Original Article

Internet Addiction and Personality

in First-Person-Shooter
Video Gamers
Christian Montag,1 Matthias Flierl,2 Sebastian Markett,1 Nora Walter,1
Magdalena Jurkiewicz,3 and Martin Reuter1
1

Center for Economics and Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Bonn,
Germany, 2Department of Economics, University of Erlangen-Nrnberg, Erlangen, Germany, 3Medical
Scientist Training Program, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York, USA
Abstract. The present study investigated the inuence on Internet addiction of numerous variables ranging from personality to psychological
and physical well-being, in a large and highly ecologically valid sample of mainly male adolescent online computer gamers (rst-person-shooter
video gamers) in Germany. Low Self-Directedness could be linked to a high Internet Addiction Test score in the present study, and the data
yielded a continuum model indicating that low Self-Directedness is highly correlated with Internet Addiction Score, not only in students but also
in rst-person-shooter video gamers.
Keywords: rst-person-shooter video games, Internet addiction, personality, self-directedness

Introduction
Worldwide, millions of adolescents make use of the Internet
each day to play online games. Their online activities are a
matter of signicant public debate, due to the potentially
addictive character and highly violent content of certain
games.
The so-called rst-person-shooter video games portray
scenarios in which the participant, acting from a rst-person
perspective, plays a character that runs through maze-like
scenes with a weapon in hand. Typically, the game scenarios
require the participant to achieve strategic war objectives,
such as defending a certain building. Until now, these games
have been mainly investigated in the context of aggression
research, because higher levels of aggressive behavior have
been observed after exposure to violent computer games
(Anderson, 2004; Bushman & Huesmann, 2006).
Action video games are also interesting in the context of
pathological Internet use because more and more rst-person-shooter video game users spend many hours playing these
games in virtual teams via the Internet. In general, both the rising frequency of online gaming and the overwhelming
amount of time spent online by many computer gamers have
given rise to discussions surrounding a phenomenon called
Internet addiction (Young, 1998). Excessive computer gaming has been observed to be associated with addiction-like
symptoms including tolerance development and withdrawal
symptoms experienced when trying to quit or reduce the
2011 Hogrefe Publishing

amount of gaming (Beard & Wolf, 2001). Internet addiction

is a growing problem worldwide; a thorough literature review
suggests that Internet addicts represent between 0.3% and
10.6% of the general population, depending on the culture/
country (Shaw & Black, 2008). Currently, it is unclear
whether excessive Internet use qualies as an addiction, or
whether it should be better regarded as an impulsive control
disorder, although recent developments in DSM-V suggest
a behavioral addiction (Holden, 2010). However, no matter
how problematic Internet use is classied, it carries psychological, social, and monetary repercussions for those aficted.
A theoretical framework that provides a detailed model
of the pathogenesis of problematic Internet use is of great
importance toward a better understanding of Internet addiction. Such a prominent cognitive-behavioral model of pathological Internet use was introduced by Davis (2001),
stressing the cognitive rather than the affective side of Internet addiction, in contrast to many other studies in the eld.
Davis (2001) does not solely focus on the negative outcomes of Internet addiction (the symptoms), but pays attention to cognitive dysfunctions as a potential causal factor
involved in the etiology of Internet addiction. In particular,
the model suggests that cognitive dysfunctions lead to both
specic and generalized pathological Internet use. The specic domain of pathological Internet use describes the
excessive use of particular Internet content such as online
pornography or online auctions, pointing to addiction-like
activities which would also be present without the existence
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DOI: 10.1027/1864-1105/a000049

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C. Montag et al.: Internet Addiction and Personality

