Austrian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, «East West» Association for Advanced Studies and Higher Education

GmbH. Vienna. 3-4 (1) 2015,

- pp. 103-105.

Olkina Oxana Igorevna,

Institute of Psychology of Russian
Academy of Sciences (IP RAS),
Postgraduate student
E‑mail: olkina.o@gmail.com

Escapism: current studies and research prospects

in contemporary psychology
Abstract: A review and investigation of current empirical studies and tendencies in the
escapism problem is presented. It is also substantiated that the future research projects should
be concentrated on designing and validating a fundamental theoretical approach of escapism.
The integrative theory should be able to explain the phenomenon in a broader meaning and
integrate its two opposite poles — negative and positive escapism.

Keywords: escapism, avoiding the reality, cyberpsychology, role-playing games, online

addiction, imagination, integrative approach.

In a modern media society, individuals symptoms of psychological distress, life

are provided with a wide range of tools to
escape from reality which vary from
consuming psychoactive substances to
participating in online games or engaging in
different subcultures’ activities. The
problem of escapism and immersion in
alternative realities, of any kind, is that it
involves the issues of emotional, mental and
sometimes even physical personal well-
being, and, thus, becomes critical.
At the moment a number of empirical
studies, devoted to the issue of avoiding the
reality, or escapism, exist in USA and
Europe. The phenomenon is mostly
associated with, or affected by, emerging
technology and is being studied in a specific
field of cyberpsychology. The issue of
escapism emerges in a context of young
people and adults getting involved into
different types of online games and the
developing problems of addictive behavior.
For instance, N. Yee considers escapism as a
way of relaxation and avoiding real world
problems. He invented a tool for measuring
different aspects of online players’
motivation (MTPI, Motivation of play
inventory). His data analysis showed that
escapism was the strongest predictor of
online addiction [8]. Thereafter, Hagström
D., Kaldo V. modified the MTPI scale
dividing so-called “positive” and “negative”
escapism. After replicating Yee’s research,
they concluded that, in determining the
satisfaction and internet addiction, the
negative escapism factor is much more
significant than the positive. Because of this,
they define escapism as an avoiding behavior
and propose to measure only negative
aspects of the phenomenon [2]. The most
recent Polish research conducted on a large
scale sample (N = 1056), also showed that
those players who have the escapist
motivation spend more time online. They
highlight the lack of offline support and the
growing amount of online support as a key
factor of internet addiction [4].
The two aspects of escapism are also
investigated in a number of theoretical
studies. A. Evans supposes that escapism is a
kind of activity occurring because of the cur-
rent conditions of our media society. He
offers a mixed classification of escapism
types:
• Avoiding — the main aim of this type
of escapism is running from reality
and real life difficulties;
• Passive — this type of escapism
includes activities when person
doesn’t have to make efforts, e. g.
listening to music, watching TV or
movies etc.
• Active — this type of escapism
assumes a change of activity, from the
main one (e. g. job) to the alternative
one (hobbies). Among the brightest
examples are computer games,
Austrian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, «East West» Association for Advanced Studies and Higher Education GmbH. Vienna. 3-4
(1) 2015, - pp. 103-105.
fishing, poetry, singing etc.
• Extreme — activities which are
actually or potentially dangerous
(drugs or alcohol use, roof jumping
etc.)
A. Evans distinguishes productive and
“unhealthy” escapism and outlines the
following indicators of the second one:
procrastination, psychosis, denial (leading
to rejection of social norms, rigid personal
stance on life and isolation) and addiction
(inability to control habits) [1]. Hartevald C.
H., Mayer I. developed A. Evans’ approach
and consider cause-based and effect-based
escapism. The first one emerges when a
person gets bored and wants to escape from
a mundane daily life, or, to the opposite,
when one gets too stressed and desires to
avoid life challenges. The second kind of
escapism is aimed to quit beyond the limits
of the reality by means of daydreaming or
getting involved into activities for getting
pleasure. The researchers suppose that the
effect-based escapism is productive and
contributes to personal self actualization
[3].
F. Stenseng investigates escapism in a
social context. He designed the Dualistic
Model of Passion and offers two dimensions
of avoiding the reality: self-suppression and
self-expansion. Self-suppression is aimed to
avoid the negative emotions and has an
alternate activity in its focus. Self-expansion
is motivated by gaining a new positive
experience and involvement. His empirical
findings confirm the model: the correlation
between self-suppression and low well-
being, level of self-control has been proved,
whereas self-expansion is related to
subjective well-being, flexibility in choosing
activities, and generally results positively
[7].
In Russia the work which might be
considered as the beginning of escapism’
investigation in personal psychology is a
pilot study conducted by A. Kardopoltseva.
Based on F. Stenseng’s findings, she also
investigates the two types of escapism in a
life context. She concentrates on a positive
escapism and defines it much broadly, as a
form of self actualization. To her mind,
escapism is a conscious and controlled
distraction from reality and an essential
condition for creative activities. Also she
designed a questionnaire aimed to
investigate the two types of escapism. Her
pilot study (N = 62) on dancers (aged 18–32)
shows that systematic self-reflection based
on distancing oneself from the situation and
an ability to look at oneself objectively, from
aside, are the key predictors of positive
escapism [5].
T. Savchenko and O. Olkina investigated
avoiding the reality by means of immersion
into the simulated world of live role-playing
games (RPG). These games provide their
participants with the opportunity of being
submerged into a different reality created by
the game master in actual time and space.
Participants have their own individual roles,
or personal legends according to the
reconstructed epoch and game plot. Also
they wear costumes relevant to the
atmosphere of the simulated world (as in
computer games, these words can vary from
medieval times to futuristic scenarios) and
interact with each other on behalf of their
characters. Researchers suggested that in
this case escapism can be driven with the
intention to change the cognitive component
of self-image to the more desired one. The
empirical findings of the study (N–40)
showed several clusters of gamers who had
different changes in their self-image after
participating in role-playing game and
correlated it with personal qualities and
special features of game’s context. Dreamy
and considerate, empathic participants
described themselves as less honest and
truthful after the game. The same time,
suspicious, less confident and more anxious
gamers said noticed positive transformations
in their self image and described themselves
as more confident and self-efficient after the
game. Due to the researchers’ conclusions, it
can be explained by the dualistic feature of
role playing games’ context, when, on the
one hand, gamers have to make an
unpleasant choice as, being highly motivated
to reach their aims, they realize that if they
win, the other people will certainly lose. On
the on other hand, the game provides them
with extra resources (like magic or special
skills etc.) and freedom of actions they lack
Austrian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, «East West» Association for Advanced Studies and Higher Education GmbH. Vienna. 3-4
(1) 2015, - pp. 103-105.

