How Can Playing Video Games Improve Interpersonal Behavior?

Furthermore, gaming can improve interpersonal behavior by providing a healthy source of socialization and relaxation. Video games can be considered a medium to meet new people and create social capital. Shapiro (2013) even listed social benefits that can be incurred through gaming such as being able to play, physically and virtually, with others as well as having a common topic of conversation in real life situations (para. 4). This social capital created through gaming could possibly lead to individuals who are more likely to share their problems with others and seek resolution instead of allowing it to affect their daily life. This should lead to an individual that is calmer and more balanced. Also, Bingham (2015) mentioned in a study involving
Video games can be considered an effective play therapy tool. It builds patient-therapist relationships and improves the effectiveness of the therapeutic process (Coyle, Doherty, & Sharry as cited in Ceranoglu, 2010, p. 141). Play therapy is especially important for young children as it allows children to both communicate their feelings to others as well as work through these emotions at the same time (Shallcross, 2010, para. 5). In fact, Kato (2010) found that video games can reduce a patient’s anxiety in a hospital setting (p. 114), which could then possibly help to stimulate and speed up the patient’s return to health or reduce the risk associated to certain surgeries due to the patient being less stressed. Video games also show potential in reducing cognitive decline caused by age such as Alzheimer’s and other similar disorders. This is seen in a study conducted by Professor Adam Gazzaley of the University of California who, together with a group of game designers, created a game for older players known as Neuroracer, which requires players to simultaneously steer a car and perform various other tasks. He found that after only 12 hours of gameplay, the pensioners had greatly improved their performance to the point where they were beating young adults that were playing it for the first time (as cited in “Horizon”, 2015, para.
Video games are capable of enhancing the motor control in medical students. It has been found that skills such as visual-spatial processing, hand-eye coordination, reaction time, and so on acquired in playing certain video games are important in performing surgery (Kato, 2010, p. 117). In fact, in a study for a game called Underground, the surgical skills, such as the skills necessary for laparoscopic surgery, required by medical students can be improved by utilizing adapted controllers that are similar to those used in surgery (“Horizon”, 2015, para. 8-9). Besides that, video games act as training for learning how to learn more effectively and pleasurably. According to Eichenbaum, Bavelier, and Green, (2014), video games are capable of creating an encouraging space for users to invest great amounts of time in learning (p. 51); thus, it acts as a motivator for further learning. This is because video games give players tasks that are difficult but accomplishable (Eichenbaum, Bavelier, & Green, 2014, p. 53), which probably leads to higher levels of motivation in learning how to solve the in-game puzzles. This could create individuals that are more interested in learning and problem-solving in general. Another study found that video games may in fact give rise to a higher number of children and adolescents gaining what is known as an incremental theory of intelligence,