of the Internet. Generalized pathological Internet use

includes online activities that are more associated with the
fullment of social needs, such that the aficted online user
often spends signicant time on undirected online activities
such as hanging out in newsgroups or chatrooms. Overall, generalized Internet addiction seems to reect an
umbrella concept, posing a problem for researchers, as it
is unclear whether various online activities are best characterized by generalized or specialized Internet use. This question will become increasingly complex given the abundance
and variety of online activities including social networks,
online games, etc.
What is the most appropriate manner of characterizing
rst-person-shooter video gaming via the Internet? Although
it might seem obvious that this online activity belongs to the
category of specialized pathological Internet use, we are
careful with this assumption. On the one hand, it is true that
rst-person-shooter video games can be played ofine and
as a consequence would also be played without the existence of the Internet. This argumentation, along with the
focus on one particular online activity, is very much in line
with the idea of the specic pathological Internet use introduced by Davis (2001). However, one should keep in mind
that the online version of a rst-person-shooter video game
is of a completely different nature when compared with a
traditional ofine rst-person-shooter video game, because
of its multiplayer online modus. Here, participants play in
virtual teams and can communicate not only via keyboards,
but also via headsets (hence direct vocal communication).
Because of this, the addictive nature of such an online
rst-person-shooter video game might be much stronger
than that of its ofine counterpart. Moreover, Davis
(2001) suggested that social isolation could represent a
vulnerability factor for generalized pathological Internet
use, and we are of the opinion that this perceived isolation
could be overcome at least for the period of the online activity during virtual team play in rst-person-shooter video
games. In light of this observation, it is likely that rst-person-shooter video gamers use different social activity channels, targeting both specialized and generalized Internet use.
In sum, social isolation could exert its effect on both specialized and generalized pathological Internet use, resulting in
an increase in both factors in rst-person-shooter video gamers. Therefore, while rst-person-shooter video gaming
still seems to be best characterized as a specialized online
activity, the motivation to play this kind of multiplayer
online game could also target generalized pathological Internet use. The notion that the need for social interaction represents an important motivation for online rst-personshooter video gaming has found empirical support in a study
by Jansz and Tanis (2007). Considering the reported literature, we think that much more work on the conceptualization of generalized and specialized Internet addiction has
to be done. For the present study, we decided to follow
the argumentation that excessive use of massive player
online games can be measured in parts with a questionnaire
for generalized Internet addiction, although this approach
certainly has its weaknesses.
Davis (2001) also stresses the importance of individual
differences in psychopathological preconditions in the
Journal of Media Psychology 2011; Vol. 23(4):163173

genesis of Internet addiction. Support for this idea came

from Caplan (2005) who demonstrated that individual
differences in social control skills are good predictors of
online social interactions: Persons who feel comfortable
and act successfully in social groups have signicantly
lower preferences for social interactions on the Internet,
resulting in lower amounts of problematic Internet use. This
study shows that traits linked to successful social interactions and social control skills are an important target in
the investigation of Internet addiction.
Therefore, it is not surprising that personality psychology has already led to interesting insights into the personality of excessive online gamers and Internet users, through
investigation of the hypothesis of the rst-person-shooter
use/Internet addiction link.
Excessive Internet users have been characterized by
low self-esteem (Niemz, Grifths, & Banyard, 2005), shyness (Chak & Leung, 2004), Neuroticism (Cao & Su,
2007; Hardie & Tee, 2007), and social phobia (Yen et al.,
2008). In our own work (Montag, Jurkiewicz, & Reuter,
2010), we demonstrated the importance of the character
dimension of Self-Directedness from the Temperament and
Character Inventory (TCI; Cloninger, Svrakic, & Przybeck,
1993). Low scores on Self-Directedness reect problems in
coping with demands of everyday life. High Self-Directedness refers to persons who are characterized by high selfesteem and who are satised with their own personalities.
In addition, such persons organize their lives very well,
are reliable, and are able to cope with problems in daily life
as mature and strong persons (Kose, 2003). In our study,
Self-Directedness showed a strong inverse correlation with
scores on the Internet Addiction Test (IAT; Widyanto &
McMurran, 2004; Young, 1998) in a sample of students
and participants from the general population.
A recent study by Mehroof and Grifths (2010) specically investigated a sample of online gamers in the context
of personality traits. By means of multiple linear regression
analysis, this study showed that among other factors, Neuroticism and aggression are associated with online addiction.
Grusser, Thalemann and Grifths (2007) pointed out earlier
that the link between aggression and excessive online gaming is rather weak. A seminal study by Caplan, Williams,
and Yee (2009) extended the personality literature on Internet addiction by investigating the effect of psychological
well-being aside from traits such as Introversion, on pathological Internet use in multiplayer online gamers of the fantasy role-playing game EverQuest 2. The authors provided
evidence that psychological well-being, operationalized by
several items such as asking to be alone or depression/anxiety diagnosis, was a negative predictor of Internet addiction.
However, the best predictors in the model by Caplan et al.
(2009) were items directly related to Internet addiction, such
as the number of hours spent on the Internet for leisure
activities. Another study by Peters and Malesky (2008)
investigated pathological Internet use in players of the fantasy video game World of Warcraft. They were able to link
problematic use of this multiplayer online game in particular
to high Neuroticism and low Agreeableness scores.
A last but very important aspect represents the motivational issue in the context of online gaming and Internet
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C. Montag et al.: Internet Addiction and Personality

addiction. A study from Taiwan by Wan and Chiou (2006)

