire was given to 75 college students and to members of a games club. Like many such studies, this one finds the personalities of game players to be "normal and even mundane."
Carter, Robert and David Lester. "Personalities of Players of Dungeons & Dragons." Psychological Reports 82(1) (1998): 182.
This study further explores a suggestion in previous research (by Douse and McManus, below) that players of fantasy role-playing games are less empathic and more introverted than control groups. Carter and Lester administered the Eysenck Personality Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory to 20 men who played Dungeons and Dragons and compared their scores to control groups of male undergraduates. The scores on all scales resembled those of the control groups.
Dear, William. The Dungeon Master: the Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III. London: Sphere, 1984.
This is a sensationalized account of the much-publicized search for a young computer genius in 1979. The author, William Dear, was the private investigator who conducted the search. Dear initially speculated that the sixteen-year-old's disappearance might be related to his enthusiasm for Dungeons and Dragons; searchers looked for Dallas Egbert in the steam tunnels under the Michigan State University campus on the hypothesis that he was playing a version of D&D there. Facts eventually came to light proving that Egbert's disappearance had nothing to do with D&D, but Dear's often inaccurate account of the boy's involvement with gaming, computers, and science fiction did much to arouse public suspicions of role-playing gamers.
DeRenard, Lisa A. and Linda M. Kline. "Alienation and the Game Dungeons and Dragons." Psychological Reports 66 (3, pt. 2) (1990): 1219-1222.
This is yet another study in response to claims by media and the public regarding Dungeons and Dragons. DeRenard and Kline focus particularly on claims that the game causes its players to become detached and alienated from family, friends, and society. The researchers administered a questionnaire containing the Anomia Scale to 35 members of a campus role-playing club and to 35 psychology students who had never played the game. In most respects, there were no significant differences between the results of the two groups. However, contrary to popular claims, fewer game players reported feelings of meaninglessness than did the control group; DeRenard and Kline hypothesize that the club itself may have given its members a sense of purpose. The study does find that those relatively more involved in Dungeons and Dragons, evaluated as such by the amount of money they spent on game materials, reported more feelings of alienation. The article suggests as a topic of further study whether D&D causes such players to become alienated, or if these persons were alienated prior to playing and chose to play in hopes of finding a sense of purpose.
Douse, N.A., & McManus, I.C. "The Personality of Fantasy Game Players." British Journal of Psychology 84 (1993): 505-509.
Douse and McManus's psychological study investigates whether particular personality types can be associated with players of fantasy role-playing games. Thirty-eight players responded to a set of questionnaires: 35 male and 3 female with an average age of 21.5 years. The four standardized personality questionnaires were the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, the Decision-Making Questionnaire, the Empathy Questionnaire, and the Eysenck Personality Inventory. Compared to a control group, players showed significantly lower scores on empathy, were more introverted, were more likely to describe themselves as "scientific", and rated "playing with computers" and "reading" as preferred activities. The players tended to be male with high educational levels. While this study shows a discernible difference in the personality type between gamers and others, that difference is small and can be explained as the sort of difference likely to be found between individuals engaged in any hobby or interest from the population average.
Fine, Gary Alan. Shared Fantasy: Role-Playing Games as Social Worlds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.
This work combines an ethnographic study of the community of role-playing gamers (circa the early 1980's) with analysis of the conceptual framework of the games that bring that community together. The elaborate meaning system of gamers, Fine argues, constitutes a "social world", but as a leisure subculture it necessarily admits the existence of other meanings and other ties. In role-playing games, the creation of worlds and cultures is a matter of conscious artifice, but this activity is bound by its own cultural expectations.
Much of the research in this book was conducted through participation; it is clear that Fine (who had not played RPG's prior to this study) understands gaming well enough to have been accepted as part of the subculture, and that he enjoyed his involvement. The study indicates general tendencies among gamers (who most often are male, are well educated, and value nonconformity) and conflicts within their community ranging from age differences and standards of behavior to types of gaming and styles of play. Fine explores how the culture of role-playing games shapes the subsociety of gamers; for example, how the imaginative interaction of gaming resembles a tamed version of physical play, perhaps explaining the activity's appeal more to men than to women.
