An Empirical Investigation of the Relationships Among Self-Esteem, Depression and Self-Serving Bias in People with Internet Gaming Disorder

Abstract

Yifan Wang,1,2,* Lei Zhang,3,* Chenggong Wang,4 Min Lin,1 Li Zheng,5,6 Xiuyan Guo5,6 1Mental Health Education Center, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 3School of Physical Education (Main Campus), Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China; 4College of Science and Technology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, People’s Republic of China; 5Fudan Institute on Ageing, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 6Ministry of Education (MOE) Laboratory for National Development and Intelligent Governance, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Li Zheng, Fudan Institute on Ageing, Ministry of education (MOE) Laboratory for National Development and Intelligent Governance, Fudan University, No. 220 Handan Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200433, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]: People are generally characterized by a self-serving bias which describes the tendency to ascribe positive outcomes or success to internal or personal causes (self-enhancement motivation) and ascribe negative outcomes or failure to external or situational causes (self-protection motivation). It has been found that the individuals with internet gaming disorder (IGD) who have low self-esteem and high depression exhibit an attenuated self-serving bias. However, the relationships among self-esteem, depression and self-serving bias are not clearly identified.Methods: A sample of 138 IGD participants completed self-esteem and depression scales and a causal attribution task (Study 1) to examine the relationships among self-esteem, depression and self-serving bias (both self-enhancement and self-protection). In follow-up Study 2, 28 IGD participants were recruited to undertake self-affirmation intervention which can affirm one’s sense of global self-view and bolster self-esteem to explore whether self-affirmation would trigger a reduction of depression and a raise of self-serving bias.Results: The results of path analysis in Study 1 showed that the self-serving bias was predicted by self-esteem and depression, and the depression played a mediating role between self-esteem and self-serving bias. The results of Study 2 showed that the IGD participants reported higher self-esteem, lower depression and engaged in more self-protection motivation after affirming-self manipulation as compared with affirming-other manipulation.Conclusion: These findings suggest that self-esteem predicts self-serving bias through depression and self-affirmation could trigger an increase of self-esteem, further decrease depression and improve self-serving bias for the individuals with IGD. The present article clearly identified the relationships among these factors and provided a new approach to promote positive self-concept in individuals with IGD. Future research is warranted to explore the lasting benefits of self-affirmation on domains of education, relationships and gaming withdrawal for the individuals with IGD among different populations.Keywords: internet gaming disorder, self-serving bias, self-esteem, depression

Keywords

• internet gaming disorder
• self-serving bias
• self-esteem
• depression