Psychological portrait of a modern young gambler

Abstract

In this study, an attempt is made to discover the individual psychological characteristics of a modern young gambler. Gambling is considered as a pathological tendency to gambling. The study involved 40 young people aged 16 to 28, 20 boys and 20 girls, regular visitors of gaming computer clubs. 26 study participants spend more than 3 hours a day in the game. The study was conducted during the Covid-19 epidemic. The purpose of the study was to describe the portrait of a modern gambler. At the same time, we were interested in the manifestations of anxiety, aggressiveness and hostility detected by quantitative and qualitative research methods. Hostility was studied by the method of syndrome analysis. The first stage of the study was to conduct survey methods, including MMPI, the Bass-Perry questionnaire, the humorous phrases test, and the Rokich value orientation test. The second stage included methods of qualitative personality analysis. According to the MMPI questionnaire, normatively lowered personality profiles were obtained, which may be associated with an increased sense of caution and distrust. Profile increases were found on the psychasthenia scale in 26 of the examined, on the hypochondria scale in 23 of the examined, which suggests the presence of somatization of anxiety in the portrait of a gambler. Hostility as a factor of readiness for aggression positively correlates with most basic MMPI scales. A trend has been found: women are more hypochondriacal than men. The hand test results are consistent with the MMPI. According to the results of a pathopsychological examination, 22 of the examined revealed autoaggressive personality tendencies, somatization of anxiety. The maladaptivity of gamblers confirms the fear of being funny. For the averaged MMPI profiles, there are differences between gamblers and the control group on schizoidness at the trend level.This study has shown that anxiety and depression, traditionally attributed to players, can increase during Covid-19. Problematic, active players who are willing to play secretly during quarantine are probably at risk.