2015. vol. 12. No. 1

This article introduces this special issue of the journal, dedicated to research into the psychology of playing computer games. The interdisciplinary character of gaming-activity research is emphasized by the example of ethnographic, culturological and psychological works. The characteristic view of ethnographic science, which sees gaming as entertainment and a way of spending spare time, is dominant in research practice, including psychological and pedagogical practice. This is connected with studies on gaming activity and the psychological qualities of computer gamers. 25 years of psychological research in computer game-related activity in Russia are reviewed. The article refers to such lines of conducted research as the study of personality traits and cognitive characteristics of gamers, their implicit beliefs, and the psychological addictions of gamers. However, the frontline of foreign research is significantly wider and some trends of these works are insufficiently represented in home scientific literature. Among them is the disputed issue about whether or not aggressive computer games cause an escalation in aggression among gamers, as well as about the specifics of cognitive processes in gamers. Contemporary approaches to finding solutions for these questions are explored on both analytical and empirical levels in the articles that constitute this special issue. In one analytical article the argument is put forward that contemporary multi-user games encourage not only gaming activity, but communicative activity as well, and to some extent represent something like a “club”.

Researchers from different backgrounds have approached the topic of violent video games and aggression with varying assumptions, methods, and goals. Researchers from an experimental psychology orientation seek to test theories under controlled conditions, and assume that all children are at risk of harm from acting out violence during gameplay.  They champion policies to reduce youth exposure to violent game content. Researchers from applied fields such as public health, clinical psychology and criminology assume that video game effects (negative or positive) will vary by child, circumstance and content, and seek to identify high-risk patterns via studies in real-world settings. These different lenses illuminate ongoing disagreements about the relationship, if any, between violent video games and harmful aggressive behaviors. Some disagreements could be mitigated through greater clarity in definitions and methods.  For example, confusion arises when researchers fail to clearly define “aggression”; treat aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as part of a continuum; or view aggression as equivalent to harmful intent or violence. Studies suggest that media violence researchers, like all humans, tend to disproportionately seek out and value evidence that supports their point of view. Actively searching for common ground, and welcoming new researchers from a variety of disciplines, may help move the field forward.

The present text is the continuation of the article “Virtual Worlds of MMORPG: Part 1, Definition, Description, Classification” and it discloses the psychological aspects of the socially active form of adult and senior leisure – avatar-mediated non-game joint activity in virtual worlds, meant for entertainment. Specific characteristics of avatar-mediated friendly and romantic relationships in virtual worlds, positive distinctions of avatar-mediated friendly companionships, as well as common for MMORPG condition of group flow are analyzed. Group entertainment in MMORPG is the virtual analogue of extreme tourism, which demands coordinated activity in the joint danger resistance that provokes display of inner moral qualities. This, in turn, contributes to growth of trust and strengthening of interpersonal relationships. Friendly companionships in MMORPG are the good alternative of the “face to face” companionships thanks to easiness of gathering, frequent entering into individual and group state of flow and large assortment of group entertainment. Avatar-mediated activity takes place in conditions of physical comfort, low physical fatigue and anonymity, which makes it greatly attractive for people with disabilities. Leisure in virtual worlds MMORPG replaces such asocial form of hobbies as TV-programs and movies watching, desensitizates the impact of a wide variety of phobic stimuli (of height, darkness, fire, water, closed premises, open spaces, various animals, etc.), has the effect of pain relief, diminishes depression, can be used as a palliative remedy. The possibility of a goal-oriented usage of this leisure for the improvement of quality of living of socially vulnerable groups is indicated.

The article discloses the contextual nature of educational environment and demonstrates the proportion of explicit and implicit (unconscious for the subjects of education) contexts. The methodological basis of the article is the contextual approach and the theory of symbolical-contextual education by A.A. Verbitsky. We believe that the contextual approach in the analysis of educational process and educational environment provides regulation of the process of their functioning with due account of influence on the condition and behavior of all the subjects of education of both explicit, institutional, and implicit, unconscious for subjects contexts. The article describes the psychological essence of the phenomenon of context, understood as the theoretical psychological construct. As a psychic phenomenon context is a psychic mechanism of semantization, i.e. forming of meaning and sense of some fragment of psychic content in its relationships with other fragments. On the basis of comparison with the notion “environment” the notion “context” is seen as a basic one for understanding the essence and the functioning of the educational system. From the positions of the developed by the author contextual approach to psychological research and education the definition of contextual educational environment is given. The conceptual advantage of the notion “implicit context of education” over the traditional notion “hidden curriculum”, which is usually understood as a “hidden content of education”, is shown. The understanding of the contextual nature of all the phenomena of educational process in the integral educational environment demands consideration of all possible contexts of their interpretation that influence the condition and behavior of the subjects of education. The results of the study may be used in the process of construction of educational environment and management of educational process, they may be applied both in the work of the theoreticians and the practitioners in the sphere of education, as well as in education of the future pedagogues.

