Role
Professor Griffiths is a Chartered Psychologist and Director of the International Gaming Research Unit. He mostly teaches on areas related to his research interests on various undergraduate and postgraduate Psychology programmes. His main teaching interests are in the areas of abnormal, social and health psychology with particular emphasis on behavioural addictions (e.g. gambling addiction, videogame addiction, Internet addiction, sex addiction, exercise addiction, work addiction, etc.), cyberpsychology and the psychology of sexual behaviour. In 2006, he was awarded the British Psychological Society’s highest teaching honour (‘Excellence in Teaching of Psychology Award’).
Professor Griffiths has held many major administrative roles since joining the University including Head of Psychology Division, Psychology Research Co-ordinator, Social Policy Research Co-ordinator, and Psychology Postgraduate Co-ordinator. In addition to his teaching and research. He is currently Psychology Research Co-ordinator. Professor Griffiths is also a gaming consultant and works with the gaming industry to promote responsible gambling, social responsibility, harm minimization, and player protection. He is also a freelance journalist and writes for many national and international newspapers and magazines.
Professor Griffiths has supervised over 30 PhD students mostly in the area of behavioural addiction, gambling, gaming, Internet use, and mindfulness. This has included doctoral theses in specific area such as:
- cross cultural studies of slot machine gambling
- cyber-ethnographic studies of Internet gambling
- addiction and identity
- excessive online videogame playing and videogame addiction
- Internet addiction; adolescent addictive behaviour
- adolescent gambling on the lottery
- adolescent gambling and treatment
- videogame transfer phenomena
- female sex addiction
- mindfulness
Professor Griffiths uses mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) and has particular expertise in self-report methods (questionnaires, interviews) and online data collection.
Career overview
Professor Griffiths received a First Class Honours degree (BSc. Psychology) from the University of Bradford (1987). He was awarded his PhD in Psychology at the University of Exeter (1990) and then was a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Plymouth (1990-1995). He has been at Nottingham Trent University since October 1995 and was awarded his Professorship in 2002.
Research areas
Professor Griffiths is highly research active and has published over 760 refereed papers, five books, 150+ book chapters, and over 1200 other articles mostly in the area of behavioural addictions (gambling addiction, videogame addiction, internet addiction, exercise addiction, sex addiction). His current research projects include (but not limited to) (i) questionnaire and interview studies into online gaming addictions, (ii) behavioural tracking projects examining online gambling and the utility of social responsibility tools, (iii) national prevalence surveys on various addictive behaviours including gambling, exercise and video game playing, and (iv) online studies of various aspects of video game playing behaviour (e.g., game transfer phenomena, online trolling, etc.). He has won 19 national and international awards for his research and dissemination, including the US John Rosecrance Prize (1994), the Spanish CELEJ Prize (1998), the British Joseph Lister Prize (2004), the US National Council on Problem Gambling Lifetime Research Award (2013), and the Italian Premio Imbucci Award (2018).
He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, Royal Society of Arts, and the Academy of Social Sciences.
Current and previous projects supervised include:
Professor Griffiths has 30 PhD completions (e.g., Dr. Michael Larkin, Dr. Jonathan Parke, Dr. Adrian Parke, Dr. Abby McCormack, Dr. Richard Wood, Dr. Michael Auer, Dr. Edo Shonin).
External activity
Professor Griffiths has acted as a consultant for many Government bodies including the Gambling Commission, UK Home Office, Department of Culture, Media and Sport, Department of Health, Victorian Casino and Gaming Authority (Australia) and various international Governments (including the US, Australia, Sweden, Norway and Finland). Professor Griffiths has carried out consultancy for over 30 different gaming companies worldwide in the area of social responsibility in gambling including companies in the UK (Camelot; Inter Lotto; Gala Coral, Metrobet; Better), Ireland (Irish National Lottery; Paddy Power), Sweden (Svenska Spel, Casino Cosmopol), Norway (Norsk Tipping, Fair Chance Lottery), Finland (Veikkaus; RAY), Austria (Austrian Lottery, Casino Austria), Denmark (Danske Spil), Singapore (Singapore Pools), Canada (Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation; Atlantic Lottery Corporation, British Columbia Lottery Corporation, Interprovincial Lottery Corporation), Switzerland (Loterie Romande, Imaginventure), and Israel (888.com).
Professor Griffiths has been the invited keynote speaker at over 300 national conferences in the UK, USA, Canada, China, Australia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Uruguay, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Ireland, Finland, Poland, Turkey, Slovenia, Albania, Italy, Holland, Malta, Israel, and Belgium.
Professor Griffiths has given keynote addresses to the US National Academy of Sciences (Washington DC), and the US National Center for Addiction (New York). Professor Griffiths also sits on and chairs many national and international committees and is a past chair of the European Association for the Study of Gambling and co-founder and former Chair of the charity GamCare.
Professor Griffiths is one the UK’s most high profile media commentators and has been awarded a number of prizes for his scientific dissemination. He has appeared on over 3000 radio and television programmes, and has written over 300 articles for national and international newspapers and magazines including the Washington Post, The Guardian, The Observer, Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Independent, The Independent on Sunday, The Daily Mirror, The Sun, Western Mail, The Conversation, Times Higher Education, Sunday Post, Arcade, MCV Magazine, Inside Edge, iGaming Business, Derby Evening Telegraph, Edinburgh Evening News, Nottingham Evening Post, Nottingham Post, Bizarre, Casino and Gaming International, Coinslot International, and eGaming Review.
Sponsors and collaborators
Main Collaborators:
- Dr Zsolt Demetrovics, Dr. Orsolya Király and Dr. Attila Szabo (Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary)
- Dr. Cecilie Andreassen and Dr. Stale Pallesen (Bergen University, Norway)
- Dr. Michael Auer (neccton Ltd, Austria)
- Dr. Natale Canale (University of Padova, Italy)
- Dr Dan King and Dr Paul Delfabbro (University of Adelaide, Australia)
- Dr. Joel Billieux (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium)
- Dr Adrian Parke (Lincoln University, UK)
- Dr. Pawel Atrosko (Gdansk University, Poland)
- Dr Zaheer Hussain (Derby University, UK)
- Dr Xavier Carbonell (Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain)
- Dr. Vasilis Stavropoulos (University of Athens, Greece)
- Dr. Angelica Ortiz de Gortari (Iniversity of Liege, Belgium)
- Dr. Misha Teimouri (Putra Malaysia University, Malaysia)
- Dr. Joana Alexandre (Lisbon University Institute, Portugal)
- Dr. Cristina Quinones (Open University, UK)
- Dr. Manpreet Dhuffar (University of Exeter, UK)
Sponsors or research and consultancy:
- Responsible Gambling Trust/GambleAware (UK)
- Gambling Commission (UK)
- Norsk Tipping (Norway)
- Neccton Ltd (Austria)
Consultancy for over 30 gaming companies (e.g., Camelot, Atlantic Lottery Corporation, Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation, Association of British Bookmakers, Gala Coral, Svenska Spel, Nork Tipping, Loterie Romande)
Press expertise
- Gambling (any area including psychology, social policy, cultural impact)
- Online gambling
- Behavioural addictions (particular expertise in gambling addiction, videogame addiction, internet addiction, exercise addiction, sex addiction and workaholism)
- Psychology of fame and celebrity
- Videogaming (any area including psychology, social policy and cultural impact)
- Online gaming
- Cyberpsychology (psychology of online behaviour including all social media)
- Online excess
- Online sexuality
- Sexual paraphilias