Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

European Psychiatry 23 (2008) 212e218

http://france.elsevier.com/direct/EURPSY/

Original article

The relationship between online game addiction and aggression,

self-control and narcissistic personality traits
Eun Joo Kim a,1, Kee Namkoong a,1, Taeyun Ku b,2, Se Joo Kim a,*
a
Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine,
250 Seongsanro, Seodaemun-Gu, Seoul 120-752, South Korea
b
Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 373-1 Guseong-dong,
Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, South Korea
Received 2 August 2007; received in revised form 26 October 2007; accepted 31 October 2007
Available online 31 December 2007

Abstract

Objectives. e This study aimed to explore the relationship between online game addiction and aggression, self-control, and narcissistic per-
sonality traits, which are known as the psychological characteristics linked to ‘‘at-risk’’ populations for online game addiction.
Method. e A total of 1471 online game users (males 82.7%, females 17.3%, mean age 21.30  4.96) participated in this study and were
asked to complete several self-report measures using an online response method. Questionnaires included demographic information and
game use-related characteristics of the samples, the online game addiction scale (modified from Young’s Internet addiction scale), the
BussePerry aggression questionnaire, a self-control scale, and the narcissistic personality disorder scale.
Results. e Our results indicated that aggression and narcissistic personality traits are positively correlated with online game addiction,
whereas self-control is negatively correlated with online game addiction ( p < 0.001). In addition, a multiple regression analysis revealed that
the extent of online game addiction could be predicted based on the person’s narcissistic personality traits, aggression, self-control, interpersonal
relationship, and occupation. However, only 20% of the variance in behavioral consequences was explained with the model.
Conclusion. e An interesting profile has emerged from the results of this study, suggesting that certain psychological characteristics such as
aggression, self-control, and narcissistic personality traits may predispose some individuals to become addicted to online games. This result will
deepen our understanding of the ‘‘at-risk’’ population for online game addiction and provide basic information that can contribute to developing
a prevention program for people who are addicted to online games.
Ó 2007 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Online game addiction; Aggression; Self-control; Narcissistic personality traits

1. Introduction sophisticated, detailed and evolving worlds based in different

narrative environments [12,31]. The common characteristic of
Since the first massive multiplayer online role-playing MMORPGs is that in virtual communities players can assume
game (MMORPG) was launched in Korea in 1995, the number any role they desire, collaborate with other players in the game
of games and participants in these online games has increased to succeed in even more complex goals and accomplish mis-
significantly. MMORPGs are the latest Internet-only gaming sions of a fairly aggressive nature. Players have the power to
experience, and these are typically represented by large, talk online, make friends and conduct transactions involving
real or virtual assets. The entertaining, interactive and real-
time online games have become ‘‘killer applications’’ on the
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ82 2 2228 1620; fax: þ82 2 313 0891. Internet, and these are the primary reasons some teenagers
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (E.J. Kim), [email protected]
(K. Namkoong), [email protected] (T. Ku), [email protected] (S.J. Kim).
spend hours every day playing these games [31].
1
Tel.: þ82 2 2228 1620; fax: þ82 2 313 0891. However, as the popularity of the online games has grown,
2
Tel.: þ82 42 869 4232; fax: þ82 42 869 4240. so have concerns over their excessive use. The phenomenon of

0924-9338/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.eurpsy.2007.10.010
 E.J. Kim et al. / European Psychiatry 23 (2008) 212e218 213

