Investigating sexual harassment in online video games: How personality and context factors are related to toxic sexual behaviors against fellow players

Online video games are social spaces for players from around the world. They use this space to form communities, relationships, and identities. However, gaming communities are not always welcoming, and some are even perceived as being “toxic.” A prevalent issue is online sexual harassment, which is keeping many women from participating in the gaming community. Research on the factors contributing to the problem is limited, though. The present study replicates and expands previous research, using a sample of 856 online gamers. The study supports earlier findings that found hostile sexism and social dominance orientation as predictors of sexual harassment perpetration in online video games. In addition, we expanded the previous research with additional predictors: machiavellianism, psychopathy, and gamer identification predicted higher sexual harassment perpetration. Our results have implications for the gaming community's role in curtailing sexual harassment and making itself a more inclusive community.     

初中生同伴圈子的发展及其对合作倾向、预期和行为的影响

在社会化过程中,同伴圈子不仅决定儿童青少年的交往范围和互动质量,而且影响其心理发展和社会适应。本研究从苏州市某初级中学选取768名初一学生进行了为期一年的追踪,采用社会认知地图、合作倾向评定量表和公共物品困境实验范式测查了同伴圈子、合作倾向、预期与合作行为,运用多层线性模型技术（Two-level HLM）探讨同伴圈子的合作水平对个体合作水平的影响。结果发现：（1）女生圈子数量最多而规模最小,男女混合圈子规模最大而数量最少;跨地域圈子数量最多且规模最大;（2）女生圈子最为稳定,男女混合圈子最不稳定;（3）在混合性别圈子中,个体的合作预期与行为更容易随着圈子合作预期水平的提高而增强;而在单性别圈子中,个体的合作预期与行为更容易随着圈子合作行为水平的提高而增强。结论：初中生同伴圈子在性别上具有同质性,女生圈子多且稳定;第一年单性别和混合性别圈子的合作倾向、预期和行为水平对第二年个体的合作水平产生了不同影响,即不同性别圈子对个体的影响模式存在差异。     

Variability and creativity in small-sided conditioned games among elite soccer players

ObjectiveSmall-sided conditioned games (SSCG) in soccer are games with a small number of players, often played on smaller than regular pitches and with adapted rules. It has been argued that SSCG foster soccer players’ physical, technical and tactical performances and creativity. This study tested the latter conjecture by analysing video-footage of individual actions of elite soccer players in 5 v 5, 6 v 6, 7 v 7 SSCG played during regular training sessions and 11-aside training matches. Based on the ecological dynamics approach, we hypothesized that smaller formats would result in players making more individual actions. We additionally anticipated that the smaller formats players would induce a larger repertoire of actions, that is, an increased variability of actions, and that such increase in variability would be associated with more creative actions. Along the same lines, we reasoned that midfielders would make more creative actions than defenders and attackers.MethodWe categorized 3555 soccer actions on the ball and without the ball of 24 elite soccer players.ResultsPlayers produced more actions in smaller SSCG formats compared to the larger SSCG format and the 11-aside match. They also produced more different actions in SSCG than the 11-aside match. Furthermore, ten creative actions (i.e., actions that were adequate and only made by one or two players) were discerned. The creative actions emerged most often in the smaller SSCG, and were absent in the 11-aside matches. Finally, strikers, defenders and midfielders did not show reliable differences in terms of number, variability and creativity of action.ConclusionSSCG in soccer do indeed stimulate variability and creativity of individual actions. It is important to confirm whether these immediate effects of SSCG generalize across longer time scales.     

The lone gamer: Social exclusion predicts violent video game preferences and fuels aggressive inclinations in adolescent players

Violent video game playing has been linked to a wide range of negative outcomes, especially in adolescents. In the present research, we focused on a potential determinant of adolescents’ willingness to play violent video games: social exclusion. We also tested whether exclusion can predict increased aggressiveness following violent video game playing. In two experiments, we predicted that exclusion could increase adolescents’ preferences for violent video games and interact with violent game playing fostering adolescents’ aggressive inclinations. In Study 1, 121 adolescents (aged 10–18 years) were randomly assigned to a manipulation of social exclusion. Then, they evaluated the violent content of nine different video games (violent, nonviolent, or prosocial) and reported their willingness to play each presented video game. The results showed that excluded participants expressed a greater willingness to play violent games than nonviolent or prosocial games. No such effect was found for included participants. In Study 2, both inclusionary status and video game contents were manipulated. After a manipulation of inclusionary status, 113 adolescents (aged 11–16 years) were randomly assigned to play either a violent or a nonviolent video game. Then, they were given an opportunity to express their aggressive inclinations toward the excluders. Results showed that excluded participants who played a violent game displayed the highest level of aggressive inclinations than participants who were assigned to the other experimental conditions. Overall, these findings suggest that exclusion increases preferences for violent games and that the combination of exclusion and violent game playing fuels aggressive inclinations.

