Introduction Aggression in the media is nothing new, from TV shows to music; teenagers everywhere are engulfed in it every day. Aggression is a form of indirect or direct violence towards another person or subject. To study the effects that video game violence has on the aggression of teenagers and adolescents is a concerning thought. Teens becoming desensitized towards the violence they witness in their video games such as Grand Theft Auto, that have become so popular in the recent years. Previous research has come up with results that support the idea that violence effects the player, but studies such as the one conducted by Anderson and Ford (1997) can only support this on a short term basis. In these experiments players’ were exposed to one of three different game types, highly aggressive, mildly aggressive or a control game. After the game, hostility, anxiety and depression were measured using a checklist. The experiment found that hostility was increased in both game condition groups compared to the control, although the high aggression led to significantly more anxiety. This shows that playing aggressive video games can have short-term negative effects on the players and they emotional states. It also supports the idea that more aggressive games create more hostility and aggression in the players. Another study conducted by Devilly, Callahan and Armitage (2011) studied the effect of Violent Videogame Playtime on Anger. It was measuring whether or not players became habituated during longer, more realistic lengths of play. Participants were assigned to play one violent video game for either 20 or 60 minutes. The results showed that participants in the longer time slot showed a smaller change in anger from before and after... ... middle of paper ... ...cts that violent, action video games has on a persons daily social aggression. Creating experiments to test this hypothesis may yield different results as confounds would have to be accounted for. A future research task could compare different types of video games to determine if there is any relation towards role-playing versus action games. In conclusion, our study has demonstrated that a rise in social aggression may not be caused by violent video games, as there is no correlation proven to be significant from these results. Although the concerns are still great, future research should look into more of the short-term effects on teens and young adults from playing video games and then approach the idea of the habituation of violence from these games. A rise in aggression is something that should be taken seriously and future research should reflect that.
At this day in age we bask in the luxury of having easy access to advanced technology at our disposal. From the World Wide Web, to cell phones, music, movies and video games the human race has thought of any and everything to keep us entertained. Over the years studies have shown reasonable concerns regarding the long-term effects of video games. These games can desensitize gamers to real life violence, which is usually seen in the younger crowd. The studies especially hit on the games containing player-on-player violence. Though these games are extremely entertaining and can get kids to settle down for a while, if not properly supervised, they can produce adverse effects. Other studies have shown that video games can be used as way to yield positive outcomes such as, good problem solving skills, cooperation in a group and the ability to flow. Although there has been psychological research on children learning through the actions of others some believe that children are automatically able to distinguish between what is just a game and what is reality. The longer they are allowed on their game system the more they become convinced that their games are real. Some researchers believe violent video games can channel the aggression of the child but the parents are to blame for what happens to the child after playing an excessive amount over a period of time. Children can become preoccupied with these violent video games which have been proven to be the cause of poor social skills, uncontrollable aggression and a false reality.
Aggression can be an outcome of numerous different factors, yet many still believe that VVGs alone are to account for growing aggression. However, if this was the case, would there not be a spike in the violent crimes committed by those who, might, play video games? Not only do the amount of homicides executed after a release of a popular video game consistently decrease (Stein), but as several researchers pointed out "90% of young males play video games. Finding that a young man who committed a violent crime also played a popular video game . . . is as pointless as pointing out that the criminal also wore socks" (Markey and French). This phrase summarizes the major downfalls of the hypothesis that VVGs cause aggression, but it is also supported
Scott, D. The Effect of Video Games on Feelings of Aggression. The Journal of Psychology. March 1995 v129 n2 p121-132.
Many People have put their attention directly on the influence violent video games have on the bad behavior of children. People believe videogames intensify aggression in children, while others say it can be a safe getaway for a child to express his aggression. Many opinions on this issue are stated still today, and they remain divided amongst the people who claim videogames to be a cause of aggression and those who claim otherwise. A child’s behavior can not be determined by violent video games, but instead is caused by a variety of environmental and domestic factors. It is easy to blame video games on violence, instead of looking at factors such as economic status, familial issues, and exposure to other entities such as television and media. This paper will bring forward the opinions of those who believe in no relationship between violent video games and bad behavior with one counter argument expressing the opinion of those who believe there is a relationship.