‘‘online game addiction’’ has widely spread over recent years Grounded in these and other findings reported in the litera-
and the clinical evidence to support the validity of this new ture on online game participation, this study examined online
syndrome is mounting, although researchers are not yet in game use patterns and addiction-related psychological profiles
agreement as to whether online game addiction is a legitimate among Koreans. In particular, we developed three research
mental disorder in the same category as pathological gambling hypotheses:
[21]. In reflecting such an observation, there comes AMA re-
port that the American Psychiatric Association is considering H1: The higher the level of aggression, the higher the likeli-
video game addiction, including addiction to online games, hood that one will be addicted to online games.
a disorder [1]. H2: The more self-control the subjects have, the less likely
Due to the increased awareness that online game addiction they will be addicted to online games, especially those
is a legitimate concern, efforts to explain why and how people games with violent contents.
are deeply involved in these games have become important re- H3: The more narcissistic personality traits the subjects
search issues. Some previous studies have suggested that indi- have, the more likely that they will be addicted to online
vidual psychological characteristics (including personality games.
traits) may predispose certain individuals to overuse the Inter- RQ1: To what extent are aggression, self-control, narcissis-
net, and past research has chiefly examined the effects of shy- tic personality traits, and the quality of interpersonal rela-
ness, anxiety, loneliness, depression, and self-consciousness tionships related to online game addiction?
on the level of Internet use so far [7,8,17,25,33]. However,
little has been researched about the characteristics linked to
‘‘at-risk’’ populations with such a dependence upon ‘‘online 2. Method
games,’’ especially of aggressive nature, which is one of the
important subcategories of Internet addiction. Therefore, in 2.1. Participants and procedure
this study we tried to explore the relationship between online
game addiction and psychological characteristics such as An advertisement for research participation was posted on
aggression, self-control, and narcissistic personality traits. the official home page of WOW e world of warcraft (www.
Each of these factors is expected to affect or be affected by worldofwarcraft.co.kr), Lineage (www.lineage2.co.kr), and
one’s gaming activities. To select these three factors, aggres- Mabinogi (www.mabinogi.com) for several days in June
sion was first identified as one of the factors because evidence 2006. As a reward, the participant was eligible for 5e20 dol-
supporting the hypotheses that violent game playing is related lar-equivalent gift coupons when he or she completed the sur-
to aggression has been mounting in many past studies vey. The total number of participants who got gift coupons
[9,11,13,29]. Even though the directionality (causeeeffect re- was 14. Because the surveys were conducted at three of the
lationship) of the two factors has not been identified, a study most popular online game sites, the participants can be re-
with Korean high school students indicated that students garded as a representative sample of online game users in
who report excessive Internet use are characterized by irrita- Korea. The total number of participants was 1713. However,
bility, aggressiveness, and impulsivity [23]. In addition, the in the case of questionnaires completed by participants having
correlational results indicate that more aggressive children the same IP address, the second record was excluded since
are drawn to violent games, rather than their aggression being they were regarded as an overlapping response. The records
a result of the violent game activity [11]. Second, a narcissistic which failed to be filled out completely or appropriately
personality trait was considered to be important for the under- were also excluded from the analyses. As a result, the final
standing of the online game addiction process. One of the con- number of participants was 1471 including 1216 males
sensuses reached among online game addicts is that the main (82.7%) and 255 females (17.3%). We obtained an online
attractive feature of MMORPGs is its system of goals and form of informed consent from the participants. The Ethical
achievements. As you play, your character advances by gain- Committee of Severance Hospital approved the study protocol.
ing experience points, ‘‘leveling-up’’ from one level to the
next while collecting valuables and weapons and becoming 2.2. Questionnaire and measurement scales
wealthier and stronger. In this social setting, excellent players
receive ‘‘the recognition and attention of others’’ and gain We used the ‘‘Survey on Internet Use’’ which was com-
power and status [21,26]. Considering all this, the possibility posed of five sections: questionnaires regarding demographic
that people with narcissistic personality traits will use the ac- information and game use-related characteristics of the sam-
cess to numerous relationships which is possible on the net as ples, the online game addiction scale, an aggression scale,
a means to gain an admiring audience is plausible. Third, it is a self-control scale, and a narcissistic personality disorder
further found that game addiction among young people is re- scale.
lated to their weak self-control and discipline, and game ad-
dicts are weaker at controlling their emotions than are 2.2.1. Demographic information
average Internet users [23]. In addition, some previous studies We investigated the general information about the re-
have suggested that less self-control is related to various types sponders such as age, sex, occupation, and the patterns of
of addictive behaviors, including Internet addiction [18,23]. Internet or online game use. We also inquired about their
214 E.J. Kim et al. / European Psychiatry 23 (2008) 212e218