demonstrated that ow experience is not an important motivational factor for playing online games. It appeared that
playing online games to overcome dissatisfaction in real life
was of importance. We have already discussed the crucial
issue of social isolation and the need for social interactions
in the context of specialized and generalized pathological
Internet use earlier in this manuscript (Davis, 2001; Jansz
& Tanis, 2007).
Many empirical studies in the present area of research
harbor problems of small sample size and a lack of ecological validity with respect to the sample used, as the student
populations investigated often do not engage in excessive
gaming. In the meantime, several of the above-mentioned
seminal studies (i.e., Caplan et al., 2009; or Peters &
Malesky, 2008) have overcome these issues by investigating
large samples of multiplayer online gamers who engage in
online fantasy role playing. In this context, the establishment
of a potential link between online rst-person-shooter video
gaming and Internet addiction represents a new and interesting eld, because this type of gamer also spends signicant
leisure time on online gaming.
The aim of the present study was to replicate a model
recently established by our own work group (Montag
et al., 2010) showing that the character dimension of SelfDirectedness is associated with Internet addiction in a mixed
sample consisting of participants from both a student and a
general population. Moreover, in this pilot study, SelfDirectedness emerged to explain more of the variance in
Internet addiction than did Neuroticism. In light of the study
by Caplan et al. (2009), which also included variables
assessing psychological well-being (in addition to personality), we also administered items assessing life satisfaction,
and psychological and physical well-being. As studies by
Mehroof and Grifths (2010) linked aggression to Internet
addiction, and aggression has been shown to be triggered
by rst-person-shooter video gaming (e.g., Anderson &
Bushman, 2001), we measured individual differences in
the trait Anger via self-report, as well. In sum, we investigated the link between personality, psychological and physical well-being, and Internet addiction in a sample of high
ecological validity namely online rst-person-shooter
video game players. Our main hypothesis was derived from
our own pilot work, predicting a negative correlation
between high Self-Directedness and low Internet addiction,
helping to establish a continuum model of personality and
Internet addiction in both normal and heavy users of
the Internet. Furthermore, we hypothesized a positive correlation between trait Anger and Internet addiction (cf.
Mehroof & Grifths, 2010). Due to the large amount of
literature in the eld dealing with personality/psychological
well-being linked to problematic Internet use, we are aware
of the fact that many variables inuence Internet addiction.
Given the data from our previous study showing the importance of Self-Directedness for Internet addiction, we decided
to conduct a stepwise hierarchical regression analysis by
inserting a number of variables including personality and
1

165

psychological well-being in separate blocks before entering

Self-Directedness in the nal last step. We hypothesized that
Self-Directedness will be responsible for a leap in the
explained variance of Internet addiction; even after all other
factors have been considered in the hierarchical regression
analysis. The exact procedure of the stepwise hierarchical
regression analysis is explained in detail in the Statistical
Procedures section of Methods.

Methods
Participants
The sample consisted of 592 males and 18 females with a
mean age of 19.32 (SD = 4.40). Thirty-three percent of
the participants were high school students, 27.5% had
earned a secondary school leaving certicate, 7.2% held a
high school diploma which qualied them for attendance
at a university of applied sciences, 17% held a university
entrance diploma, and 4.8% had successfully absolved an
apprenticeship. The remaining 10.5% stated other when
reporting education. The participants were segregated
according to smoking status, with 190 smokers, 30 former
smokers, and 390 nonsmokers. The mean body mass index
(BMI) of the participants was 23.33 (SD = 5.41). Of these
online gamers, 82.2% reported preferring rst-person-shooter games (Counterstrike preferred by 65.2%, Call of Duty 4
by 13.8%, Left 4 Dead by 1.6%, and Quake Live by 1.6%)
over other types of games. The remaining 17.8% reported
playing World of Warcraft (0.5%), Warcraft 3 (2.8%), FIFA
(2.6%), and others. Interviews with groups of professional
online gamers at a European Electronic Sports League
(ESL) tournament in Bruhl, Germany, revealed that it is also
very important to divide the group of gamers into single/
team players due to the social aspect of online gaming.
Accordingly, 549 participants (90%) reported playing regularly as a team player, and only 61 participants (10%)
reported playing regularly as a single player. Unfortunately,
we did not specically assess whether the participants meet
in person or play in virtual teams. It is very likely though
that team playing refers to virtual teams in this setting.
Participants for this study were recruited via the ESL1
website (http://www.esl.eu), which represents the largest
community website for competitive online gamers in Europe. The company behind the ESL, Turtle Entertainment
GmbH, helped us by placing a prominent link to our online
questionnaire (see also the Acknowledgements and Conicts of Interest sections). As an incentive to participate,
30 packages for a 1-month membership including special
offers for http://www.esl.eu were rafed. The data were collected across the time course of 5 days. In total, 1,202 participants followed the link on http://www.esl.eu to our
questionnaire. Participants agreed to take part in the study
upon passing the Welcome webpage. As it took about
45 min to complete all questionnaires, the study experienced

Electronic sports refers to social and competitive gaming in a sport-like setting.

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C. Montag et al.: Internet Addiction and Personality

a dropout rate of 49.25%. Only fully completed questionnaire sets were used for this study. As the ESL represents
the most important electronic sports website in Germany,
with nearly 2.5 million registered users, the collected sample
is of high ecological validity in the context of Internet addiction research and rst-person-shooter gaming. This fact is
impressively corroborated by comparing the mean time
spent online gaming each week in the current sample
(M = 20.29 hr) with that of a survey (JIM, 2008) for male
adolescents in Germany (M = 3.57 hr). The present study
was approved by the Ethics Committee of the German Psychologists Association (Bonn).

