620  Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, May 2020, Vol. 11, No.

05

The Relationship between Gaming Addiction, Aggressive

Behaviour and Narcissistic Personality Traits among
University Students in Malaysia

Chan Jun Heng1, Mohtaram Rabbani2

1
Student, 2Lecturer, Head of Programme, UCSI University, 1, Jalan Puncak Menara Gading,
Taman Connaught, 56000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract
The impact of gaming addiction to all the university students in Malaysia have been concerned by the
public as it can cause a lot of problem especially on violence behaviour and the development of narcissistic
personality traits. This research aimed to examine the relationship between gaming addiction, aggressive
behaviour and narcissistic personality traits among university students in Malaysia among university
students in Malaysia. The target sample will be 100 university students between 18 to 30 years old from
universities in Malaysia. The survey will include three instruments which are Internet Gaming Disorder Test
questionnaire, Aggression Questionnaire and Narcissistic Personality Inventory. The result of data analysis
showed that gaming addiction and aggressive behaviour have significantly positive correlation but there is
no relationship found between gaming addiction and narcissistic personality traits. The implication of this
research is gaming addiction might cause gamer that are addicted to possess aggressive behaviour.

Keywords:  Aggressive behaviour, gaming addiction, narcissistic personality traits, university students.

Introduction because a lot of the people doesn’t have a clue on what

behaviour should be considered as addictive to video
The definition of aggressive behaviour is behaviour
game. But according to American Medical Association
that can cause emotional and physical harm to others
definition of video game addiction in the year of 2007,
people. It can range from physical to verbal abuse1.
they suggested that playing for more than two hours per
Meanwhile, Narcissistic personality traits is the
day is considered to have gaming addiction or heavy
characteristics of people that have excessive self-love2.
game usage4.
Some of us have Narcissistic personality traits but it
doesn’t mean we have Narcissistic Personality Disorder Gaming addiction has another name known as
(NPD) which is a mental disorder3. So, gaming addiction Internet Gaming Disorder and it is a “Condition for
is always a very controversial thing among all of us Further Study” in the DSM-55. This means that it is not
an “official” disorder in the DSM, but one on which the
American Psychology Association request additional
research in the year of 2013. In conclusion the full
Corresponding Author: criteria of diagnostic for Internet Gaming Addiction
Mohtaram Rabbani including strong urges and obsession on playing online
Lecturer, Head of Programme, UCSI University, 1, games, withdrawal symptoms appeared when the gamer
Jalan Puncak Menara Gading, Taman Connaught, didn’t play the game, spent more and more time on
56000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia online gaming the gamer try to stop themselves from
Tel: +60(3)91018880 playing but in the end fail miserably the gamer has lost
Fax: +60(3)91022614 their interest on other hobbies or life activates the game
e-mail: [email protected] know there is bad consequences of spending too many
 Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, May 2020, Vol. 11, No. 05  621
hours on gaming but still continue to do so the gamer on whether online gaming positively or negatively
tell lies to their friend and family about the time they impact this three aspects, time management, social
spent on playing online game the gamer uses online life and emotion11. But, this study didn’t try to find
gaming to reduce the anxiety and feeling of guilty the out the effect of addiction of gaming will causes the
gamer has risk or lost a friend or relationships because undergraduate students to have aggressive behaviour
of annoying his or her friend to play online game with and narcissistic behaviour or not which is a research
them. Although currently gaming addiction is still not gap. So the deficiencies of this research and knowledge
an official disorder that can be included to the mighty will be improved parents will also have benefited from
DSM-5 the APA has always spent their time encouraging this research because it can help them to decide whether
more research to conduct on this matter. The present or not they need to control the time their children play
study wants to test the relation between the independent online game. The gamer will also have benefited from
variable which is gaming addiction and does it have any this research because it can help them to decide whether
correlation with aggressive behaviours and narcissistic they want to continue play game or not if the positive
personality traits among university students in Malaysia correlation between gaming addiction, aggressive
that spent more than 2 hours in playing online game behavior and narcissistic personality traits is proven.
either alone or with their friends since this criterion
is set by American Medical Association. By the way, Methodology
another famous American psychiatrist Michael Brody The data collection of this research can be separate
have set his definition of online gaming addiction as two into two parts. The first part of the research is to find
condition the first condition is the person will need more around 100 participants that have gaming addiction. In
and more of time in gaming to keep him going. The order to do that IGD-20 Test which stands for Internet
second condition is if the person couldn’t play more, he Gaming Disorder Test questionnaire will be distribute to
will become irritable and felt miserable on his life6. all the potential people that have gaming addiction such
Based on a research in Malaysia, it is confirmed as those people that are playing game in cyber centre near
that a lot of people spending their time for entertainment UCSI University and other places cyber centre because
purpose such as playing online game7. This study will all of this people are highly suspect to have gaming
focus on undergraduate university students or college addiction compares to other people. The link of google
students because they are the generation who have form for IGD-20 Test have also been posted to all the
grown with the technology and Internet access, a lot of online gaming Facebook group in Malaysia to search for
them have the highest potential to become heavy virtual potential gaming addicted university students. After the
world users. According to a study in the year of 2005 calculation and screening of the participants that have
the ages between 18-30 are more likely than older users completed the IGD-20 Test is done, participants that
such as those users that are over age 30 to play online have obtained the scored of 71 or above in the IGD-20
games8. Test is selected as the sample of this research since they
have fulfilled the criteria of addicted gamer because the
Literature Review: The research problem of this cut-off point of this test is 71.
study is to find out whether there are any relationships
between gaming addiction and aggressive behaviour, Participants that are addicted gamer will have
narcissistic personality traits among university student received the google form of Aggression questionnaire
in Malaysia. According to past studies and research and Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) which
journal articles that most of the research focus on commenced the second part of the research. Aggression
internet addiction or social media addiction instead of questionnaire is used to assess whether the participants
gaming addiction. One of the research is about what have aggressive behaviour. There is no cut-off point for
would be the possible causes and effects of internet this questionnaire so the higher the total score of the
addiction that are published online on the year of 20139. participants the greater the severity of the aggression
The research for how social media addiction influence he or she possess. Meanwhile the test for narcissistic
in Malaysia has also been done by faculty of business personality traits will be using Narcissistic Personality
and law of Multimedia University10. Malaysia do have Inventory (NPI). The cut-off point of this test is 25.
research study about the impact of online gaming on Although based on previous study male are more
undergraduate students. This study mainly focuses susceptible to gaming addiction compared to female
622  Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, May 2020, Vol. 11, No. 05
gamer (12-14) but this research is participated by both divinity.
gender instead of just male participant.
Table 3. Using Internet
Results
Variable n P
Table 1. Age and Gender Profiles of the Participants ≤ 5 hours 3 2.7