Inevitably, many of Fine's observations are based in Dungeons and Dragons games, but the study does acknowledge role-playing games as a broader phenomenon, giving particular consideration to the science fiction RPG Traveller and the elaborate world of the fantasy game Empire of the Petal Throne. In a profile of the latter game's creator, M.A.R. Barker, Fine compares him with J.R.R. Tolkien, another fantasy world creator; Barker, like Tolkien, is an academic, a linguist, and (though married) has long associated with a close group of male friends. These traits typify common tendencies and values among role-playing gamers.
Finally, this work analyzes the dynamics of the games themselves by extending several sociological theoretical schemes, most notably Erving Goffman's concept of "frame analysis". Games and gamers function in three different frames: the real world, the structure of game rules, and the imaginative landscape of the game world. In the complexities of gaming's world-making, Fine suggests, there is opportunity to understand how meaning is constructed in many other social contexts.
Leeds, Stuart M. "Personality, Belief in the Paranormal, and Involvement with Satanic Practices among Young Adult Males: Dabblers vs. Gamers." Cultic Studies Journal 12(2) (1995): 148-165.
Leeds comments that previous work has provided "substantial evidence that there is no difference between a gamer's personality and that of the normal population", but this study nevertheless investigates the supposed tie between role-playing games and occult or Satanic practices. Three groups of adult males were given questionnaires: 66 fantasy role-playing gamers, 26 satanic dabblers, and a control group of 125. The questionnaires were used to measure psychoticism, extraversion, neuroticism, degree of involvement in gaming or satanic practices, and belief in the paranormal. Leeds found no significant differences between gamers and the control group, while the satanic dabblers showed marked differences in psychoticism, extraversion, and belief in the paranormal. Thirty-six percent of the gamers did report that playing Dungeons and Dragons had increased their curiosity about the occult, but none of the dabblers indicated any increase in their occult interests due to gaming. Like most published scholarly work on gaming, this article offers little insight into gamers beyond a repeated vindication from popular media accusations.
Simon, Armando. "Emotional Stability Pertaining to the Game of Dungeons & Dragons." Psychology in the Schools 24(4) (1987): 329-332.
This is one of the earlier studies to consider the claims that Dungeons and Dragons is harmful to its players, and to disprove those claims. Sixty-eight D&D players volunteered for this study; they were tested with Cattell's 16 PF Test (Form C) with particular attention to Factor C, which measures emotional stability. The results indicated a healthy psychological profile for the group as a whole; the only score that was remarkable at all was a measure of "Experimenting" indicating a relatively high level of liberality and free-thinking among the group.
Simon, Armando. "Emotional Stability Pertaining to the Vampire: the Masquerade." Psychological Reports 83(2) (1998): 732-4.
Years after Simon's study of D&D players, the role-playing game Vampire: the Masquerade had become popular and was attracting the same accusations to which D&D has been subject. Simon carried out a study similar to that of his earlier one with 24 Vampire players: 8 women and 16 men, ranging from age 18 to 46. The results were entirely mundane, with even the "Experimenting" measure unremarkable this time. It is significant that this article exists at all; after more than a decade of studies in this vein, the preponderance of studies not supporting the popular suspicions of role-playing games have failed to stop those accusations.
Toles-Patkin, T. "Rational Coordination in the Dungeon." Journal of Popular Culture 20, 1 (1986): 1-14.
Toles-Patkin provides in this article one of the most wide-ranging yet concise academic considerations of Dungeons and Dragons. It begins with a history of role-playing games' origin in war games and of the creation of D&D by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, then explains the basics of play for those unfamiliar with the game. Toles-Patkin then applies the socialization theories of George Herbert Mead and Brian Sutton-Smith to D&D, observing that new players proceed through identifiable steps in their learning of game skills and their relationship to the roles they adopt in playing. The author next explores the social meaning of D&D using the framework of Clifford Geertz's "deep play" as well as Donald Ball and John Loy's analysis of sport as a communal effort that can extend into other areas of life. Toles-Patkin dismisses accusations against the game of being too violent or compulsive, noting that the cooperation required of D&D players promotes the social value of working together for the common good. Finally, the article examines D&D's heavy reliance on information and its initial popularity among those who had contact with information technologies: computer scientists, engineers, and scientists. Though the mystical setting of the game could offer an outlet for any feelings of ambivalence about technology, at root D&D is structured for easy coordination of differing psychological orientations into logically consistent social organizations, reflecting and supporting a rationalistic and instrumental world view.
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