Questionnaires
We administered the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI;
Costa & McCrae, 1992; German translation by Borkenau &
Ostendorf, 1993) measuring Extraversion, Neuroticism,
Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness. Furthermore, the participants completed the character
dimensions of Cooperativeness and Self-Directedness from
the TCI (Cloninger et al., 1993; German translation by Richter et al., 1999). Self-Directedness was used in this study as
it turned out to be an important predictor of Internet addiction in our own pilot study consisting of students and participants from the German population (Montag et al., 2010).
Cooperativeness was assessed, as several gaming experts
state that online gaming possesses a strong team sport character. To measure the degree of Internet addiction, participants completed the IAT (Widyanto & McMurran, 2004;
Young, 1998; German translation by our own workgroup,
see for psychometric properties Montag et al., 2010). This
questionnaire consists of 20 items (item scores: 1 = rarely
to 5 = always). A sum score between 20 and 39 points represents the average user. A score between 40 and 69 points
suggests occasional problems in daily life due to the amount
of Internet use. Scores above 69 indicate severe problems in
daily life due to excessive Internet use. Furthermore, we
inquired about the number of hours spent online for computer gaming each week. At this point, we would like to
explain why we chose a general measure of Internet addiction and not a specic one targeting only online gaming
addiction, as proposed by Salguero and Moran (2002) or
Lemmens, Valkenburg, and Peter (2009). In the Introduction, we outlined that (a) the need for social interaction represents an important motivation for online gaming (Jansz &
Tanis, 2007) and (b) the herewith linked social isolation is
also associated with generalized pathological Internet use
(Davis, 2001). Considering this motivational approach,
rst-person-shooter video game players very likely show
elevated Internet addiction scores with respect to both specialized and generalized pathological Internet use. Therefore, it should be possible to assess elevated Internet
addiction levels with either specialized or generalized Internet addiction questionnaires in rst-person-shooter video gamers, although specialized questionnaires might yield even
higher Internet addiction scores. Since the main focus of

Journal of Media Psychology 2011; Vol. 23(4):163173

the present study was to replicate the ndings from our pilot
study investigating the link between Internet addiction and
Self-Directedness in order to nd evidence for a continuum
model between normal and excessive use of the Internet, we were required to use the same measure that was
administered in the pilot study, and so we focused on the
measure by Young (1998).
With respect to the current debate regarding potential
links between aggression and rst-person-shooter gaming
(Montag et al., 2012) and aggression and Internet addiction
(see Introduction), we also inquired about the type of computer games typically played by the participant. We assessed
aggression with the Anger scale of the Affective Neuroscience Personality Questionnaire (ANPS; Davis et al.,
2003). This scale has already been biologically validated,
showing that participants scoring high on Anger tend to
have smaller gray matter volumes of the left amygdala (Reuter et al., 2009).
To investigate a possible association between Internet
addiction and psychological well-being, we also employed
single items taken from the German Sociodemographic Economic Panel to ascertain Life Satisfaction, Impulsivity, Risk,
Trust, psychological and physical well-being (010), frequency of sport activities (regularly/occasionally/never),
smoking status/number of cigarettes smoked per day, and
frequency of alcohol consumption (divided into beer, wine,
shots, or mixed alcoholic drinks, reported via the options of
never/rarely/occasionally/regularly). Variables such as
BMI, drinking, and smoking behaviors are of interest in
identifying comorbidities of Internet addiction and are therefore included in the present study (although they do not represent a main focus). In the context of items measuring both
psychological and physical well-being, participants were
asked with several one-shot items how often (within the past
4 weeks) they had felt depressed, rushed, balanced, full of
energy, or an experience of bodily pain. As supplementary
items, we asked how often participants had achieved less
than they had initially wanted to achieve in the past 4 weeks,
due to physical/emotional problems. To be able to control
for TV consumption with respect to the anger/computergaming link, we ascertained the number of hours spent
watching TV each week. Moreover, in light of the aggressionrst-person-shooter game debate, we utilized four
items to ascertain how much participants liked horror and
action movies (010) and the number of hours spent viewing such movies.

