This paper presents the current state of Internet gambling and discusses its psychological tasks and issues. First of all, the definition, history, and domestic and overseas situations of Internet gambling are introduced. Next, the paper presents the characteristics of Internet gambling in cyberspace, which are different from general land-based gambling. And the motive for gambling on the Internet, game pattern, and psychological features of the internet gambling are investigated. Based on these findings, the paper suggests the challenges that psychology should address so as to constructively deal with the problems of Internet gambling, and discusses related issues. Finally, the future tasks of Internet gambling in Korea are suggested.
The purpose of this study was to analyze population trends in legalized internet gambling based on the study of LaPlante, Schumann, LaBrie, and Shaffer(2008). This study attempted to gain an elaborate understanding of maladaptive gambling behavior based on actual behavior patterns observed directly from the population of Internet gamblers. Data was collected from 28,971 members who had first registered on a legal Internet gambling(sports betting) site between August and December, 2007. The number of bets and betting amounts until November, 2009 (total 23∼28 months) were collected. This study conducted a correlation analysis between number of participating days, number of bets, and betting amounts after computing individual days of gambling participation from activation of each initial membership. The results of this study were found consistent with those reported by LaPlante et al.(2008)in that the number of bets and betting amounts of gamblers showed significantly decreasing patterns of adaptive behavior and the patterns were similar regardless of gender and age(r=-.628~-.797, all ps<.001). Finally, we discussed the findings from the results associated with future direction on the study of Internet gambling.
This study aimed to explore the risk of pathological gambling of legalized Internet gamblers and their possibilities of spread to illegal gambling. In addition, we hoped to shed light on understanding the dysfunction of increasing Internet gambling. To explore the risk of pathological gambling, this study examined the relationships between frequency of gambling behavior and level of problem gambling using a sample of 177 panel members who were selected from an online Internet survey firm. The sample consisted of 108 panel members who participated in legalized Internet gambling and 69 panel members who participated in illegal gambling. The results indicate that the dose-response relationships between frequency of gambling behavior of the legalized Internet gambling group and the level of problem gambling based on DSM-Ⅳ(APA, 1994) were insignificant(r=.061, p>.05), but these relationships in the illegal gambling group were statistically significant(r=.326, p<.01). Furthermore, the index representing symptoms of urge to gamble indicate that both Internet gambling groups were statistically significant(legalized gambling: r=.234, p<.05; illegalized gambling: r=.339, p<.01). In addition, to explore the possibility of gamblers’ spread to illegal gambling, this study examined the relationships between frequencies of both legal and illegal Internet gambling behavior by both types of Internet gambling groups and the results indicated insignificance(r=-.004, p>.05). Differences in starting age of gambling between legal and illegal Internet gambling groups were also investigated, and the results also indicated insignificance(t=-.257, p>.05). Thus, it is concluded that the two types of gambling behavior(legal and illegal) were independent of each other. Finally, we discussed the findings from the results associated with risk management of Internet gambling.
The Reasons for Living Inventory is a scale developed by Linehan and is made up of the reasons why people do not actually practice suicide when they thought about committing suicide. This scale consists of positive factors that prevent suicide(Survival and Coping Beliefs, Responsibility to Family, and Child-related Concerns) and negative factors about suicidal action(Fear of Death, Fear of Social Disapproval, and Moral Objections). This study examined the validity of The Reasons for Living Inventory for 301 adults(143 males and 158females). As a result, it was factorized into 4 sub-scales (Survival and Coping Beliefs, Fear of Death and Social Disapproval, Family Responsibility and Child-related Concerns, and Future Expectation). The scores of all factors except Fear of Death and Social Disapproval could differentiate the group of people who never thought about suicide, the group of people who had suicidal thoughts, and the group of people who tried to commit suicide. Especially, Family Responsibility and Child-related Concerns classified whether people are thinking of suicidal thoughts including suicidal action and Future Expectation could separate attempters and non-attempters clearly. Moreover, people who had a tendency toward optimism had significantly high scores on The Reasons for Living Inventory. Based on these results,suggestions and implications on the prevention of suicide and the development of programs are discussed.
The Cognitive Style Questionnaire(CSQ) measures the cognitive vulnerability factor featured in the hopelessness theory of depression. The CSQ has been used in some published studies since its inception, however, validity properties of a Korean version of this instrument have yet to be tested. In the study, the psychometric properties of the CSQ were evaluated for use with college students. The CSQ demonstrated excellent internal consistency reliability and good test-retest reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis showed there were 3 latent factors to the CSQ. Moreover, to evaluate a predictive validity of the CSQ, a vulnerability-stress interaction of hopelessness theory was tested. In line with the hypothesis, the interaction of the CSQ with negative events significantly predicted hopelessness depression symptoms. Overall, results suggest that the CSQ is a highly reliable and valid measurement of cognitive vulnerability to hopelessness depression. The implications of the results for conceptualizing and operationalizing cognitive vulnerability are discussed.