in real life. Thus, both-sided context submersion into online world or

determines different changes into self
perception among role players [6].
As it can be seen from the above, most
researchers use factoring methods in their
empirical studies; they are mostly being
held in the spheres of cyberpsychology and
social psychology. Most researchers offer
and justify the ambivalent model of positive
and negative escapism, being mostly
concentrated on the last one. Also several
determinants of escapism (subjective well-
being, social support, self-reflection etc.) are
being investigated rather fragmentally,
without integrative theoretical layout.
In conclusion it must be said that
current research projects of escapism are
quite specific and do not fully cover
fundamental theoretical issues of the
phenomenon. It is rarely taken into account
that escapism may have a broader meaning
and can’t be reduced to a simple
participation in RPGs. Avoiding the reality
also refers to an immersion into psychotic
illusions caused by altered states of
consciousness, worlds created in one’s
imagination while reading fantasy books,
listening to music, or watching pieces of art
etc. Ultimately, the process of daydreaming
and fantasizing can be considered as
escaping from the real world as well. Finally,
the phenomenon of escapism must be
studied as a more encompassing one. There-
fore, theoretical studies aimed to balance and
explain the two poles of the escapism
phenomenon and investigate it in a wider
context, as a universal mechanism allowing a
person to escape the reality for adaptation to
real life, seem to be a prospect research line
in a nowadays personality psychology.

References:
1. Evans A. This virtual life. Escapism and simulation in our media world. – London: Fusion
Press, 2001.
2. Hagström D., Kaldo V. Escapism among Players of MMORPGs – Conceptual Clarification, Its
Relation to Mental Health Factors, and Development of a New Measure.//Cyberpsychology,
Behavior and social network- ing. – 2014. – 17 (1).
3. Hartevald C. H., Mayer I. Press enter or escape to play: deconstructing escapism in
multiplayer gaming.//Break- ing new ground: innovation in games, play practice and theory.
Proceedings of DiGRA, – 2009.
4. Kaczmarek L. D., Drążkowski D. MMORPG escapism predicts decreased Well-being:
examination of gaming time, game realism beliefs, and online social support for offline
problems.//Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, – 2014. – 17 (5).
5. Kardapoltseva A. Eskapizm kak slozhnoe psihologicheskoe yavlenie v zhizni obshchestva i
lichnosti [Escapism as a complex psychological phenomenon in a life of person and
society].//Proceedings of the VII International students’ scientific-practical conference. –
Moscow: People’s Friendship University of Russia, 2012.
6. Savchenko T., Olkina O. Issledovanie obraza “YA” v rolevyh igrah v podrostkovom i
yunosheskom vozraste [Study on adolescents and youths’ self image in a role-playing
games].//Barabanshikov V., Nosulenko E., Samoylenko E. (ed). (Integration of academic and
university psychology ser.) – Moscow: Institute of Psychology of Russian Academy of
Sciences, 2011.
7. Stenseng F. A Dualistic Approach to Leisure Activity Engagement – On The Dynamics of
Passion, Escapism, and Life Satisfaction. – University of Oslo, 2009.
8. Yee N. Motivations for play in online games.//Cyberpsychology & Behavior. – 2006, (9).