interpersonal relationships by using the sum of scores obtained using a four-point Likert scale and a higher score implied a ten-
from three questions about the quality of their peer relation- dency toward narcissistic personality traits. This scale was sig-
ships (What do you think about your peer relationships?), their nificantly correlated with the narcissistic personality inventory
relationships with family members (What do you think about [24] by Ruskin and Hall, which is a scale used in the evalua-
your relationship with family members?) and their levels of tion of narcissistic traits worldwide (r ¼ 0.49, p < 0.01) [19].
social anxiety (Do you feel discomfort when you spend time
with someone other than family members?). These questions 2.3. Statistical analysis
were created by the current investigators. The Likert scale
scores of the questions about relationships with peer and fam- We performed all statistical analyses using SAS for Win-
ily members ranged from 1 to 5 points with higher points sug- dows. We carried out one-way ANOVA for the categorical var-
gesting better interpersonal relationships. The Likert scale iables and correlation analysis with the online game addiction
scores of the level of social anxiety ranged from 1 to 4, and scale for the continuous independent variables. Finally, a step-
as the points declined the responder showed a tendency to wise multiple regression analysis was performed to explore
lack self-confidence in front of other people and to avoid con- significant predictors of online game addiction scale. The in-
tact with others. dependent variables for inclusion were those showing statisti-
cally significant association with online game addiction scale
2.2.2. The online game addiction scale from the ANOVA and correlation analysis conducted above.
The online game addiction scale was introduced by Whang
[32], and it was modified from Young’s Internet addiction 3. Results
scale [36] to measure the degree of online game addiction
tendency. The online game addiction scale has 20 items asso- General information and a survey of characteristics of on-
ciated with online game use, including psychological depen- line game playing of participants are listed in Table 1. Most
dence, compulsive use, and withdrawal, as well as the of the participants were students (68.8%), worker (21.3%),
related problems of school or work, sleep, family, and time and unemployed (9.9%). The mean amount of time spent on
management (for each item, a graded response is selected the game per day was 313.09 min. The number of respondents
from 1 ¼ ‘‘not at all’’ to 5 ¼ ‘‘always’’). The total score was playing Mabinogi was greatest (N ¼ 736, 50.0%). The average
in the range of 20e100, and a higher score implies a tendency money spent for online games was $30.90 per month, and the
toward addictive usage. The Cronbach’s a of the scale in our
study was 0.90.
Table 1
Demographic and general characteristics of the participants
2.2.3. The BussePerry aggression questionnaire
We used this questionnaire to measure aggression and hos- N (%) or
mean  SD
tility. The questionnaire consisted of 29 items which were
scored along a five-point Likert scale. The Likert scale pro- Age 21.30  4.96
vides an overall score, and it has four subscales: physical ag- Sex
gression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility. We only Male 1216 (82.7)
Female 255 (17.3)
considered the total score in this study. The higher the total
score, the greater the severity of the aggression [4]. Occupation
None 145 (9.9)
Student 1013 (68.8)
2.2.4. Self-control scale Worker 313 (21.3)
The self-control scale used in this study was reorganized
The online game subjects play most frequently
from the scale originally developed by Gottfredson and
World of warcraft 495 (33.7)
Hirschi [10] (Cronbach’s a, 0.74). It comprised a total of 20 Lineage 2 53 (3.6)
questions, with 10 questions reflecting the degree of pursuing Mabinogi 736 (50.0)
long-term satisfaction and the remaining 10 questions reflect- Other 187 (12.7)
ing the degree of pursuing immediate satisfaction. All 20 items Favorite aspect of playing
were ranked by the respondents using a five-point Likert scale. Leveling and building up their character 652 (44.3)
The last 10 items (item number 11e20) were reverse-scored to Feeling superior to others 181 (12.3)
calculate the total scores. A higher total score indicated Grouping and interacting with other people 577 (39.2)
Earning money by selling items 16 (1.1)
a higher level of self-control. Killing time 45 (3.1)
Average amount of game time (min/day) 313.09  219.33
2.2.5. The narcissistic personality disorder scale (NPDS)
The number of players one regularly played with online 8.12  12.44
The NPDS [14] was used to assess the narcissistic person- Average amount of money spent for game (dollars/month) 30.90  5.27
ality traits of the participants. Respondents were asked to rank Online game addiction scale score (20e100) 62.93  13.12
their agreement with a series of 18 statements reflecting the Aggression 47.02  11.86
characteristics of the narcissistic personality trait (Cronbach’s Self-control 64.75  9.16
Narcissistic personality trait 42.83  7.62
a, 0.68). A total of 18 items was ranked by the respondents
 E.J. Kim et al. / European Psychiatry 23 (2008) 212e218 215

