Political efficacy is an important construct since it is an effective predictor of political participation (Finkel, Muller& Opp, 1989; Chavis& Wandersman, 1990). Internal efficacy is defined as the confidence of the individual in his or her own abilities to understand politics and to act politically. Nowadays many young people in Taiwan feel alienated and distant from public policies. Some people choose not to watch or read serious news at all because they are not interested in public policies and they think public policies are too complicated to understand. Yet new media such as internet and games provide a potential vehicle for young people to engage in serious topics and empower their knowledge and confidence.
Many studies have investigated the relationship between internet and political efficacy;
however, the relationship between popular media for young people (e.g. games) are lack of discussions.
This study separates the term “mastery experiences” into “mediated enactive
experiences” and “perceived mastery experiences”. The further refers to the mechanism of a serious game and the latter refers to the psychological process of a player. This study
attempts to find out whether mediated enactive experiences provided from a game can enhance players’ internal political efficacy through perceived mastery experiences as well as whether character attachment to avatars and prior internal political efficacy would interact with the mediated enactive experiences and, further, influence perceived mastery
experiences. In other words, this study does not view the media effects merely just from the media itself; rather, this study also discuss the influence of before-game internal political efficacy on after-game internal political efficacy.
To conclude, the main contributions of this study are as follows. First, this study
distinguishes two types of mastery experiences: the mediated enactive experiences in a game and the perceived mastery experiences of a player. The positive relationship between
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mediated enactive experiences and perceived mastery experiences has valuable implications for the learning of serious games. Second, this study operationalizes both mediated enactive experiences and perceived mastery experiences. In order to operationalize mediated enactive experiences, this study incorporates Bandura’s suggestions of mastery experiences and Kolb’s experiential learning model. In order to operationalize perceived mastery experiences after players play the game, this study developed a questionnaire based on Maddux’s
suggestions. Third, this study employs a new construct—character attachment—to capture the relationship between an avatar and a player. Fourth, this study constructs a path model of how internal political efficacy can be improved in a serious games. Finally, this study
incorporates with theories from different disciplines such as communication, education and psychology and provides experimental data to support effects of a serious game. Therefore, this study can contribute to the future study of human psychology and new media, civic education, game-based learning and serious game design.
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Appendix A (The inventory of Character Attachment, CA)