Statistical Procedures
As a rst step, Pearsons correlations were used to identify
signicant associations between the IAT score and a range
of metric factors including personality dimensions, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being. In cases of categorical predictors for IAT scores (e.g., smoking status or
gender), ANOVA was calculated. This rst part of the study
had an exploratory nature, with the aim of potentially generating new variables associated with Internet addiction. In the

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C. Montag et al.: Internet Addiction and Personality

context of our previous work emphasizing the importance of

Self-Directedness for Internet addiction, in the second part
of the Results section we built a stepwise hierarchical regression model by inserting psychological/physiological ailments in the last 4 weeks as a rst block, media
consumptionrelated variables as a second step, all personality measures without Self-Directedness as a third block,
and Self-Directedness as a last variable in the fourth block.
The rationale for this procedure was as follows: Physical or
bodily ailments in the last 4 weeks could have the strongest
effect on Internet addiction as they impose physical limitations on the contemporary life of participants, and therefore
they are placed in the rst block. Numerous studies showed
associations between variables such as hours spent on online
gaming and Internet addiction; therefore, these variables
were inserted into the next block. To emphasize the importance of Self-Directedness in the prediction of Internet
addiction, we included all personality measures (of course,
without Self-Directedness) as a third block. Self-Directedness was entered as a stand-alone variable in the fourth
and nal block of the model; this variable would be added
to the nal model only if it could explain an incremental part
of the variance that could not be explained by the model
containing the previous three blocks.

Results
Description of the Sample in Terms
of the IAT Score and Time Spent Online
for Computer Gaming
The online gamers of the present study spent a mean =
20.29 hr (SD = 16.38) each week online. The mean IAT
score was 38.64 (SD = 11.91). Upon a closer examination
of the distribution of the IAT scores, 60.5% of the sample
can be described as average users according the IAT
(2039 points), 37.9% fall in the range of persons with occasional problems in daily life due to Internet use (4069
points), and 1.6% reported severe problems (> 69 points).

Personality, Sociodemographic Variables,

Smoking, Alcohol Consumption, BMI,
Psychological Well-Being, and IAT
We rst examined correlations between IAT scores and the
NEO-FFI scales, the TCI scales of Cooperativeness and
Self-Directedness, the ANPS scales Anger and Lying, as
well as the single items of Impulsivity, Trust, Risk, and Life
Satisfaction. In addition, we investigated the potential association between the IAT score and time spent online gaming,
afnity toward horror/action movies, hours spent viewing
each type of movie (horror and action), and the total amount
of hours spent viewing TV each week. Scales with signicant correlations are shown in Table 1. As an important
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167

metric sociodemographic variable, age was correlated with

the IAT score. With respect to a possible comorbidity of substance- and non-substance-dependent addictions, correlations between the frequency of drinking beer, wine, or
mixed alcoholic drinks and the IAT score were calculated.
ANOVAs showed no inuence of participants sex or education on the IAT score.
In addition, an ANOVA model showed that smoking
was not associated with the IAT score, F(2, 607) = 0.09,
p = .91. The same was true for single or team-player status,
F(1, 608) = 1.05, p = .31, and living in Western or Eastern
Germany, F(1, 606) = 1.75, p = .19. A further ANOVA
model revealed that participants who seldom engaged in
sports activities had higher IAT scores, F(2, 607) = 4.42,
p = .01. With respect to BMI, three categories were
constructed (assuming that the relation between BMI and
IAT is best described as a curvilinear function) with low
(< 20), middle (2025), and high (> 25) BMI. An ANOVA
model showed that BMI had no inuence on the IAT score.
Following our a priori hypothesis that Self-Directedness
will be of particular importance for Internet addiction, after
having considered psychological/physiological ailments in
the past 4 weeks of the participants lives, media consumptionrelated variables, and all other personality dimensions,
we conducted a stepwise hierarchical regression model as
outlined in the Statistical Procedures section. As can be
seen in Table 2, the inclusion of Self-Directedness in the
fourth block of the stepwise hierarchical regression model
gives a model (model 7) explaining most of the variance in
Internet addiction, F(7, 581) = 30.91, p < .001. The incremental gain in the amount of explained variance from
model 6 to 7 is 5%. This very conservative approach
underlines the relevance of Self-Directedness for Internet
addiction. The strongest leap in explained variance can
be seen in model 4, F(4, 584) = 28.59, p < .001, where
Conscientiousness is able to explain an increment of
10% in the variance compared with model 3. Moreover,
we would like to point out that the role of Self-Directedness is greater than suggested by the 5% increase in the
explained variance, because Self-Directedness seems to
encompass signicant parts of the variance explained by
Neuroticism, because the predictive role of Neuroticism
in model 7 breaks down after Self-Directedness is inserted
into the model.

