Mindfulness extends the trans-contextual model for autonomous motivation in physical education and leisuretime

in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2022), 19(20),

Mindfulness is assumed to foster the ability to consistently act in line with one’s authentic self; a skill which has been found to enhance students’ autonomous motivated behavior in the educational ... [more ▼]

Mindfulness is assumed to foster the ability to consistently act in line with one’s authentic self; a skill which has been found to enhance students’ autonomous motivated behavior in the educational context. However, evidence regarding how mindfulness can be integrated into existing conceptual frameworks such as the trans-contextual model is scarce. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the role of mindfulness in students’ autonomous motivation in the school and leisure time contexts. Overall, N = 1877 students (M = 14.74 years, SD = 2.63) indicated their self-reported mindfulness, their perceived need for support in physical education, their autonomous motivation during physical education and leisure time, as well as their perceived behavioral control, attitude, subjective norm, and intention toward physical activity. Physical activity was additionally measured physiologically for n = 240 students using accelerometers. Path model analyses revealed that the inclusion of mindfulness substantially improved the trans-contextual model fit. Perceived autonomy support positively predicted mindfulness, which, in turn, predicted autonomous motivation in physical education and leisure time, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. Furthermore, mediation analyses revealed the significant indirect effects of mindfulness on physiological and self-reported physical activity. Based on these results, mindfulness can be considered a key factor in fostering students’ motivation to become physically active. [less ▲]

To Kill or Not to Kill – An experimental test of moral Decision-Making in gaming

in Entertainment Computing (2022)

Commercial video game titles with meaningful and morally relevant storylines are becoming increasingly popular and an intensely researched topic for entertainment scholars. In line with this research, the ... [more ▼]

Commercial video game titles with meaningful and morally relevant storylines are becoming increasingly popular and an intensely researched topic for entertainment scholars. In line with this research, the current study investigates behavioral, emotional, and personality patterns of moral decision-making in gaming with a special emphasis on selected contextual factors. In the current laboratory experiment, a total of N = 101 participants played four chapters of Detroit: Become Human for approx. 55 min. A maximum of 13 moral decisions had to be made either under time pressure or not. Before playing, participants were assigned to one of three conditions (i.e., playing morally vs. immorally framed character vs. no framing/control condition). As expected, players generally preferred to act morally regardless of character framing. Time pressure further increased the proportion of moral (vs. immoral) decision-making. Our results underline that moral decision-making is dependent on specific contexts and that morality theories can be applied to virtual gaming scenarios. [less ▲]

To kill or not to kill - Behavioral, physiological and personality markers of moral decision-making in video games

Scientific Conference (2021, September)

Moral Judgment in Video Games: Effects of Medium, Moral Intuitions and Media-Based Empathy

Scientific Conference (2021, September)

Motivation to Play Scale (MOPS): Measuring Gaming Motivation With a Comprehensive Instrument

Scientific Conference (2021, May)

With the growing interest in gaming, the motivation why people play has become a focus of research. Scales assessing gaming motivation are mostly based on either motivation theories or on self-constructed ... [more ▼]

With the growing interest in gaming, the motivation why people play has become a focus of research. Scales assessing gaming motivation are mostly based on either motivation theories or on self-constructed items adapted to specific genres. Despite the amount of existing scales, measures often lack validation or leave out important and novel motives. Therefore, the Motivation to Play Scale (MOPS), a work-in-progress project, aims at identifying a holistic instrument validated by systematically collecting and evaluating already existing items. A first evaluation survey (N = 555) resulted in preliminary version of the MOPS measuring 14 gaming motives (e.g., competition, escapism) using 59 items (α = .94). [less ▲]

Psychological contract violation or basic need frustration? Psychological mechanisms behind the effects of workplace bullying

in Frontiers in Psychology (2021)

Workplace bullying is a phenomenon that can have serious detrimental effects on health, work-related attitudes, and the behavior of the target. Particularly, workplace bullying exposure has been linked to ... [more ▼]

Workplace bullying is a phenomenon that can have serious detrimental effects on health, work-related attitudes, and the behavior of the target. Particularly, workplace bullying exposure has been linked to lower level of general well-being, job satisfaction, vigor and performance, and higher level of burnout, workplace deviance, and turnover intentions. However, the psychological mechanisms behind these relations are still not well understood. Drawing on psychological contract and self-determination theory, we hypothesized that perceptions of contract violation and the frustration of basic needs mediate the relationship between workplace bullying exposure and well-being, attitudinal, and behavioral outcomes. Self-reported data were collected among employees with different working backgrounds (N = 1,257) via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk in an online survey. Results showed that feelings of contract violation and frustration of basic needs accounted for unique variation in well-being, work satisfaction, burnout, vigor, and turnover intentions, pointing to individual contributions of both psychological mechanisms. However, when controlled for frustration of basic needs, feelings of psychological contract violation were no longer a mediator between workplace bullying exposure and work performance. Helping employees to deal effectively with workplace bullying exposure might buffer its negative effects and reduce their experienced frustration of basic needs, preserving their well-being, vigor, and work performance and, eventually, prevent burnout. The present study is the first to concurrently elucidate the proposed psychological mechanisms and unique contributions of psychological contract violation and frustration of basic needs in the context of workplace bullying. [less ▲]