This study used cluster analysis procedures to identify natural subgroups of 244 Korean college students in terms of their levels of ̔social interaction anxiety', ̔performance anxiety',and ̔presentation anxiety'. And then the characteristics of each subgroups were explored on the basis of the students' scores on psychological stability (negative affect, self-esteem, and stable attachment). The results revealed that three subgroups were identified. These groups were labelled: (1) low level social anxiety (2) pervasive social anxiety (3) middle level social anxiety with high presentation anxiety. Additionally, results from a MANOVA analysis revealed that each cluster showed significant differences on negative affect(η2 =.18),self-esteem(η2 =.20), and stable attachment(η2=.10). This results showed that the three subgroups have their own characteristics. The current findings suggest that in exploring social anxiety, individual differences on the levels of ̔social interaction anxiety', ̔performance anxiety', and ̔presentation anxiety' should be fully considered. The current study offers useful implications for counseling psychologists who work with the clients with social anxiety in terms of research and practice.
Many high school students in Korea report some kind of musculoskeletal pain which possibly is associated with academic stress. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of mindfulness meditation, an easily obtainable method, on the musculoskeletal pain and academic stress. The participants were 10 female high school students who were suffering with chronic musculoskeletal pain and volunteered to participate in the study. Randomly selected 5 among 10 students were assigned to a group of mindfulness meditation and the other half were assigned to waitlist-control group. The participants in the treatment group received 8 sessions (1~2 sessions per week) of mindfulness meditation training for 5 weeks during winter break. Before and after conducting the program, all participants were assessed on major dependent variables, that are pain and academic stress, and a process variable- psychological acceptance. The results showed that there was more relief in musculoskeletal pain for the mindfulness meditation group than the wait-control group, suggesting the effect of relieving pain through mindfulness meditation. However, no statistically significant difference was found on academic stress and psychological acceptance. Concerning these result, limitations and implications of this study as well as suggestions for further studies are discussed.
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of social support on the experience of meaning, the autonomous regulation of behavior and emotional well-being, using transformed the day reconstruction method(DRM; Kahneman, Krueger, Schkada, Schwarz, & Stone, 2004)for the analysis of the adolescents' specific daily life experiences. It is found that social support affects the emotional well-being in daily life of adolescents through the experience of meaning and the autonomous regulation of behavior. In this study, the process that social support affects the emotional well-being is specified by the mediating effects of the experience of meaning and the autonomous regulation of behavior. The implications of this study were discussed.
As becoming an ageing society promptly, researchers investigated how job stressors,hardiness, and self-resilience are related to stress responses of professional geriatric caregivers. The participants were 204 geriatric caregivers who were employed at a geriatric hospital, whose ages ranged from 35 to 65. The psychological tests used in this research included the following: Karasek's Job Content Questionnaire, Bartone's Hardiness Scale:Short-Form, ego resilience items from CPI, and Stress Response Inventory. Results indicated that job complexity and burden of decision latitude rather than job simplicity and lack of decision latitude were included as the factor of job stressors for geriatric caregivers. Only job complexity among the job stressor sub-variables was related to stress responses. Hardiness of caregivers was related with stress, but competence, its sub-variable, did not show this kind relationship. And, moderating effect of hardiness on job stressors and stress responses was not found. Compared with hardiness, ego-resilience accounted more variance of stress responses, it plays the role of moderator in the relation of the job stressor and stress in hierarchical regression analysis. It was discussed the role of job stressors, hardiness, and ego-resilience in stress responses with previous studies.
This study aims to investigate the relationship between life stresses, social comparison, social comparison motives, and subjective well-being of college students, and the interaction of the life stresses and social comparison on their subjective well-being. Participants were 284college students (151 males and 133 females), whose average of age was 21.56 (SD=2.59). Life stresses, negative/positive emotion, life satisfaction, subjective happiness, life satisfaction motivation, and life satisfaction expectancy were measured for this study. Results indicated that female students did more social comparison than male students. And college students did social comparison with self-evaluation motive and self-development motive rather than self-enhancement motive. Their life stresses were positively related to social comparison and social comparison motives, and negatively to the subjective well-being. And social comparison was positively related to negative emotion and life satisfaction motivation. Self-enhancement motive for social comparison was negatively related to most of subjective well-being variables, whereas self-development motive was positively related to life satisfaction expectancy as well as negative emotion. On the other hand, moderate effect of the social comparison on the relation of the life stress to life satisfaction was found. Social comparison buffered the negative effect of life stresses on life satisfaction. And social comparison showed additional accountability with adjusting life stresses for positive emotion, life satisfaction motivation, and life satisfaction expectancy. This study suggested that social comparison is a determinant for effect of life stresses on satisfaction for present life, and its roles in motivation and expectancy for future life could not be underrated for college students.
