Social Motives

The group that I identify with the most is the “gamer” group. For many people, the gamer stereotype is a white teenage boy who drinks energy drinks, eats junk food, and is a bit of a social pariah. However, the gamer group is so much more than that. To be a gamer is to take challenges and turn them into victories. It is to be a puzzle solver, a critical thinker, and a think-on-your-feet icon. Gamers have many different favorite genres and identify with different aspects of the gamer culture (which is really another conversation entirely). However, the identification with the “gamer” group, or identity, is the major group membership that I currently hold, and one that I am proud to portray openly and zealously. However, what drives me to identify with the group? That is where social motives come in.

Social motives, according to Fiske (2014), are fundamental processes that encourage thinking, feeling, and acting in socially relevant situations. The core social motives are belonging, understanding, controlling, self-enhancing, and trusting (Fiske, 2014). Social actions, decisions with a social base or social inference, and social events all have something to do with these five core social motives. Group membership, the way individuals interact with the group, and the way groups interact with one another, all relate to some, or all, of these social motives (Fiske, 2014). For my membership in the “gamer” group, the core social motives that I can identify as most closely associated with that membership are controlling, self-enhancing, and understanding. These core motives are the most ideal social motives related to me beginning my membership with the group and maintaining membership with the group as well. Furthermore, belonging is also a motive that could have an effect on my decision to join or maintain membership in the “gamer” group.

The first core motive, belonging, is the idea that people need strong and stable social relationships in their daily life (Fiske, 2014). Having close social bonds is the only objective factor related to subjective well-being (Baumeister, 1991, p. 213, as cited in, Fiske 2014) and problems in close-relationships can predict poor health and suicide (Stansfeld, Bosma, Hemingway, & Marmot, 1998; Berkman, Glass, Brissette, & Seeman, 2000, as cited in Fiske, 2014). Belonging not only benefits the individual, but the group as well. Cooperation among group members can lead to coordination and effective operation within the group setting (Levine & Kerr, 2007). According to Fiske (2014) however, the main point about the motive of belonging is that it helps people survive psychologically and physically. For the gamer group, cooperation among players is a cornerstone of the community. Helping out with achievements and challenges, building a social support system (otherwise known as guilds or clans in gamer lingo), and providing assistance in day to day functioning are all different aspects of the “gamer” group that function as part of the motive of belonging.

Second is the motive of controlling. Control is simple enough as it pretty much means to have control over something (or at least a façade of control). Essentially, it is the ability to be competent and knowledgeable about a situation and thus exert some sort of control over its outcome (Fiske, Gilbert, & Lindzey, 2010). In the gamer group, control is necessary in many ways. For instance, joining a gamer group for control can simply mean you seek to exert control over your own social interactions in online gameplay by playing with a group, or it could be that you seek to exert control (via competence and knowledge) over the games you face challenges in. According to Fiske (2014), the control motive encourages feelings of competence and effectiveness in dealing with social environments, and that feeling of control can be found in the gaming group structure, hierarchy, or play styles.

Next is self-enhancement, which relates to the other motives in nuanced ways but is a motive on its own according to Fiske (2014). Self-enhancement involves maintaining self-esteem or gaining greater motivation by the possibility of improvement (Fiske, Gilbert, & Lindzey, 2010). Self-enhancement within the gamer context can be anything from getting better at speaking up in social situations (such as online chat rooms for example), getting better at the games you play to gain self-esteem through competence, or even through making the group better (e.g., making sure the gamer “clan” is represented in competitive circles or on the leaderboards). Fiske (2014) states that self-enhancement is the blanket term that includes self-improvement and self-esteem, and can be present in both and individualistic sense and a collectivist sense.

Finally, understanding focuses on an individual or group being able to understand their environment to better predict the outcomes of unforeseen events and circumstances within their environment (Fiske, 2014). Furthermore, according to Fiske (2014), the social motive of understanding fits with creating a shared understanding between group members as well. Part of being in a group is sharing general theories about the world (including social situations and events) and thus individuals within groups seek to share their understanding with other members (Fiske, 2014). For the gamer group, understanding comes in many forms. Gamers have a cultural lingo that creates a shared understanding. For instance, AFK means “Away From Keyboard” and with the invention of console like Xbox, it came to mean simply away from the controls. Another example is the word noob, which denotes a newbie or someone who plays and acts like a newbie. The adoption of this lingo is a form of creating understanding within the community to share large sums of information in short periods of time and to create greater understanding between members of the group who are often hundreds or thousands of miles away.

To conclude, what does the “gamer” group identification mean for my life satisfaction? Honestly, I don’t think I would enjoy life as much without being a part of that group. I was very shy in high school and I was invited to join a clan called L.H.R. (which stands for Loyalty, Honor, Respect). The group was founded by former military gamers and utilized military structure to create a social hierarchy consisting of the military ranks (Private, PFC, Corporal, SGT, SSGT, SFC, SGM, 2nd LT, 1st LT, CPT, MAJ, LTC, COL). I rose my way up through these ranks to become a Major (MAJ) within the clan and this gave me responsibility over recruiting new members, giving member promotions within my companies (each major had three companies) and many other duties. This created my sense of social support and identification with the gamer group by strengthening my communication skills (in and out of the games), my organization, time management, social interactions, and many others. Membership with the “gamer” group is a core pillar of who I am and I think my life satisfaction is related strongly to that fact, since I see being a gamer as someone who can appreciate art, music, literature, acting and so much more through a lens that most people don’t get to see.

References

Fiske, S. T. (2014). Social beings: core motives in social psychology (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Fiske, S. T., Gilbert, D. T., & Lindzey, G. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of social psychology (5th ed., Vol. 2). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Stansfeld, S. A., Bosma, H., Hemingway, H., & Marmot, M. G. (1998). Psychosocial Work Characteristics and Social Support as Predictors of SF-36 Health Functioning. Psychosomatic Medicine, 60(3), 247–255. doi:10.1097/00006842-199805000-00004