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We could consider that the game is older than culture, since this implies the creation of a human society and, nevertheless, animals, especially mammals, have played since the beginning of their existence. The experience and observation of children of preschool ages indicate that games have a very positive impact on the development of psychomotor skills, provide information about the outside world (how things are, how they are done,.), Promote intellectual genesis and they help the discovery of the self. Therefore, it is not surprising that gambling is considered during this time as an equivalent activity. to adult work (Garvey). The game is an essential means of interaction with peers and, above all, it provokes the discovery of new feelings, sensations, emotions and desires that will be present in many moments of the life cycle. > Next: Some common characteristics of what is called game.
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A consensus has not yet been reached on defining and limiting the characteristics of the game. However, and following Garvey and Linaza, anyone dedicated to child psychology would accept the following inventory:
- The game supposes an activity and a state that can only be defined from the very subject involved in it. This feature is probably one of the most important when defining the game. This statement implies that the game is a way of interacting with reality (physical and social) that is determined by the internal factors of the person who plays, and not by those of external reality. Therefore, the intrinsic motivation of the child, adolescent or adult in question is one of the fundamental characteristics of the game.
- The game is pleasant, fun. From Freudian approaches, it is argued that the symbols that are expressed in the game have a similar function to that of adult dreams in relation to unconscious desires. This gratifying, pleasurable, and immediate desire-satisfying character in the game is also admitted by Piaget and Vygotsky. In fact, Vygotsky considers that the desire to know and to dominate the objects of the surrounding reality is what drives the play of representation.
- In the game there is a predominance of the means over the ends. In other words, we could say that in daily life most of the activities that are carried out constitute a means to achieve a certain goal, while the game is an end in itself: the playful action produces satisfaction when executing it. Gambling is a spontaneous and free activity that cannot be imposed at any time. It involves a voluntary action, freely chosen by the one who practices it.
- The game is symbolic in nature; that is, it always implies the representation of something. The relationship of the symbol to what it represents should not be considered strictly; in Lacanian terms we could say that it is rejected to attribute to a signifier a fixed relation with a signified.
- Play has certain systematic connections with what is not play. This is the most enigmatic characteristic that makes evolutionary psychologists focus part of their interest on analyzing situations and the evolution of the game. The fact that play is linked to language learning, creativity, problem solving, peer interaction, and many other cognitive, social and emotional processes makes psychological research emphasize analyzing these links.
- The game can be used as an instrument of analytical child therapy. Thus, Melanie Klein is the creator of the game technique in which the child can freely use the toys that are in the therapy room. In this situation, the analyst can access the child's unconscious fantasies through his actions with the toys. From this point of view, play can be seen as a substitute for free association; method that characterizes the analysis of the adult.
- Finally, and following very closely the sociocultural theory of Vygotsky and Elkonin, we can consider play as a basically social and emotional activity that has its origin in the spontaneous action of the child, but which is culturally oriented and directed.
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