Poster Information
| Title | Narcissus and the Mythology of the Avatar: Character Creation as a Mirror of Self-Concept |
| Presenter(s) | Antonia Szymanski and Richard Elswick |
| Session | Conference Reception, Game Exhibition, and Poster Session |
| Time | Thursday, October 21, 7:00p-9:00p |
| Location | East Lansing Technology Innovation Center |
| Format | Poster Presentation |
| Description | Avatars are now common in most on-line games. They are in the largest games on the market, such as Farmville and Second Life. How much is understood by game developers choices in the Avatar system as well as the players' choices for their avatars? Using psychosocial theories researchers may shed light on character choice preferences in games and thus provide new dimensions for character creation. Game developers may provide a new paradigm by which researchers can investigate the psychological functioning of individuals through examining choices made in character creation. Specifically, the attributes individuals choose for their characters may reflect different dimensions of self-concept of the creator.
Marsh, Smith and Barnes (1983) describe self-concept as the beliefs that individuals hold of themselves in different domains such as academic, social, and physical. These beliefs may influence students' willingness to participate in classroom discussions due to increased or reduced feelings of adequacy compared to peers. Therefore, understanding students' self- concepts and designing instructional technology to minimize isolationist behaviors of negative self-concept is important to providing meaningful learning environments that meet students' psychological needs. We seek to understand how the creation of a personal representative reflects the psychological state of self-concept of the individual. Therefore, the main research question under investigation is: How do choices in avatar creation relate to self-concept? This poster will present a thorough review of the existing literature on relationships between student's choices and psychological functioning. |