average number of game characters with whom each partici- hypotheses we posed. Our results indicate that aggression
pant played while gaming was 8.12. The average online and narcissistic personality traits are positively correlated
game addiction scale score was 62.93  13.12. with online game addiction, whereas self-control is negatively
Results in Table 2 show the differences of online game addic- correlated with online game addiction.
tion scale scores according to sex and occupation using ANOVA. Regarding interpersonal relationships with family and
This revealed that online game addiction scale score was not sig- friends, those with low scores on the interpersonal relationship
nificantly correlated with sex, but the unemployed scored signif- scale scored higher on the online game addiction scores
icantly higher than the other two groups ( p < 0.001). (Tables 3 and 4). From this result, it can be inferred that
As shown in Table 3, correlation analysis was conducted to a high dependency on online games was associated with inter-
examine correlation coefficient (r) between online game personal difficulties and stress in reality. According to
addiction scores and various continuous independent vari- Whang’s study [31], Internet addicts would feel interpersonal
ables. These results show that narcissistic personality traits relationships in reality are stressful, and they would try to shun
(r ¼ 0.36, p < 0.001) and aggression (r ¼ 0.35, p < 0.001) others and engage in Internet use as an alternative to relation-
scores were positively related with the online game addiction ships in real life. Internet addicts are usually attracted by so-
scores. On the other hand, self-control (r ¼ 0.33, p < 0.001) cial interaction and communication activities such as
and social relationship scale scores (r ¼ 0.16, p < 0.001) MMORPG or online chat because of these tendencies. Overall,
were negatively related with online game scale score. our results have supported previous findings of a significant re-
A stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed us- lationship between the level of Internet addiction and the psy-
ing the independent variables of job, narcissistic personality chological states such as loneliness and social anxiety
traits, aggression, self-control, and interpersonal relationship [13,20,31]. However, it is still unclear as to whether a poor in-
which showed significant correlation with the online game ad- terpersonal relationship is a cause or a consequence of exces-
diction score from ANOVA or Pearson’s correlation analysis. sive online game addiction. It could be that the addictive use
The results in Table 4 indicated that the general model was of online games is associated with a decline in participants’
significant (F ¼ 60.29, p < 0.001). The R2 for the overall communication with family members in the household and
model indicated that approximately 20% of the variance of on- a decline in the size of their social circles, and because of
line gaming addiction was accounted for by the above five in- this they become socially isolated and are no longer able to so-
dependent variables. Of these variables, the severity of the cialize in a normal way.
narcissistic personality traits was the most useful. Higher nar- In this study, it was found that the level of aggression was
cissistic personality traits, higher aggression, poor self-control, positively related with the game addiction score (Tables 3 and
poor interpersonal relationship, and no occupation were asso- 4). Like other computer games, there are lots of aggressive
ciated with higher online game addiction score. To exclude se- components in MMORPGs. There has been great suspicion
rious collinearity problems, we performed a collinearity and speculation on whether the increase in player killing in
analysis. Because all the variances of inflation factor were be- the game world would facilitate the gamers to act violently
low 5 and all the values of tolerance were above 0.5, there in the real world [31]. Although some studies have reported
were no serious collinearity problems. that the amount of violent video game play is correlated
with self-reported levels of aggression, other studies conclude
that aggression has not been associated with online game kill-
4. Discussion ing of virtual opponents like in MMORPGs [9,11,28,29].
However, individual differences were not considered enough
This study primarily focused on exploring individual psy- in this research, and the assumption was made that the effects
chological characteristics such as aggression, self-control of playing games on all people will be the same, which might
and narcissistic personality traits and how these variables are not necessarily be the case. Research on vulnerable groups has
related to online game addiction in Korean online game shown that some children and adolescents are more suscepti-
players. The findings of this research support all the ble to the influence of the media than others are [9]. For exam-
ple, personality factors such as temperament also appear to
have a mediating role, and some research suggests that high-
Table 2 trait aggressive men are most affected by the computer game
Differences of online game addiction scale scores according to various charac- violence [3]. Other studies also support that there was a bi-
teristics of participants directional causal effect in which viewing violence engen-
Mean  SD F p-Value dered aggression and aggression engendered violence viewing
Sex 1.63 0.104 [2]. Although the directionality of the aggression and the on-
Male 62.67  12.68 line game addiction is not revealed, the aggression scale
Female 64.28  14.68 used in this study reasonably reflects the trait of aggression,
Occupation 15.73 <0.001 and it can be postulated that those with an aggressive trait
None (N ¼ 145) 67.92  12.91 will be engaged in an online game to gratify their latent ag-
Student (N ¼ 1013) 62.93  13.14 gressive impulses, which are not acceptable in the real world
Worker (N ¼ 313) 60.60  12.51
but which can be resolved in the virtual world of online games.
216 E.J. Kim et al. / European Psychiatry 23 (2008) 212e218