The paper analyzes continuum motivational models of health behavior (health belief model, motivation protection theory, theory of planned behavior, social cognitive theory, subjective expected utility theory, information-motivation-behavioral skills model). The general principles of these models are revealed, including the focus on the behavior prediction; consideration of the intention as the key mediator of the relationships between other psychological factors and behavior; emphasis on the readiness for action rather than on the actual behavior . Theoretical limitations of this approach are the underestimation of the irrationality and dynamism of human behavior, the complexity of the motivational sphere (competing intentions and behaviors), the interactions between the constructs as well as possible substitution of explanation by prediction and so-called "bottleneck" problem. Among the empirical limitations we highlighted the most important are the problem of intention-behavior "gap" and the empirical support for the actualization of associations between motivational factors and behavior without change in conscious intentions. Attempts to overcome these limitations were focused on the improvement of the behavior prediction (development of priming models, identifying moderators affecting the transition from intention to action) or changed the focus from behavior prediction to the description of behavior dynamics (stage models) and/or behavior explanation (self-regulation models). Further research could concentrate on the differentiation between motivational factors explaining behavior and motivational factors serving as indicators of behavioral change as well as on the identification of complex interactions between motivational factors in the process of behavior.

The problem of the study is the link between entitativity or perceived group integrity and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The purpose of the paper is to broaden the domain of personal psychological attachment to  organization from widely used constructs of organizational commitment and identification versus perceived integrity. In organizational settings there are two groups (or foci), which form strong personal attachments: the working team and the organization as a whole. These groups are also called foci of organizational identification. Entitativity and organizational identification were measured in both foci. «The Group Entitativity Measurer» (GEM) was used to measure both foci of integrity. Organizational identification with working team was measured with A Hierarchical (Multicomponent) Model of In-Group Identification adapted to Russian sample. We suppose that strong psychological attachments to group form behavior that is beneficial both for the employee and for the organization. This voluntary behavior is called Organizational Citizenship Behavior. The sample consists of factory workers (N = 124), mostly men from Vologda City of Russia. The perceived entitativity of the working team predicts identification with the organization as a whole (R2=0.07***) and with the working team (R2=0.18***). Significant relationships between OCB and perceived integrity of two foci were absent. Nevertheless some forms of organizational identification predict OCB. Emotional identification with organization as a whole predicts 3% of OCB variation.

In the present study, the authors explore the process of object thought generation based on the understanding of ‘thought’ as a need-emotional-intentional substance that reflects the relation between the object and its characteristics. Theoretically, the research is grounded in the assumption that the object image is a thought substance and is recognized as an image-substance. It is noted that, as a product of the activity of the subject of perception, the process of thought generation is characterized by individual differences in both quantitative and qualitative terms. The main objective of the study was to investigate the processes of generation of object thoughts, i.e. thoughts that arise when perceiving a specific object. 20 students of a Moscow University aged 18-20 years took part in the study.  Subjects were asked to describe the object as fully and accurately as possible highlighting all of its attributes (properties) that they could find. The experiment was conducted with each subject individually. Two parameters in the description of the object were taken into account: the number of the object attributes generated and the time spent on the task. The experimental data show that the number of object attributes named decreases with time. Hence it is shown that there is a relationship between the productivity of generating attributes and the time of their generation. The number of thoughts / attributes generated in the second and third minutes is key in determining the final result of the object exploration. Differences in production of object attributes typically referred to its size and shape. Quantitative differences in thought generation process between individual subjects are considered to be the main results of the study. In different subjects, thoughts related to the same object differed not only quantitatively but also qualitatively. In the process of perception, each subject produced their own set of object thoughts. There is a reason to assume that the observed individual differences in the production of object attributes are related to individual intelligence levels.