Corona and the Media

in Mein, Georg; Pause, Johannes (Eds.) Self and Society in the Corona Crisis (2020)

Understanding Moral Decision-Making in Video Games: A Focus Group Study

Scientific Conference (2020, May)

Moral dilemmas have become increasingly popular in video games, although it is still widely unknown why players might find them pleasurable, how they process dilemmas, and which factors affect the ... [more ▼]

Moral dilemmas have become increasingly popular in video games, although it is still widely unknown why players might find them pleasurable, how they process dilemmas, and which factors affect the processing. Therefore, three different focus groups sessions with expert gamers (N = 16) were conducted. Gamers’ expressions of their experience with meaningful and morally relevant game situations were grouped for relevant topics. Topics are supported by direct quotations from participants of discussion groups, referring to up-to-date video game titles and presented together with respective theoretical assumptions. Results show that besides the game-defining theme of interactivity, statements can be grouped broadly into factors that describe why players engage or disengage in the first place (motivation) and factors that shape the moral interaction itself (influencing factors). In summary, our findings support the notion that moral-decision making in video games is a dynamic interplay between several game and user-dependent variables. Findings provide insights into players’ processing of moral dilemmas in video games, which also offers promising suggestions for future research using experimental setups. [less ▲]

Players' moral decisions in virtual worlds: Morality in video games

Book published by Oxford University Press (2020)

From complex multi-players to casual gaming: video games are the most common virtual environment for entertainment that younger generations spend a significant time in. Although early game titles already ... [more ▼]

From complex multi-players to casual gaming: video games are the most common virtual environment for entertainment that younger generations spend a significant time in. Although early game titles already featured morality-related topics, implementing meaningful eudaimonic playing based on moral decision making has become increasingly popular. Unfortunately, scientific analyses of game-related moral decisions mostly revolve around the effects of players engaging in virtual violence, leading to ongoing heated debates in academia and the general public (e.g., Anderson et al., 2010; Ferguson, 2007). To date, however, only few studies have tried to disentangle the moral aspects of video games from virtual violence (e.g., Joeckel, Bowman, & Dogruel, 2012). The present chapter provides an overview on both established and novel theories on psychological processing of moral decision making in virtual worlds in line with cutting-edge game examples. These theories aim at explaining how games can elicit moral processing as well as the factors that modulate these processes once the player is morally engaged. Based on i.a. aspects of the theory of presence (Biocca, Harms, & Burgoon, 2003; Tamborini & Skalski, 2006), moral disengagement (Bandura, 2002; Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010) and a dual process model of moral judgement (Greene, Sommerville, Nystrom, Darley, & Cohen, 2001; Gubbins & Byrne, 2014; Haidt, 2001), a new model is proposed. Furthermore, individual characteristics such as playing experience, player motivation and moral salience according to the moral foundations theory (Haidt & Joseph, 2008; Tamborini, 2011) are integrated in the model. [less ▲]

Male vs female gamers: Testing the stereotype threat effect in video gaming

Scientific Conference (2019, September 17)

Stereotype threat (ST), defined as the risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s own group, has been demonstrated in various social contexts. Regarding video games, for example, informing ... [more ▼]

Stereotype threat (ST), defined as the risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s own group, has been demonstrated in various social contexts. Regarding video games, for example, informing female participants that men would outperform women in gaming leads to gender differences in performance. To date, however, these studies have not looked into the mechanisms of this ST effect in gaming. In two lab studies (N=186), some participants were confronted with ST-related information before playing a video game. In Study 1, half of the participants read a bogus article confirming the “standard” gender stereotype (“men outperform women”). In Study 2, a reverse stereotype was presented to half of the participants (“women have outpaced men in some game genres”). In contrast to hypotheses, both studies failed to show the expected significant interaction effect of gender and ST condition on performance, although female participants confronted with the “standard” gender stereotype reported greater frustration in Study 1, for example. In sum, results indicate a complex relationship between gender, social identity, experience with the game genre, and behavior. Identifying oneself as a gamer and being experienced in a particular game genre were found to be better performance predictors than reading stereotype threatening information. [less ▲]