User:Rong Lee/sandbox

Rongliest (talk) 20:53, 14 August 2015 (UTC)/the benefits of playing video games. Based on the clinical evidence and personal observations, physician-psychiatrist Stuart Brawn (2014) in his book Play proposes that play, like sleep, food, drink, and sex, is probably a biological need. Although there are many reasons that contribute to the increasing popularity of video games across different age groups, nationalities, and occupations among other forms of leisure activities, this phenomenon  demonstrates that play is a necessity in people’s daily lives. However, since the presence of video games, the psychologists have paid huge attention on the negative impact of video gaming on the regular basis on children and the youth, a few has investigated in their potential positive effects. In order to give a balanced perspective of playing video games, some researchers started to explore its advantages and their findings show its potential benefits from the perspective of positive psychology.

Enhanced creativity

Apart from other cognitive benefits such as improved spatial skills and problem solving, playing video games is likely to promote children’s creativity (Granic et al., 2014). Video games, like other forms of play, are not just ways of passing time, entertainment, and relaxation, they also exposure the players to great creativity and imagination, functioning as cognitive exercise and informal learning. A study of a sample of 500 children of 12 years old on the impact of playing video games concludes that video games designed to children’s age and played in the proper manner enhance children’s creativity (Jackson et al., 2012). Creativity is listed as one of the universally valued core character strengths in VID (Inventory of Character Strengths)  that contribute to individual flourishing. Russ (1993) related insight (Vandenberg, 1980), divergent thinking (Guilfod, 1968), and transformation abilities (Guildford, 1968) to creative ability in the creative process (Pearson et al., 2008). The creative people are more likely to experience what Csikszentmihalyi (1990) calls “flow” when engaging in the intrinsically motivated activities. Wright in Murdon University in promoting the importance of Arts to human flourishing relates creativity as the links between “enabling, belonging, creating, health and wellbeing” (Wright et al., 2014). The importance of creativity as a character strength has led many researchers to investigate the relationship between creativity and both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. A team led by Bujacz (2014) is currently working on the study on the relationship between creativity and happiness. Their purpose is to find out whether the activities that involve creativity will result in improved positive affect.

Improved motivational resilience

Playing video games improves children’s resilience. As the video games are designed to motivate players to solve all kinds of tasks in order to move up to the higher level, they thus provide a training ground for them to develop an incremental theory of intelligence (Granic el al., 2014). Contrary to entity theory of intelligence which holds that intelligence is genetically fixed and cannot be improved, incremental theory of intelligence argues that intelligence can be enhanced through effort over time (Dweck & Molden, 2005). If children are praised for their intelligence after having succeeded in doing a task, they may develop a motivational style of entity theory of intelligence and might relate their ability with intelligence (Dweck & Molden, 2005). However, if children are praised for their effort when making a progress, they will acquire a motivational style of incremental theory of intelligence and equate their ability with the amount of effort they put into a task (Dweck & Molden, 2005). Studies have shown that people who fostered the entity theory of intelligence are less likely to challenge themselves, while those who harbored the incremental theory of intelligence are more likely to push themselves to work harder towards their goal when both of them are faced with the equally difficult tasks or circumstances (Dweck & Molden, 2005). As continuing actions and effort are rewarded in order to keep the players engaged after the players solved the difficult tasks in the process of playing video games, this helps the players to form a positive attitude about their ability(Granic et al., 2014). Moreover, video games are characterized by the immediate and concrete feedback after each gain or loss, which is the essential requirement for endorsing the incremental theory of intelligence (Granic et al., 2014). Studies have shown that Children equipped with incremental theory of intelligence are more resilient and exhibit better academic performance and the willingness to cope with challenges (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007).

Brawn, Stuart. Pay is more than just fun. TED Talk. http://www.ted.com/talks/stuart_brown_says_play_is_more_than_fun_it_s_vital/transcript?language=en

Bujacz, Aleksandra., Dunne, Sara., % Flink, David.(2014). Does creativity make you happy? The influence of creative activity on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Journals of European Psychology students.

Granic, I., Lobel, A., & Engels, R. C. M. E. (2014). The benefits of playing video games. American Psychologist, 69(1), 66-78. Jackson, L. A., Witt, E. A., Games, A. I., Fitzgerald, H. E., von Eye, A., & Zhao, Y. (2012). Computers in Human Behavio.

Pearson, Beth L., Russ, Sandra W., & Spannagel, Sarah A. Cain. (2008). Pretend play and positive psychology: Natural companions. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 3(2), p.110-119.

Wright, Peter R. & Pascoe, Robin. (2014). Eudaimonia and creativity: the art of human flourishing. Cambridge Journal of Education.