Variable n % 6-10 hours 64 58.2

Gender 11-14 hours 23 20.9

Male 100 91 15≤ hours 20 18.2

Female 10 9 Mean 10.54

Age SD 4.64

18-20 13 11.8 For the hours in using internet based on TABLE

20-25 66 59.9 3, most of the participants spent 5 till 10 hours online
25-28 31 28.2 because the percentage is 58.2%. More than half of
Mean 23.34 the participants would spent around 10 hours in using
internet because the mean is 10.54 and the Standard
SD 3.50
Deviation is 4.64.
After data analysis have been conducted using SPSS
Table 4. Correlation between Gaming Addiction
for the demographic information the demographics
and Aggressive Behaviour
results in TABLE 1 show that most of the participants
are males which is 91%. More than half of them are in Variable r P
their young adult period because the Mean of the data is
Gaming Addiction 1 0.00
23.34 while Standard Deviation is 3.50. Participants that
have gaming addiction are around the age of 20 till 25 Aggressive Behaviour 0.39 0.00

because this age ranges have the most percentage in the **p<0.01
data collected which is 59.9 percent.
Table 5. Correlation between Gaming Addiction
Table 2. Number of Students in Each Faculty and Narcissistic Personality Traits

Faculty n P Variable r P
Faculty of Business and Information Gaming Addiction 1 0.00
36 32.1
Science
Narcissistic Personality Traits -0.02 0.82
Faculty of Science 3 2.7
**p<0.01
Faculty of Social Science and Liberal Arts 14 12.1
Faculty of Engineering and Technology 24 20.9 The relationship between gaming addiction and
Faculty of Computer and Information
aggressive behaviour, narcissistic personality traits
16 13.8 was explored by using the Pearson’s product moment
Technology
Faculty of Creative Arts and Design 3 2.6
correlation. The result in TABLE 4 show that gaming
addiction (r=1, p<0.01) and aggressive behaviour (r=.39,
Faculty of Hospitality 2 1.7
p<0.01) were significantly associated. As opposed to the
Faculty of Medicine and Health Science 6 5.2 hypothesis the correlation coefficient showed that there
Faculty of Divinity 1 0.9 was positive weak correlation between gaming addiction
Faculty of Architecture and Surveying 3 2.7 and aggressive behaviour. This also mean that gaming
addiction promoted gamer toward aggressive behaviour.
For the numbers of participants in faculty based on However, Table 5 shows that there is no significant
TABLE 2, most of the participants are from the faculty relationship between gaming addiction and narcissistic
of Business and Information Science which consists of personality traits. This is most probably due to the fact
32.1 percent of participants. The lowest participant’s that gamer that participate in this research are from
percentage is 0.9 which come from the faculty of Malaysia which is a country that are more collectivistic
 Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, May 2020, Vol. 11, No. 05  623
oriented compared to those western countries such as personality traits so that everyone can gain a better
United States of America. understanding in this area of knowledge. By the way,
we need to advice our friends and any relatives that
Conclusions, Implications and have narcissistic personality traits to seek help from
Recommendation professional psychologist or counsellor to prevent them
The conclusion for this research study is online developed into narcissistic personality disorder which
game such as Massively Multiplayer Online Role is one of the mental illness that have the symptoms
Playing Game are more competitive and include a lot of of abnormal behaviour that are characterized by the
aggressive stuff because a lot of online games involved exaggerated feelings of excessive need for admiration,
violent content such as Dota 2, Righteous Army, Counter self-importance, and lack of empathy towards those
Strike series, Left 4 Dead and Dead By Daylight where people that are in trouble with their life16.
the player that take on the killer role need to find and Conflict of Interest: The authors certify there is no
sacrifice all the survivors to the sacrificial hooks so they conflict of interest for this manscript.
can win the game10. Game that are violence in nature can
seriously causes aggressive behaviour of the player that Source of Funding: This research is funded by
are addicted to the game itself. Based on the demographic UCSI University.
information, most of the participants are males because
Ethical Clearance: The ethical considerations for
they are 91% of male game addict compared to female
this paper cleared and all inform consent collected from
that only have 9 percent. This result is congruent with
respondents.
the findings of an ethnographic and grounded theory
research which concluded that men are more likely than
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