Video games, emotion, and emotion regulation: expanding the scope

Abstract

Recent years have seen important advances in the study of video games, with many scholars examining how video games impact emotional experiences of players. While this research borrows heavily from traditional media effects paradigms, it has proceeded without effectively integrating developments in emotion and emotion regulation. Therefore, this paper first reviews the nature of emotion and emotion regulation, and then reviews the extant video game literature. We next draw on theoretical accounts of emotion to frame three broad research questions that may advance future work on video games and emotions: (1) What is the nature of video game-evoked emotional experiences? (2) What are the processes through which video games produce emotions? (3) How are video games used to regulate emotions?