Table 3
Correlation coefficient (r) between online game addiction scale scores and various characteristics of participants
Online game addiction Age Social relationship Narcissistic traits Self-control
Age 0.02
Social relationship 0.16* 0.16*
Narcissistic traits 0.36* 0.01 0.09*
Self-control 0.33* 0.14* 0.12* 0.48*
Aggression 0.35* 0.12* 0.12* 0.57* 0.49*
*p < 0.01.

A narcissistic personality trait was positively correlated and self-control [23]. That is, Internet addiction among young
with the online game addiction score (Tables 3 and 4). This people is related to their lack of self-control, and Internet
finding seems to be inconsistent with the previous reports by addicts are weaker at controlling their emotions than average
Craig that low self-esteem and a negative evaluation about Internet users [22,23]. This result indicates that increased
themselves were good predictors of Internet addiction and self-control enables people to control their use of the Internet
the amount of time spent online [22]. The tangible explanation to a reasonable degree, thereby preventing the addictive poten-
for this finding is the unique characteristics of MMORPGs, tial. Baumeister [2] also reported that a failure of self-control
which are clearly different from the other features of Internet. may be an important cause of addictive behavior. In their study
In MMORPGs, leveling-up and getting items, recognition and of alcoholic patients, Trimmel and Kopke argued that cogni-
admiration from other players are the major attraction for tive concepts such as plans and self-control are associated
many of those who play [21]. In light of the concept that indi- with the highest scores for moderate drinkers and significantly
viduals with narcissistic personality traits are preoccupied with lower scores in heavy drinkers [27]. All these results imply
a grandiose sense of self-importance, fantasies of success, that impaired self-control may be centrally conducive to ad-
power and that they require excessive admiration and recogni- diction in general, including online game addiction.
tion as presented in DSM-IV, it can be reasonably predicted In this study, a stepwise multiple regression analysis
that people with a greater narcissistic personality trait will col- revealed that the severity of online game addiction could be
lect valuable items and upgrade their skills to advance their predicted based on narcissistic personality traits, aggression,
players in the game [26]. Because they value wealth and self-control, interpersonal relationship and occupation, and oc-
strength in the game world as much as they do in the real cupation status (Table 4). However, only 20% of the variance
world, they tend to have a strong inclination to resort to any in behavioral consequences was explained with the model.
possible means for the sake of increasing their wealth and Therefore, further research is needed to identify other factors
strength inside the game, and they also invest much more that contribute to online game addiction.
time than other players. For some people with a narcissistic In general, the online game, especially MMORPG has more
personality trait, MMORPGs may be reinforcing because it strong competitive and fairly aggressive aspects than other In-
bolsters self-esteem as well as provides status and respect ternet activities such as e-mail, ICQ (instant messaging com-
with a lower chance of rejection. Therefore, narcissistic people puter program), chatting, or information searching [16]. Wan
are likely to have a high chance of being addicted to online and Chiou reported that individuals with online game addic-
games. tion showed strong interest in role-playing of online games,
The hypothesis that self-control will be negatively corre- in which they often do things that they dare not to do in real
lated with the online game addiction score was also supported life [30]. And Ko et al. [16] reported that online gaming pro-
(Tables 3 and 4). Self-control is defined as an ability to resist vides a feeling of control, synchronous interaction with others,
an impulse, drive, or temptation to perform an action. In the and the freedom of self-representation for adolescent. Some
present study, the concept of ‘‘delayed gratification’’ was other studies reported that Internet addiction seems to be asso-
adopted to define ‘‘self-control.’’ In previous studies by Oh, ciated with impulsivity [6], neuroticism, psychoticism, and lie
a negative correlation was found between Internet addiction subscale of Eysenck personality questionnaire [5], substance

Table 4
Stepwise multiple regression analysis to determine the amount of variance in online game addiction
B Standard error b t p-Value
Narcissistic traits 0.258 0.041 0.188 6.314 <0.001
Aggression 0.126 0.024 0.157 5.214 <0.001
Self-control 0.186 0.038 0.136 4.863 <0.001
Interpersonal relationship 0.878 0.207 0.102 4.249 <0.001
Job
None (reference)
Worker 5.734 1.191 0.179 4.814 <0.001
Student 3.632 1.060 0.128 3.427 0.001
 E.J. Kim et al. / European Psychiatry 23 (2008) 212e218 217