This study was attempted to investigate the reliability, factor analysis and norms of the Korean Version of Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire(KEDE-Q). The KEDE-Q was administered to 306 female college students. Construct validity was tested by an exploratory factor analysis. Internal consistency was tested by Cronbach's α . The author also tried to make T score norms of the KEDE-Q using T score 70 as a cutoff point. By a factor analysis, 4 factors were extracted. Factor 1 was ‘weight and shape concern' which consisted of 11 items and explained 26.15% of variance, factor 2 was ‘restraint' which consisted of 5 items and explained 14.04% of variance,factor 3 was ‘eating concern’ which consisted of 5 items and explained 12.02% of variance and factor 4 was ‘shape and weight related body image’ which consisted of 2 items and explained 7.27% of variance. Cronbach's internal consistency was .92 for 'weight and shape concern’, .83 for ‘restraint’, .79 for ‘eating concern’, and .88 for ‘shape and weight related body image’. T score norms as a cutoff score were 53 for ‘weight and shape concern’, 16 for ‘restraint’, 10 for ‘eating concern’, and 9 for shape and weight related body image’. These results support that the KEDE-Q is a reliable and valid tool for evaluating the patients with eating disorder and related eating problems for the various purposes. The author also demonstrates T score norms of the KEDE-Q as a cutoff score of each subscale.
This study was attempted to investigate the reliability, factor analysis and norms of the Korean Version of Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire(KEDE-Q). The KEDE-Q was administered to 306 female college students. Construct validity was tested by an exploratory factor analysis. Internal consistency was tested by Cronbach's α . The author also tried to make T score norms of the KEDE-Q using T score 70 as a cutoff point. By a factor analysis, 4 factors were extracted. Factor 1 was 'weight and shape concern' which consisted of 11 items and explained 26.15% of variance, factor 2 was 'restraint' which consisted of 5 items and explained 14.04% of variance,factor 3 was 'eating concern' which consisted of 5 items and explained 12.02% of variance and factor 4 was 'shape and weight related body image' which consisted of 2 items and explained 7.27% of variance. Cronbach's internal consistency was .92 for 'weight and shape concern', .83 for 'restraint', .79 for 'eating concern', and .88 for 'shape and weight related body image'. T score norms as a cutoff score were 53 for 'weight and shape concern', 16 for 'restraint', 10 for 'eating concern', and 9 for shape and weight related body image'. These results support that the KEDE-Q is a reliable and valid tool for evaluating the patients with eating disorder and related eating problems for the various purposes. The author also demonstrates T score norms of the KEDE-Q as a cutoff score of each subscale.
This study was conducted on college students(N=396) that have better access to the Internet compared to other age groups to examine the relationship between Internet use and social and interpersonal adaptation. For this purpose, subjects were tested for social discomfort, social problem-solving, and interpersonal relationship problems and the responses of the final 380subjects were processed through correlation analysis. In result, Internet use scores have significant static correlation with all sub-indexes of social discomfort and interpersonal relationship problems, manifesting that people with higher Internet use scores lack adaptation to social situations and have more interpersonal problems. Next, people with 20% highest Internet addiction scores and 20% lowest Internet addiction scores were divided into general Internet user group and problematic Internet user group and processed through multivariate analysis. In result, it was found that students in problematic Internet user group had higher social discomfort level, lower social problem-solving skills, and various interpersonal problems compared to students in general Internet user group. Considering the findings of this study,excess use of the Internet can cause people to experience difficulties adjusting to social and interpersonal life as they can lack social problem-solving skills. Therefore, it is necessary to provide appropriate training for social skills. Based on these findings, the limitation and future study topics of this study were also discussed.
This study was conducted on college students(N=396) that have better access to the Internet compared to other age groups to examine the relationship between Internet use and social and interpersonal adaptation. For this purpose, subjects were tested for social discomfort, social problem-solving, and interpersonal relationship problems and the responses of the final 380subjects were processed through correlation analysis. In result, Internet use scores have significant static correlation with all sub-indexes of social discomfort and interpersonal relationship problems, manifesting that people with higher Internet use scores lack adaptation to social situations and have more interpersonal problems. Next, people with 20% highest Internet addiction scores and 20% lowest Internet addiction scores were divided into general Internet user group and problematic Internet user group and processed through multivariate analysis. In result, it was found that students in problematic Internet user group had higher social discomfort level, lower social problem-solving skills, and various interpersonal problems compared to students in general Internet user group. Considering the findings of this study,excess use of the Internet can cause people to experience difficulties adjusting to social and interpersonal life as they can lack social problem-solving skills. Therefore, it is necessary to provide appropriate training for social skills. Based on these findings, the limitation and future study topics of this study were also discussed.