Comparison of the Mean IAT Score

of the Male Sample from Montag et al.
(2010) and the Present First-Person-Shooter
Video Gamers
With respect to differences in the mean sample IAT score
between the investigated male gamer sample (n = 592)
and the sample in our pilot study (n = 62 males; Montag
et al., 2010) which consisted of students and persons from
the general population, the statistical analysis revealed that
male excessive online gamers in the present study showed
a signicantly elevated IAT score, t(652) = 4.13, p < .01.
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Journal of Media Psychology 2011; Vol. 23(4):163173

.12**
.39**
.32**
.06
.36**
.31**
.03
.09*
.09*

.01

.40**
.03
.05
.18**
.13**
.15**

.14**
.18**

.07

.51**
.08*
.06
.06
.07
.33**

.42**
.13**
.29**
.36**
.23**
.59**
.25**
.02

.12**

.00
.17**
.05
.11**
.08

.02

.02

.03

.13**
.13**
.08*
.19**
.18**
.00

.27**

.27**
.03
.10*
.00
.14**

.04

.08

.09*

.32**
.39**
.42**
.47**
.06

.35**

.15**

.25**
.06*
.13**
.10*
.09*

.01

.09*

.27**
.16**
.03
.10*
.13**

.01

.02

.29**
.28**
.03

.13**

.12**

.16**
.52**
.32**
.04

.48**

.47**
.13**
.11**
.06
.17**

.01

.13**

.10*

.45**
.02

Notes. IAT = Internet Addiction Test; NEO-FFI = NEO Five-Factor Inventory. **p < .01; *p < .05.

Neuroticism
Extraversion
Openness to Experience
Agreeableness
Conscientiousnes
Aggression (trait Anger)
Self-Directedness
Cooperativeness
Number of times feeling rushed in
the past 4 weeks
10. Number of times feeling depressed
in the past 4 weeks
11. Number of times having
achieved less than initially
planned in the past 4 weeks due
to emotional problems
12. Number of times having
achieved less than initially
planned in either work or leisure
during the past 4 weeks due to
physical ailments/limitations
13. Life-Satisfaction
14. Age
15. Afnity toward horror movies
16. Afnity toward action movies
17. Hours spent online for
computer gaming each week
18. Internet Addiction Test Score

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Scales (NEO-FFI and other)

.30**

.08*

.11**
.02
.05
.00
.00

.48**

.51**

.60**

IAT Score

.16**
.16**
.01
.02
.15**

.02

.10*

.08*

.06

Table 1. Pearsons correlations between IAT Score and NEO-FFI Dimension and other scales

.15**

.16**
.03
.07
.00
.02

.79**

.87**

10

.15**

.19**
.01
.05
.00
.00

.69**

11

.15**

.06
.03
.05
.04
.02

12

.26**

.04
.04
.08
.09*

13

15

16

17

18

.11** .12** .08* .17**

.10*

.12** .29**
.02
.08
.03

14

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C. Montag et al.: Internet Addiction and Personality

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C. Montag et al.: Internet Addiction and Personality

169

Table 2. Stepwise hierarchical regression model constructed by inserting items assessing psychological/physiological
ailments in the past 4 weeks in block 1, media-related variables in block 2, personality measures without selfdirectedness as a third block and self-directedness alone in the last block to investigate their association with
internet addiction.
Predictor

DR2

Step 1
Number of times having achieved less than initially planned in the past
4 weeks due to emotional problems

.02

Step 2
Number of times having achieved less than initially planned in the past
4 weeks due to emotional problems
Hours spent online for computer gaming each week

.03

Step 3
Number of times having achieved less than initially planned in the
past 4 weeks due to emotional problems
Hours spent online for computer gaming each week
Afnity toward horror movies

.01

Step 4
Number of times having achieved less than initially planned in the past
4 weeks due to emotional problems
Hours spent online for computer gaming each week
Afnity toward horror movies
Conscientiousness

.10

Step 5
Number of times having achieved less than initially planned in the past
4 weeks due to emotional problems
Hours spent online for computer gaming each week
Afnity toward horror movies
Conscientiousness
Neuroticism

.04

Step 6
Number of times having achieved less than initially planned in the past
4 weeks due to emotional problems
Hours spent online for computer gaming each week
Afnity toward horror movies
Conscientiousness
Neuroticism
Cooperativeness

.02

Step 7
Number of times having achieved less than initially planned in the past
4 weeks due to emotional problems
Hours spent online for computer gaming each week
Afnity toward horror movies
Conscientiousness
Neuroticism
Cooperativeness
Self-Directedness

.05

Total R2

.27

Variables entered in Block 1 of the stepwise hierarchical

regression model:
Number of times having achieved less than initially planned
in either work or leisure during the past 4 weeks due to
physical ailments/limitations
Number of times having achieved less than initially planned
in the past 4 weeks due to emotional problems
Number of times feeling depressed in the past 4 weeks
Number of times feeling rushed in the past 4 weeks

b
.16**

.16**
.18**
.16**
.17**
.10*
.12**
.13**
.10*
.32**
.09*
.12**
.09*
.25**
.21**
.09*
.11**
.09*
.20**
.19**
.16**
.09*
.09*
.07*
.12**
.05
.08
.32**

Variables entered in Block 3 of the

stepwise hierarchical regression model:
Openness to Experience
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
Cooperativeness
Anger
(Continued on next page)

