1. Defining media enjoyment as the satisfaction of intrinsic needs
- Author
-
Ron Tamborini, Allison Eden, Nicholas David Bowman, Matthew Grizzard, Ashley Organ, Communication Science, Network Institute, and Communication Choices, Content and Consequences (CCCC)
- Subjects
Linguistics and Language ,Conceptualization ,Communication ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Language and Linguistics ,Pleasure ,Psychological well-being ,Deci ,Well-being ,Psychology ,Video game ,Social psychology ,Competence (human resources) ,Autonomy ,media_common - Abstract
This article presents a model of enjoyment rooted in self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) that includes the satisfaction of three needs related to psychological wellbeing: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. In an experiment designed to validate this conceptualization of enjoyment, we manipulate video game characteristics related to the satisfaction of these needs and examine their relative effects on enjoyment. The validated model explains 51% of the variance in enjoyment, even without including needs usually studied in relation to enjoyment such as pleasure seeking. Results indicate the utility of defining enjoyment as need satisfaction. These results are discussed in terms of a broader conceptualization of enjoyment represented as the satisfaction of a comprehensive set of functional needs.
- Published
- 2010
- Full Text
- View/download PDF