Publication Date

Summer 2016

Advisor(s) - Committee Chair

Sally Kuhlenschmidt (Director), Frederick Grieve, and Elizabeth Jones

Degree Program

Department of Psychology

Degree Type

Master of Arts

Abstract

This study sought to determine if time spent engaging in online gaming, interpersonal communication skills, and introvert personality traits are predictors of an individual’s likelihood of experiencing symptoms of social anxiety. A sample of 128 participants (82 males and 46 females) completed measures of demographics, interpersonal communication skills, problematic online gaming, social anxiety, and introversion. Participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk. There were significant correlations among social anxiety and interpersonal communication skills, problematic online gaming, and introversion. There was no significant correlation among social anxiety and time spent playing Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG), a specific form of online video game. It was also found that interpersonal communication skills, problematic online gaming, and introversion were all significant predictors of social anxiety. However, time spent playing MMORPGs was not a significant predictor of social anxiety.

Disciplines

Applied Behavior Analysis | Clinical Psychology | Communication Sciences and Disorders | Psychology

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