The purpose of this paper is to present a literature review on existing articles relating to the possibility of violent video games promoting aggressive behavior. The hypothesis set forth was that people who played non-violent video games displayed more Prosocial behavior versus those who played violent video games displayed more antisocial and aggressive behavior. A search was conducted on regular search engines on the internet, and on EBSCOhost using the title “can violent video games promote aggressive behavior.” The research articles presented are obtained from five case studies each focusing on different measures that were obtained, methods used, the participants involved, the designs of the study, and the results of the studies.
Although violent video games are thought to encourage real world violence, they actually help to prevent it. I am focusing on violent video games and how they affect juveniles because I feel that this issue needs to be looked at in the criminal justice community. It is an unnecessary distraction to blame the actions of a disturbed youth on a form of entertainment that has been used by millions of people without incident. A review article published in The Psychiatric Quarterly found that many studies which claim to indicate an increase in aggression due to video games are, in fact, biased! Once the bias is taken into account, the studies no longer find any correlation between youths who play violent video games and youths who demonstrate aggression and violent behavior.
middle of paper ... ... The Effects of Violent Video Game Habits on Adolescent Hostility, Aggressive Behaviors, and School Performance. Journal of Adolescence, 27. http://www.sciencedirect.com
Have you ever wondered if violent video games can cause aggression in children? Thousands of children all over the world engage in violent video games for a large amount of time during their day. According to ProCon.org 60% of middle school boys and 40% of middle school girls who played at least one Mature-rated (M-rated) game hit or beat up someone, compared with 39% of boys and 14% of girls who did not play M-rated games. I will be using naturalistic and case study research methods to determine if violent video games cause aggression in children.
Scott, Derek. “The Effect of Video Games on Feelings of Aggression.” The Journal of Psychology 129.2
Video games have been a rapidly expanding industry since their inception in the 1970s. Along with their growth have come concerns about violent video games and their effects on aggression and violence in young people. The endless numbers of school shootings have pushed this issue to the forefront. These events brought about the question: do violent video games induce aggression in youth? That’s the question I set out to answer by looking at research. The research shows that there is a link between playing video games and increases in aggression in adolescents. What implications does this fact have ethically? It means that video game producers and distributors need to be held responsible for their releases and the way they end up in the hands of kids.
Thesis Statement: Violence in video games does not affect levels of aggression in people as long as you follow the MSRB rating scale.
Exposure to media violence into an individuals game play correlates with individuals behaving aggressively or having aggressive thoughts. In other words, media violence is a direct cause for aggressive behaviors or thoughts. Media violence includes the internet, movies, explicit books, music/music videos, and video games along with many other forms. Most researchers believe violent movies and video games are the primary source of aggression because of how much violence in these sources of entertainment have increased over time. In order to prove this theory, a numerous amount of different studies were conducted ranging from the participants being children and adolescents.
Children and adolescents that play violent video games undergo through aggressive behavior. The violent activity in the video games influence
Ihori, N., Sakamoto, A., Shibuya, A. & Yukawa, S. (2007). Effect of video games on children’s aggressive behavior and pro-social behavior: A panel study with elementary school students. Retrieved 26 March 2014 from http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/07312.31554.pdF
The first effect of mass media on teenagers is violence. Aggressive behavior is the first example of violence in the media. Aldridge argues that, teens who watch violent movies may behave in an aggressive way towards others for example bullying and fighting in school. This is important because there are high risks of teenage developing into aggressive behavior that may last into adulthood if they are not being supervised on what they see on TV (2010). Fearful of the world may also occur for those who watch violence television programs. According to children and television violence, teens that are being over exposed to violent on television may worry about becoming a target of violence. The relevance of this idea is that teenagers will more likely grow up thinking that the world is a scary place and that something bad will happen to them (2008). Imitative behavior is another major effect of seeing violence in the media. According to Weldon, two teens from Johnstown, Colorado, killed a 7 year old girl by beating her to death. The teens claimed that they were imitating moves from a video game called “Mortal Combat.” This is an example case which shows that violence in the video game may lead to an imitating behavior (2007).