use experience, high novelty seeking, high harm avoidance, people are who they say they are and that they only take part in
and low reward dependence [15]. However, almost all of these the survey once or that they are answering truthfully. However,
studies did not separate online game addiction from Internet this is also the case for any other kind of remotely adminis-
addiction in general. Therefore, it would be difficult to distin- tered study (e.g. postal or telephone), and the validity issues
guish the characteristics of those individuals with online game are in many ways not different than those encountered in
addiction from those with Internet addiction. To date, there has more conventional research techniques. In this study, we ex-
been few report directly compared online game addiction to cluded any second questionnaires filled out by the same IP ad-
Internet addiction. Chak and Leung [7] analysed the influences dress. In this way, the risk of people taking part in the study
of Internet addiction, shyness, locus of control, Internet use, more than once was minimized [35].
online experience, and demographics on three online activities Despite several limitations, an interesting profile has
such as e-mail, ICQ, and chat room, WWW information emerged from the results of this study, suggesting that certain
search, and online games. They reported that heavy online psychological characteristics are associated with online game
game players are less educated young males who use Internet addiction score. Future research needs to address the implica-
regularly with many online aliases and they expect high self- tions of the growing number of online game addicts among the
control over their own life. Meanwhile, e-mail, ICQ, newspa- population, how the related psychological traits change over
per, and chat room are favorite activities for female Internet time, especially with or without interventions. Many researchers
addicts who have many aliases. And information search on In- have suggested limiting access to the Internet, especially in
ternet is a favorite Internet activity for relatively highly edu- vulnerable populations with risk factors for addiction, or mon-
cated young females who are not withdrawn and reserved. itoring the activities they carry out as preventive methods [12].
Therefore, it is needed to replicate our study in other forms Other researchers have developed treatment strategies for
of Internet addiction and compare with results of this study. pathological online game addiction which focus on helping
The result of this study revealed several important findings the addicts to develop effective coping strategies to modify
to deepen our understanding of the online game addiction pro- the addictive behavior. For both approaches, the understanding
cess, but several limitations should be considered. First, there of the ‘‘at-risk population for the addiction’’ is imperative. Re-
are no formalized criteria established for online game addic- searchers must make an effort to uncover the risk factors of
tion yet. Although, Young’s questionnaire for Internet addic- online game addiction including psychological characteristics.
tion used in this study, adapts DSM criteria for substance Policy makers should consider these factors, and appropriate
dependence, more work is needed to see if these criteria psychoeducation should be developed to provide people with
hold true for online game addiction. Second, this study has in- the guidance to prevent pathological online gaming. The re-
herent biases present in its methodology by utilizing an expe- sults of this study will help provide the basic information
