Karhulahti Veli-Matti
Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
Open Res Eur. 2024 Oct 14;4:47. doi: 10.12688/openreseurope.17177.1. eCollection 2024.
For decades, research on technology use and mental health has been based on the assumption that identifiable structures of 'design' are psychologically relevant for their users. This has been central especially for the nosological emergence of 'behavioural addictions', which currently include two formal diagnoses on technology use: problems related to playing gambling games (gambling disorder) and videogames (gaming disorder). Alas, the research on identifying 'addictive' design structures has suffered from major construct validity issues. To make progress over those issues, I draw from the history of 'vitality affects' in psychiatry and introduce as a design-phenomenological framework that can help researchers conceptualise psychologically relevant 'bonds' between entities of game design and corresponding player phenomenology. Vitality structures are not natural kinds to be discovered but pragmatic constructs to be used-and useful as long as they communicate what is both identifiable and empirically prevalent. As a demonstration of practice, I propose working conceptualisations of three vitality structures, which surface in videogames played by gaming treatment-seekers. Systematic research programs for identifying relevant vitality structures can lead to construct-valid and replicable design effects.
几十年来，关于技术使用与心理健康的研究一直基于这样一种假设，即“设计”中可识别的结构对其用户具有心理相关性。这一点对于“行为成瘾”的疾病分类学出现尤为关键，目前“行为成瘾”包括两种关于技术使用的正式诊断：与玩赌博游戏相关的问题（赌博障碍）和与电子游戏相关的问题（游戏障碍）。遗憾的是，识别“成瘾性”设计结构的研究存在重大的结构效度问题。为了在这些问题上取得进展，我借鉴了精神病学中“活力影响”的历史，并引入了一个设计现象学框架，该框架可以帮助研究人员将游戏设计实体与相应玩家现象学之间心理相关的“联系”概念化。活力结构不是有待发现的自然类别，而是有待使用的实用结构——只要它们能够传达可识别且在经验上普遍存在的内容，就会很有用。作为实践演示，我提出了三种活力结构的工作概念化，这些结构出现在寻求游戏治疗的玩家所玩的电子游戏中。识别相关活力结构的系统研究计划可以产生具有结构效度且可重复的设计效果。