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C. Montag et al.: Internet Addiction and Personality

Table 2. (Continued)
Variables entered in Block 2 of the stepwise hierarchical
regression model:
Afnity toward action movies
Afnity toward horror movies
Hours spent watching action movies
Hours spent watching horror movies
Hours spent online for computer gaming each week

Variable entered in Block 4 of the stepwise

hierarchical regression model:
Self-Directedness

Notes. Changes in F were signicant from model 1 to 2 (F for changes = 19.71, df = 1,586, p < .001), from model 2 to 3 (F for
changes = 6.57, df = 1,585, p = .01), from model 3 to 4 (F for changes = 67.86, df = 1,584, p < .001), from model 4 to 5 (F for
changes = 28.21, df = 1,583, p < .001), from model 5 to 6 (F for changes = 16.64, df = 1,582, p < .001), from model 6 to 7 (F for
changes = 37.34, df = 1,581, p < .001). *p < .05; **p < .01.

Discussion
In a recent study, we reported that the character dimension
Self-Directedness was associated with problematic Internet
use (Montag et al., 2010). As those ndings were observed
in a rather small sample (N = 201) consisting of students
and participants from the general population, it is important
to investigate whether Self-Directedness is conrmed to be
of the same importance when studying a sample three times
larger and of much greater ecological validity, consisting of
adolescent rst-person-shooter video players.
In the present study, through the investigation of an ecologically valid sample of online gamers, we replicated the
results of our pilot study. Therefore, the character dimension
Self-Directedness might be a crucial target for behavioral
therapists in the context of the addicted online gamers
therapy. As low Self-Directedness is associated with low
resourcefulness and self-acceptance (e.g., typical items are
as follows: I often cannot deal with problems because I just
dont know what to do or I wish I were better looking
than everyone else), it is of importance to practice coping
strategies in problematic Internet users with respect to the
demands of everyday life. Providing Internet addicts with
a sense of achievement, will be a step toward boosting
low self-esteem. The present nding also ts with the observation by LaRose et al. (2003) who linked decient self-regulation processes to pathological Internet use. The ability to
successfully self-regulate ones own behavior may represent
an important component of the construct Self-Directedness.
The replication of the Self-Directedness to Internet
addiction link in the present sample is noteworthy, because
we used a general measure for Internet addiction rather than
specically targeting online gaming activities of the rstperson-shooter video gamers. As Internet addiction scores
could be even higher upon administration of a specialized
Internet addiction questionnaire in rst-person-shooter video
gamers, the present study design can be seen as conservative, suggesting an even stronger association between SelfDirectedness and online gaming addiction. On the other
hand, we cannot rule out the possibility that the observed
association only holds true for generalized Internet addiction
as a whole. Given the fact that the sample of rst-personshooter video players showed signicantly higher Internet
Journal of Media Psychology 2011; Vol. 23(4):163173

addiction scores compared with the pilot studys sample

(see Results) and the Self-Directedness and Internet addiction association is still strongly visible for generalized use
of the Internet, it seems to be very unlikely that this association would collapse in the context of a specialized pathological Internet use measure. In general, the large
difference in IAT scores underlines the fact that the sample
of the present study is characterized by pronounced
Internet/computer game use.
Another protecting factor for problematic Internet use
might be a pronounced Conscientiousness. This personality
dimension has been shown to be a good predictor of job performance in a meta-analysis (Barrick & Mount, 1991). This
meta-analysis demonstrated that Conscientiousness plays an
important role in achieving goals in life and therefore indirectly might also inuence self-esteem. Facets of Conscientiousness, such as a feeling of responsibility for undertaken
tasks and following through to a nish, might be appropriate
behaviors protecting individuals from excessive Internet use.
In conclusion, Conscientiousness represents a promising target in behavioral therapy along with Self-Directedness. This
is especially underlined by the fact that the inclusion of Conscientiousness in block 3 of the stepwise hierarchical regression analysis was responsible for an increase of 9% in the
explained variance of Internet addiction.
Finally, it was hypothesized that both trait Anger and
psychological/physical well-being play an important role
in Internet addiction. Although the trait Anger correlated
signicantly with Internet addiction, it was not signicant
in the nal stepwise hierarchical regression model, and
therefore played only a minor role in Internet addiction in
rst-person-shooter video players. Aside from the previously discussed psychological personality factors, physical
ailments resulting in impairments at work or leisure over
the course of the last 4 weeks correlated positively with
Internet addiction, providing evidence for the inuence of
both psychological and physical well-being on Internet
addiction.
In general, it is of importance to stress that all data presented here are only correlational, which means that no nal
causal relationships can be derived. Only longitudinal
designs will be able to support the directionality of the associations presented here. A further limitation of the present
2011 Hogrefe Publishing

