DO IRRATIONAL BELIEFS, JOB/FAMILY SATISFACTION AND EMOTIONAL DISTRESS HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH PLAYING ONLINE GAMES? EXPLORING POTENTIAL DETERMINANTS OF ONLINE GAMING

Written by Lăcrămioara RUS, Sebastian PINTEA, Éva KÁLLAY on 23 June 2016. Posted in Volume XX, Nr 2

Authors

Lăcrămioara RUS, Sebastian PINTEA*, Éva KÁLLAY

Department of Psychology, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

ABSTRACT

A web survey of 144 international internet users was conducted to examine job satisfaction, family satisfaction, irrational beliefs, and emotions as potential determinants of online gaming, between online games players and non-players. From all the respondents, 89 participants (61.8%) said that they play online games. The other 55 participants (38.2%) were treated as a control group (the mean age of total sample was 29 years). Results showed that the players group is less satisfied with their job than the control group, and that the players group has a higher level of irrational beliefs than the non-players group. Results also show that players experience less negative emotions when they play than when they are at work. Overall, the present study revealed job satisfaction, irrational beliefs and negative emotions as potential explanatory variables for online gaming. These variables, if proved as causal factors, can be used for intervention programs focused on increasing job satisfaction and strategies to modify irrational beliefs in order to reduce compulsive online gaming.

KEYWORDS: online games, internet addiction, job satisfaction, irrational beliefs, emotions

PAGES: 133-140

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