Psychology Case Study: Assessing and Treating Video Game Addiction

This psychology case study examines video game addiction in children, addressing parental and child concerns. It proposes a qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews with parents and teachers to gather perspectives on abnormal behavior. The assessment involves evaluating attention, selective attention, and applying the four Ds of abnormal psychology (deviance, dysfunction, distress, and danger) using DSM IV-TR. The study explores behavioral psychology to explain the addiction, considering dopamine release from gameplay. It suggests interventions such as limiting screen time, parental involvement, encouraging creative activities, and evaluating treatment effectiveness through feedback and observation. References include studies on interview research, children's mental health, video game addiction, and media parenting practices.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
PSYCHOLOGY
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1PSYCHOLOGY
Question 1:
The case study involves video game addiction of the children where the parents and
children are worried about the serious addiction of the patient. In this context, in order to gather
the research data, the best possible research method would be a qualitative research design where
the data collection method would be a semi-structured interview. The qualitative research would
enable researchers to gain an understanding of the perspective of the focus group. The focus
group would-be parents and teacher in this context (Castillo-Montoya, 2016). The interview
would be the best possible data collection method as it will allow researchers to connect with the
parents and teachers and gather the perspective regarding what they will consider as an abnormal
condition or addiction for a videogame.
Question 2:
In order to assess the condition to be an abnormal assessment of the attention and
selective attention is required to consider in this context. The degree of attention of the children
will provide the idea of whether the children are suffering from ADHD or not. The selective
attention will provide the idea of whether the attention is specific to the videogame or not.
Additionally, four D of abnormal psychology can be assessed for understanding whether the
condition is abnormal or not. The four D stands for deviance, dysfunction, distress, and danger
where DSM IV-TR diagnosis process would be used to make the decision whether the condition
of the children is abnormal or not (Oldehinkel, 2019).
Question 3:
Possible reason:

2PSYCHOLOGY
In this context, the possible reason behind the addition can be described by the behavioral
psychology. The videogames are designed using state-of-the-art behavioral psychology
providing the experience that can release the dopamine as it provides a sense of reward to the
brain. In this case, overexposure to this level of stimulation can cause structural changes to your
brain (Bean et al., 2016).
Considering the social perspective, the hypothesis can be tested by observed the child in
the isolation and the children in the presence of the videogame. Considering the perspective, the
hypothesis can be tested by assessing the attention of the patient in the presence of videogame
and in absence of videogame (Bean et al., 2016). Considering the biological perspective, the
assessment of vital signs of the children in the presence of videogame and in absence of
videogame would be done. Considering the behavioral perspective, the assessment of the
behavior such as excitement and concentration in presence of videogame and absence of
videogame would be done.
Question 4:
In this context, the possible interventions of the videogame addiction would be limiting
screen time, parental engagement with the children, providing an environment that encourages
creative activities and designing creative activities for academic performance in the classroom
(Tang, Darlington G & Haines, 2018). The effectiveness of treatment can be evaluated through
feedback from the teacher and parent along with observing the attention and behavior of the
children (Tang, Darlington G & Haines, 2018). The behavior of the children towards videogame
before the intervention and after the intervention will provide effectiveness.

3PSYCHOLOGY
References:
Castillo-Montoya, M. (2016). Preparing for Interview Research: The Interview Protocol
Refinement Framework. Qualitative Report, 21(5).
Oldehinkel, A. J. (2019). Improving children's mental health. What does that mean,
actually?. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 60(8), 825-827.
Bean, A. M., Nielsen, R. K., Van Rooij, A. J., & Ferguson, C. J. (2017). Video game addiction:
The push to pathologize video games. Professional Psychology: Research and
Practice, 48(5), 378.
Tang, L., Darlington, G., Ma, D. W., & Haines, J. (2018). Mothers’ and fathers’ media parenting
practices associated with young children’s screen-time: a cross-sectional study. BMC
obesity, 5(1), 37.