     

Measuring Parental Treatment Adherence in a Multimodal Treatment Program for Children with ADHD: A Preliminary Investigation

This study evaluated the clinical significance of measuring between session parental adherence on child and parent outcomes for 51 children (age 4 to 8.5 years) with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a multimodal group training program. Three group treatment conditions: (a) child-only treatment (C1), (c) child and parent training (C2), and (c) C2 + Parent Adherence Measure [PAM (C3)] were compared to assess the clinical significance of measuring parental adherence on child behavioral problems, socialization skills, and parental efficacy. Parents administered the PAM (C3) displayed, in general, better outcomes on child and parent measures than the other two conditions. Results suggest that a multimodal group training program for young children with ADHD is favorable to child group training only. This study offers preliminary support for the clinical utility of measuring parental adherence in a child ADHD multimodal group training program.     

Psychological needs,purpose in life,and problem video game playing among Chinese young adults

The negative impacts of excessive and problematic video game playing on both children and adults are attracting increasing concern. Based on self‐determination theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2000), this study hypothesized that the three basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness are positively associated with purpose in life, which in turn acts as a protective factor against problem video game playing among Chinese young adult players. Through a questionnaire survey with a sample of 165 Chinese adults aged between 18 and 30 years (mean age = 22.7 years), we found that perceived autonomy, competence, relatedness, and purpose in life were all negatively correlated with problem game playing. The demographic and psychological factors explained 38% of the variances of problem game playing. Specifically, gender, perceived relatedness, and purpose in life emerged as the three most salient predictors of problem game playing among the Chinese young adults. The mediating role of purpose in life was evidenced and it was found that purpose in life mediated the influences of the psychological needs proposed by SDT on problem game playing. Moreover, young men were significantly more susceptible to problem game playing than their female counterparts. To conclude, psychological needs and purpose in life influenced Chinese young adults’ vulnerability to problem game playing directly or indirectly. Intervention programs that encourage social involvement and voluntary work, as well as counseling service that helps clients to search for life purpose, are suggested for intervening in problem game playing among Chinese young adults.     

Violent Video Games Stress People Out and Make Them More Aggressive

It is well known that violent video games increase aggression, and that stress increases aggression. Many violent video games can be stressful because enemies are trying to kill players. The present study investigates whether violent games increase aggression by inducing stress in players. Stress was measured using cardiac coherence, defined as the synchronization of the rhythm of breathing to the rhythm of the heart. We predicted that cardiac coherence would mediate the link between exposure to violent video games and subsequent aggression. Specifically, we predicted that playing a violent video game would decrease cardiac coherence, and that cardiac coherence, in turn, would correlate negatively with aggression. Participants (N = 77) played a violent or nonviolent video game for 20 min. Cardiac coherence was measured before and during game play. After game play, participants had the opportunity to blast a confederate with loud noise through headphones during a reaction time task. The intensity and duration of noise blasts given to the confederate was used to measure aggression. As expected, violent video game players had lower cardiac coherence levels and higher aggression levels than did nonviolent game players. Cardiac coherence, in turn, was negatively related to aggression. This research offers another possible reason why violent games can increase aggression—by inducing stress. Cardiac coherence can be a useful tool to measure stress induced by violent video games. Cardiac coherence has several desirable methodological features as well: it is noninvasive, stable against environmental disturbances, relatively inexpensive, not subject to demand characteristics, and easy to use. Aggr. Behav. 39:64‐70, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Seven Puzzles of Thought and How to Solve Them: An Originalist Theory of Concepts,by Sainsbury,R. M. and Michael Tye

In his 2018 AJP paper, Shlomo Cohen hints that deception could be a distinct subset of manipulation. We pursue this thought further, but by arguing that Cohen’s accounts of deception and manipulation are incorrect. Deception under uncertainty need not involve adding false premises to the victim’s reasoning but it must involve manipulating her response, and cases of manipulation that do not interfere with the victim’s reasoning, but rather utilize it, also exist. Therefore, deception under uncertainty must be constituted by covert manipulation.     

Information and the complementarity game

Complementarity games are explorative games between two players. The deterministic rules of the game are known to both players. The first player freely chooses among a finite number of states of the game but tells nobody of this decision. The second player accesses the game only by primitive, symbolic input‐output interfaces. The task of the second player is to find out the unknown state by input‐output experiments. The logic resulting from this scenario resembles‐ quantum logic in many aspects. It is the empirical logic of choice for virtual realities.