Applications of Simulation and Gaming to Psychology: A Brief History and a Look into the Future

Abstract

This paper discusses ways in which simulation and gaming have been applied to the field of psychology, in general, and to social psychology, in particular, in Japan, where they have been applied as a research tool and as an educational tool. In general terms, social psychologists started to use games as a research tool in the 1980s and later expanded their use to the field of education in the 1990s. During the 2000s, research and educational uses were integrated. Moreover, research into group dynamics introduced gaming approaches to social psychology. Although educational applications were initially limited to higher educational settings, efforts to expand these applications to elementary or secondary education have been, and are still, ongoing. Additionally, the movement towards such fusion has been characterized by an interface between academia and practitioners. In other words, the future of this field seems promising in view of the ongoing incorporation of gaming into the real world.