The Study On Self-Concept Updating Bias And Its Psychological Mechanisms In Internet Gaming Disorders

Internet gaming disorder(IGD)has a serious negative impact on the physical and mental health development of adolescents.It is of great significance to explore the mechanisms of its occurrence and maintenance.Previous studies have found that non-adaptive self-cognition(i.e.,negative reality self,positive online self)play an important role in the occurrence and maintenance of IGD.However,previous studies have only examined the self-concept characteristics of individuals with IGD from a static perspective,and no studies have explored the self-concept updating bias of individuals with IGD in the real world and online game world and the psychological mechanism that led to this bias.Therefore,the present study designed two studies with four experiments to investigate the self-concept updating bias and its psychological mechanisms of IGD individuals.Study 1 examined the self-concept updating bias of individuals with IGD.A belief updating task and a mixed experimental design of 2(subject type: IGD group,healthy controls)*2(feedback validity: positive,negative)were used to explore the self-concept updating biases of IGD individuals in the real world and online world with two sub-studies,respectively.Study 1a with 31 healthy players and 29 IGD individuals found that in the real world,compared to negative feedback,healthy players had significantly larger self-concept update sizes in the positive feedback condition,whereas people with IGD had no significant difference in self-concept update sizes between the two feedback conditions,and the positive self-concept update bias in the IGD group was significantly negatively associated with addiction scores.Study 1b,which examined 30 healthy players and 29 IGD individuals,found that in the online world,both healthy players and IGD individuals had significantly larger self-concept update sizes in the positive feedback condition than in the negative feedback condition.Study 2 examined the psychological mechanisms underlying the self-concept updating bias of individuals with IGD.An adapted version of the belief updating task and a mixed experimental design of belief updating task and 2(feedback validity: positive,negative)*3(experimental treatment type:cognitive immunization-inhibiting group,control group,cognitive immunization-enhancing group)used two sub-studies to explore the psychological mechanisms underlying the self-concept updating bias in IGD individuals in the real world and online world,respectively.Study 2a with 66 IGD individuals found that in the real world,subjects in the cognitive immunization-inhibiting group had significantly larger self-concept update sizes than both the control and cognitive immunization-enhancing group in both feedback conditions,and the self-concept update size of subjects in the control group was significantly larger than that of the cognitive immunization-enhancing group;study 2b with 66 IGD individuals found that in the online word,subjects in the cognitive immunization-inhibiting group had significantly larger self-concept update sizes than both the control and cognitive immunization-enhancing group in the negative feedback condition,and subjects in the control group had significantly larger self-concept update sizes than the cognitive immunization-enhancing group.In the positive feedback condition,there was no significant difference in the update size between the three groups.In summary,the following conclusions were drawn:(1)In the real world,IGD individuals have a different self-concept updating bias and lack a positive bias,while in the online world,the self-concept updating bias is consistent with the norm and shows a positive bias.(2)There is a correlation between abnormal self-concept updating bias in the real word and the severity of addiction in individuals with IGD.(3)In the real world,the psychological mechanism for the lack of positive bias in self-concept updating of IGD individuals is cognitive immunization to both positive and negative feedback;in the online world,the psychological mechanism for the positive bias in self-concept updating of IGD individuals is cognitive immunization to negative feedback,while positive feedback is updated normally.