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Holmes, John Eric. "Confessions of a Dungeon Master"; Psychology Today, November 1980, pp. 84-94.
Zayas, Luis H. and Lewis, Bradford H.; "Fantasy Role-Playing for Mutual Aid in Children's Groups: A Case Illustration"; Social Work with Groups, vol. 9(1), Spring 1986, p. 53-66.
Simón, Armando. "Emotional Stability Pertaining to the Game of Dungeons & Dragons." Psychology in the Schools, October 1987, p. 329-332.
Hall, Alex (1988, April 27). "Investigation into the value of FRPGs as a strategy in developing children's creative writing."
John Hughes (1988). "Therapy is Fantasy: Roleplaying, Healing and the Construction of Symbolic Order."
Carroll, James L. and Carolin, Paul M. "Relationship between Game Playing and Personality". Psychological Reports, June 1989, pp. 705-706.
Pulling, Patricia with Cawthon, Kathy. "The Devil's Web" Huntington House, Inc. (1989)
DeRenard, Lisa and Manik Kline, Linda. "Alienation and the Game Dungeons & Dragons." Psychological Reports, 1990, 66, pp. 1219-1222.
Abyeta, Suzanne and Forest, James. "Relationship of Role-playing Games to Self-reported Criminal Behaviour." Psychological Reports, December 1991, 69, pp. 1187-1192.
Douse, Neil and McManus, Ian. "The Personality of Fantasy Game Players" British Journal of Psychology (1992), 84(4), 505-509.
The conclusion by researchers like Armando Simón, Lisa DeRenard and Linda Manik Kline, is that player's of role playing games have higher levels of creativity and free thinking skills, as well as reports of higher levels of meaningfulness and purpose than those who aren't players. They also showed absolutely none of the things Kathy Cawthon accused them of, in comparison to control groups.
In 1989 Kathy Cawthon published a book called " The Devil's Web" describing negative impacts of role playing games on youth, ranging from increased suicide rates, increased cult/criminal activity, general laziness, depression, and dissociative behavior.
Most of the studies I found on psychology relating to roleplaying games came from the 80's and 90's.
After researching what others had found I began to wonder what psychology and role playing were up to today after all that fuss in the 80's and 90's. I found that many psychologists today use it as a way to help develop critical thinking and social skills. Its also a reliable treatment for depression and dissociative disorders.
Dr. Raffael Boccamazzo is a psychologist in the spotlight right now for using Dungeons & Dragons as therapy for a group of young boys with dissociative disorders or who are somewhere on the autism spectrum. He uses it to help them with social skills.
Basically role playing games are the ultimate projection test. The players have the ability to do whatever they want. And any branch of psychology could use them. Psychologists could use the game to simulate someone's relationships with others (Gestalt), or use archetypes/themes to make a patient remember a repressed memory (Psychodynamic) A cognitive psychologist might study the way a patient solves a puzzle in the game or deals with an encounter. Developemental psychologists might use it to help children develop skills. In my paper I described role playing games as a sort of swiss army knife for psychologists because you can do anything with them.