C. Montag et al.: Internet Addiction and Personality

study is the exclusive use of a generalized Internet addiction

measure, which has its strengths as well as the previously
discussed weaknesses. Future studies should also incorporate newer measures of generalized Internet addiction such
as those presented by Caplan (2010). Finally, newer studies
in the literature have shown that it is of importance to distinguish between high engagement and excessive playing of
online video games (Charlton & Danforth, 2007). Of particular interest is a follow-up study by Charlton and Danforth
(2010) providing evidence that personality variables are fundamentally related to addiction-like behavior and not to the
engagement related to playing multiplayer online games. In
line with this thought, the character dimension Self-Directedness likely targets the core concept of Internet addiction
and not the factor engagement in playing online games.
Of further interest will be the investigation of Self-Directedness in the context of specialized Internet addiction. Firstperson-shooter video gaming via the Internet has been conceptualized in our study as a subcategory of generalized
Internet addiction, although this approach has its weaknesses. It will be of importance to measure rst-personshooter video gaming and other online activities such as
the use of social networks, with specialized questionnaires
and to again search for associations with Self-Directedness.
This will shed light on the question of whether Self-Directedness is associated with both generalized and specialized
Internet addiction.
In summary, the strong association of Self-Directedness
with IAT scores in both the current sample of rst-personshooter video players and the sample from the pilot study
(Montag et al., 2010) corroborates the notion of a continuum
between healthy and excessive Internet use. In addition,
Conscientiousness emerges as a further important personality dimension, as outlined by our stepwise hierarchical
regression model.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Ralf Reichert and Ibrahim Mazari
from Turtle Entertainment GmbH for placing a prominent
advertisement including a link to our online questionnaire
in the German news section on http://www.esl.eu. This
helped signicantly in gathering a highly ecologically valid
online gamer sample.

Conflicts of Interest
Ralf Reichert and Ibrahim Mazari of Turtle Entertainment
GmbH were not part of the scientic process in conducting
the present research. They did not inuence the development
of this manuscript or the analysis of data in any way. During
the time the study was conducted, Matthias Flierl worked at
Turtle Entertainment ve days per week only half-days,
aside from pursuing his studies at the University of Nurnberg-Erlangen. Matthias Flierl is in no way biased by being
employed by Turtle Entertainment. In sum, there was no
conict of interest in any of the authors of this study.
2011 Hogrefe Publishing

171

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Journal of Media Psychology 2011; Vol. 23(4):163173

Date of acceptance: September 22, 2011

Christian Montag (PhD, 2009, University
of Bonn, Germany) is a biologically
oriented personality psychologist. In the
framework of his PhD thesis, he tested the
revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory
by Gray and McNaughton (2000) with
neuroscientic procedures. He currently
works on several studies in neurosciencebased media psychology. His general
research interests range from molecular
genetics and brain imaging of personality
to addiction research including Internet
addiction.

Christian Montag
University of Bonn
Department of Psychology
Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9
53111 Bonn
Germany
Tel. +49 228 734309
Fax +49 228 734229
E-mail christian.montag@uni-bonn-diff.de
Matthias Flierl (diploma in social sciences, University of Erlangen-Nurnberg,
Germany, 2010) has been working as a
scientic counselor at Turtle Entertainment, which runs an Electronic Sports
League where the majority of this studys
sample originated. His research interests
include investigation of the motivational
archetypes of video game players in
competitive settings. Now, he is working
as a public relations advisor in the
renewable energies sector.
Sebastian Markett has studied psychology and cognitive neuroscience at the
University of Bonn, Germany, and the
University of Toronto, Canada. He is
currently working on his PhD thesis on
the neurogenetic foundations of cognitive
control (when not distracted by his own
mild to severe addiction to online social
media).

Nora T. Walter (diploma in psychology,

University of Bonn, Germany, 2009) is a
research assistant and PhD student in the
Department of Biological and Personality Psychology at the University of
Bonn, Germany. Her research interest is
focused on the molecular genetic approach to social cognition and behavior
within and between social groups.

2011 Hogrefe Publishing

C. Montag et al.: Internet Addiction and Personality

Magdalena Jurkiewicz (BA in Biological

Sciences, 2004, University of Chicago;
Master of Public Health, Yale University,
2007) is currently a fellow in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the
State University of New York, Stony
Brook, working toward a dual MD/PhD
degree. Her research interests include
personality, geneenvironment interactions, and neurogenetics.

2011 Hogrefe Publishing

173

Martin Reuter is a biologically oriented

personality psychologist (PhD, 2001). In
his PhD thesis, he investigated the role of
cortisol in emotion. Since 2006, Martin
Reuter has been a professor of personality and biological psychology at the
University of Bonn, Germany. He is also
the vice-director of the Center for Economics & Neuroscience at the University
of Bonn. His research interests range
from classical personality psychology to
neuroeconomics.

Journal of Media Psychology 2011; Vol. 23(4):163173