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negative effects of playing violent video game on adolescents from psychologists
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does violent video games affect behavior
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In 2005, the American Psychological Association suggested that the correlation between violent video games and aggression is stronger than the correlation with television. Some notable scholars have question this correlation, and wondered if it was infact true. This debate came up again after the Virginia Tech Shootings, when Philip McGraw, commonly known as Dr. Phil, and Jack Thompson blamed it on the violent video games. In 2007, the Virginia Tech Review Panel discovered that Seung-Hui Cho, the shooter, did not play video games at all.
There are three theories that explain the link between violent video game exposure and aggression. They are the social learning theory, catharsis hypothesis and mood-management theory. The social learning theory suggests that aggression is a learned behavior through a procedure called behavioral modeling. In regards to violent video games, it suggests that an individual, that is exposed to violent video games, will develop a “cognitive script related to aggression”. The catharsis hypothesis suggests that aggression is a biological and evolutionary ...
The allegation that videogames cause violent behavior in children has been present as long as videogames themselves. Some researchers said that the Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, was one intense gamer. “Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech Shooter was seen by his roomates as odd because he never joined them in video games.”(Beresin) This debate will continue to go on in this country as long as there are horrific crimes that occur. There is much written in the research regarding this issue, and many differing views. The research that is presented in the next few paragraphs supports the theory that it is not the graphic video games that produce aggressive behavior, but other factors in a child’s life that create violent actions.
Parenting.com brought up research on video games to argue about. They mention that a first-person shooter game is more serious than watching violence on T.V. A recent meta-analysis in 2010 of 12 earlier studies found a link between times spent playing video games and violent behavior later in life (Emmons, 2013). They mention the study that was taken place in 2004 from Journal of Adolescence showed that video games are more desensitized than TV. That the children that play violence game are more interactive than watching, their physical activity are different. However, they mention the other studies that failed to link between violent video game exposure and aggression (Emmons, 2013). They brought up a good point that most of the studies had focused on normal kids, the study does not consist of children with e...
The American Psychological Association has conducted research pertaining to the effect violent video games play on children. In this article the APA discusses how some of their research has made it evident that violent video games may cause some children to be far more aggressive to their peers, but the same games seemed to have a positive affect on other children. The research that was conducted by the APA in this article shows that the violent video games alone have little or no effect on a child, but instead it is a mix of certain personality traits of the given child that make a child more susceptible to the violence that is presented to them when playing video games. The research presented in this article also shows some of the positives that come along with the activity of playing video games. These positive effects range from the usage of video games in a hospital enviro...
According to Valadez and Fergusion (2012), “The effects of violent video game exposure, both positive and negative, on various behaviors are still highly contested within academia and the general public” (p. 608). Violence in video games is often wrongfully perused as a topic of extreme criticism pertaining to an individual’s act of violence in today society. Examples of such would include the shooting that occurred in April 2007 at Virginia Technical College; where Jack Thompson and Philip McGraw asserted that violent video games were the ultimate cause of the tragic incident, but further investigation suggested that Seung-Hui Cho had never played any such games (Valadez & Fergusion, 2012). Since the early days of mankind, society has often enlisted the service of a scapegoat in the attempt to correct the unethical or immoral conduct of a few individuals; violence in video games is no exception to this type of social misconduct. Possibly, one may want to consider human nature and its unyielding desire to be competitively better than the next person; compared to an individuals need to be excessively violent regardless of visual representation of violence in the first place. Although many will argue the effect that violent video games have on the human psyche; the research is far too inconclusive for one to make an educated assessment of the provided information.
The first set of cold, clammy hands closes around my ribs. Another circles my ankle, my arm, my neck. With an irritated sigh, I restart the level for the third time as the words, “Game over” flash across the screen. Sound familiar? This scene is very common among modern zombie apocalypse games. Though the titles of these games vary, the theme remains the same: to fight for one’s life. Users are thrust into a world where they must combat violence thrown at them with violence of their own. The sheer thrill of it can be very exciting and relates well to many youth because of its life or death component. All of a sudden, eight year old boys are armed with machine guns to blast the heads off of shuffling zombies, bug-eyed aliens, and more commonly, modeled soldiers. But, while the video games continue to be mass produced, the cognitive and social skills of America’s youth suffer. With the mental health of the newest generation on the line, is it really justifiable to pass off buying the newest violent video game as innocent fun?
Playing violent video games is considered to have negative effects on the players. Violent video games create an aggressive behavior in the people who play them. Experimental, correlation, and longitudinal studies have supported the idea of an increased aggressive behavior due to playing violent video games. Based on experimental studies, “. . . individuals in laboratory environments have demonstrated short-term increased levels of physiological arousal, hostile feelings, hostile attitudes and aggressive behavior following sessions of playing violent video games compared to non-violent video games.” In addition, correlation studies “. . . have demonstrated a significant relationship between exposure to violent video games, trait hostility, and aggressive or antisocial behavior,” which support...
The problem in determining a cause(s) is further compounded by mixed experimental findings. Scott (1995) did not find a positive relationship between video game violence and aggressive feelings among youth. In fact, there seemed to be a decrease in aggressive attitudes after playing violent games. These result seems to run counter to related studies concerned with the re...
Flanagan explains throughout her article that out of the American youth today, 97% of them play violent video games for at least two hours per week. Also in the article “Imaginary Guns Don’t Kill People, either” by Scott Shackford, he explains that since violent video games have become such a popular activity, it is considered surprising if one hasn’t played one by now. Violent video games show teens that shooting people is acceptable. In “Is video game violence bad?” by Christopher J. Ferguson, he states that the trigger of violent video games causes at least some of aggressive actions that happen throughout the world, including school shootings. For example, in the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, two students carried weapons into the school and proceeded to kill thirteen people. Unsurprisingly, the roots to their actions were speculated to be prior bullying experiences and violent video games (History.com). Also, Ferguson states that violent video games are correlated with mass shootings across the nation. Teens that have been influenced by violence are a dangerous factor to themselves, classmates, friends, and
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.
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.
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.
While many different case studies have been done all over the world, scientists have yet to prove that there is a direct correlation between violent video games and child aggression. Since the start of this quarter, this has been an issue that I have been doing extensive research on. Despite looking into several scholarly sources, I was surprised to see that many of my findings were pretty consistent with one another. For the mort part, what I found through my research was a bunch of statistics from case studies and the interpretation of those statistics from renowned scientists. In many cases, statistics and studies showed slight indications that violent video games have an effect on c...
Exposing someone to violent video games will train the person for doing violent actions that are shown in violent games. Grossman is a writer of two books on video game violence and thinks that video game is a major cause for violent teen behavior. On 1997 in a Paducah, Kentucky high school shoot out a 14 year boy shot eight people and five where headshots. This was believed to be a effect of the teen playing first person shooter games. The FBI say that trained law enforcement officers only land one out of five shots and this boy had no past experience shooting except for in the game. “Exposing children and adolescents (or "youth") to violent visual media increases the likelihood that they will engage in physical aggression against another person,” said expert Craig A. Anderson. Exposure to violent video games can cause a child to learn the...
Children and adolescents that play violent video games undergo through aggressive behavior. The violent activity in the video games influence
The question is, “Do violent video games influence children to act aggressively?” and “Can repetitive killing train a person to be violent himself?” Although the violence in these video games is fictional, research has proven the violence to lead to more aggressive behavior in children. Violent acts depicted in these games allow young children to believe that killing and fighting is acceptable and fun.