dient group of self-selected online game players. In other that can contribute to the development of a prevention pro-
words, the subjects who responded may have been more mo- gram of online game addiction for people.
tivated to respond than those who did not experience any prob-
lems related to excessive Internet game use or those who were Acknowledgements
not interested in winning a prize. Therefore, the generalization
of our results must be interpreted with caution. Third, we used We thank to Seong Jin Kang, M.D., Jun Sang Lee, M.D.,
a self-reported questionnaire method rather than face-to-face and Yoon Dae Hahn, M.D. for contribution to this study by
in-depth interview. This might compromise the objectivity of data collection, study design, and construction of web page.
the responses. In addition, the online game addiction scale
and the narcissistic personality disorder scale used in this
study do not have validation data published in peer-reviewed Appendix 1. Online game addiction scale
journals yet. However, the online game addiction scale is
a slight modification of Young’s Internet addiction test, which The next 20 questions survey the severity of your online
is validated through many studies on the subject of Internet ad- game use.
diction. And the narcissistic personality disorder scale was sig- Please read each question, and circle the number on the
nificantly correlated with the narcissistic personality inventory scale for each question that gives the best answer for you.
by Ruskin and Hall, which is a scale used in the evaluation of To assess your level of addiction, answer the following
narcissistic traits worldwide (r ¼ 0.49, p < 0.01). Also, we did questions using this scale.
not use standardized instruments to measure interpersonal re-
lationships. The current investigators were forced to create 1: rarely 2: occasionally 3: frequently 4: often 5:
three items to query interpersonal relationships, but these always
items were consequently not validated. Fourth, it is important 1. I stay online longer than I originally intended.
to note that the cross-sectional field study described in this pa- 2. I spend less time with my family to spend more time play-
per did not address causality. Fifth, in online response-based ing online games.
studies such as this there exists an issue of the validity and re- 3. I feel more connected to my online game friends than real
liability of the online data [34,35]. When gathering online data world friends.
from online players, the researcher cannot always be sure that 4. I make new relationships with fellow-online users.
218 E.J. Kim et al. / European Psychiatry 23 (2008) 212e218

5. Others in my life complain to me about the amount of [11] Griffiths MD. Video game violence and aggression: comments on
time I spend on online game. ‘Video game playing and its relations with aggressive and prosocial
behaviour’ by O. Wiegman and E.G.M. van Schie. Br J Soc Psychol
6. My school work or occupational functions suffer because 2000;39:147e9.
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7. I engage in online game before something else that I need of online gaming. Cyberpsychol Behav 2003;6:81e91.
to do. [13] Harman JP, Hansen CE, Cochran ME, Lindsey CR. Liar, liar: internet
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anxiety, and aggression. Cyberpsychol Behav 2005;8:1e6.
playing online games. [14] Hwang ST. Development of diagnostic criteria for personality disorder.
9. I have lied to others to conceal the real amount time I Master’s thesis. Seoul: Yonsei Univ.; 1995.
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