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an essay on the impact of video games on aggression
cause and effect essay on violent video games
Violent Video Game Effects on Aggression
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Video games have been around for years now and gaming companies have been making billions of dollars selling consoles like the Playstation 4, Xbox one, Nintendo Wii, and many more. Almost everyone in the entire world at least played a video game in their life. Video games is one of the most popular devices people play in the world even more popular than the television when it came out. Gamers all over the world play video games for hours and sometimes even for the whole entire day. Researchers like Dedria Bryfonski, Craig Anderson, and Roman Espejo believe that violent video games can cause aggressive behavior on children and adolescents. Other researchers believe that violent video games don’t cause gamers to be aggressive. Many people have …show more content…
All these types of aggression can be shown while playing the game. According to this book verbal aggression involve causing harm by verbal means, physical aggression involves causing harm physically, and relational aggression involves causing harm by mentally or emotionally (Anderson 14). For example, playing online and saying inappropriate things to your teammate like, “ You suck, go get your money back retard,” and surprisingly I hear it all the time when I play video games. Another example would be a friend hitting you with the keyboard and breaking the keyboard on your head would be physical aggression just because you beat your friend at a game. Last example is about relational aggression when your girlfriend gets in the way of your video game and you shove her to the side and told her you will get beat if you get in the way again. She leaves the room mad and helpless almost about to cry. Sadly I have seen so many examples like these during my visits to my friends houses and sometimes YouTube videos also shows the aggression how people react to each other while playing the …show more content…
Most say it’s the children and adolescents that are exposed to violent things around them that leads them to violent video games. This statement make sense because I do agree that children are exposed to violence in their lives that leads them to act aggressive but not all children and adolescents are exposed to violence. For example my brothers, one of them is 15 and the other is 20 and they are very docile and kind. I rarely hear them talk bad to anyone and they try their best to get along with anyone. The only thing that surprises me is when they both play Call of Duty Black Ops 3. They are a different person because of the way they act and the things they say. I have never heard my brother say a bad word but recently he have been saying bad words when he dies in the game. The 15 year old always get mad and sometimes has the urge to throw the control or even cries about the game that it is the game 's fault that he died. This is why I think Violent video games are the problem that make kids more aggressive. In the article Violent Video Games and Young People it states that “authors believe that video games are particularly harmful because they are interactive and encourage role-playing. As such, the authors fear that these games may serve as virtual rehearsals for actual violence.” Role playing is a big one that children tend to
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.
Based on previous research about the effect of video games in aggression, Paul Adachi and Teena Willoughby conducted a research to determine if it was the competitiveness or violence of video games that could cause an aggressive response on university students. According to Adachi & Willoughby, much of the previous research on the topic had failed in leveling external variables such as competitiveness, difficulty and pace of action, and that those variable could have easily affected the results. They have also not taken into consideration if the aggressive behavior was caused either by competitiveness or by the violence or by the combination of both.
In 2008, 97% of twelve to seventeen year olds in America played video games, thus fueling the domestic video games by $11.7 million. Ten out of the top twenty best-selling video games contain violence. Many of these violent video games have been accused of incidents that include crime, bullying, and behavior problems. As the popularity of violent video games increase, more people become victims of behavior problems such as depression, aggressiveness, and addiction. Although video games were intentionally created for entertainment purposes, through studies and experiments it has been established that they are factors of behavior problems because of the active interaction people demonstrate while playing video games.
Children playing such harsh games forty minutes a day will result their mind to alter. “A dose of violent gaming makes people act more rudely than they would otherwise” (These games have a huge result on the user’s brain. “Violent games activate their anger center while dampening the brain’s conscience causing them to become more violent” (“Children and Violent Video Games” 1). Teenage brains are in the middle of growing, so it is very penetrable for video games to have a major impact on the child’s mind. “Playing violent games correlates to children being less caring and helpful toward their peers” (“Children and Violent Video Games” 1). After these games get into the players mind, they began to plot disasters: shootings, bombings, and theft.
Krcmar, M., & Farrar, K. (2009). Retaliatory aggression and the effects of point of view and blood in violent video games. Mass Communication & Society,12(1), 115-138.
Since the 1970 video games have become more popular than ever before. Generating 11.7 billions of dollars of sells every year or more, the video game industry is considered one of the largest industries in this century. However, video games have been a topic of controversy. With the sales of violent video games going up and the increased violence in schools and teenagers, video games are always to blame. Many people speculate that video games are the cause on why many teenagers have developed aggressive and violent behavior, are desensitize to violence, and the increase violence in schools and public places. In contradiction, video games have little or no fault in teenagers’ violent behavior and shouldn’t always be blamed.
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.
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.
By far the largest concern of technology today is video games. There have been so many experiments and studies to try and figure out if video games have a negative or positive effect on our children. A growing body of research is linking violent video game play to aggressive cognitive, attitudes and behaviors (D.A. Gentile, 2004). Video games can obviously be dangerous for our children causing aggression, bad performances in school and obesity. Although we cant blame all of these problems on the use of video game...
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.
Over the past 30 years, playing video games has become one of the most popular hobbies worldwide. Not only has the video game industry become a multi-billion dollar industry, but it has attracted people from all age types. While video games today are played by both kids and adults, there are many issues being raised regarding the effects of video games. More particular, is the effect that violent video games may be having on children. Some critics argue that video games are direct indicators of child aggression while video game supporters argue that there is no direct link between child aggression and violent video games. While many people have their own personal stances, this issue is unique because it is unfolding everyday. Scientists and researchers all over the world are continuously doing research regarding the effects of video games on children. Even though this remains a field of uncertainty for researchers, parents should definitely be involved in being aware of what it is that they’re children are playing when they play video games.
Some people believe that violent video games can cause behavioral problems. This is not true; it is only their opinion. They may say people that play violent video games start having behavioral problems, and what was that cause? It is only people and it has no effect on them, only their own action and their weak mental health issues. The violent video games for computers and consoles’ sale rate went up but violent crime offense went down. Video games are for players to have fun without causing any harm while they are playing. Why do they believe that behavior problems were caused by violent video games? They do not seem to realize that television and movies also have violent scenes. Some examples of popular violent movies include First Blood, Expendables, Dark Knight, Spiderman, and Superman. All action movies have shooting, explosions, and fighting. Horror movies are filled with violence as well, such as Halloween, Scream, and Saw. Horror shows and movie are showing stabbings and serious harm. Even Television shows, like the Three Stooges, Cops, wrestling and America's Funniest Videos! Children's cartoons have violence as well; Disney animated films, Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Watership Down.
Violent video games can lead to aggressive and violent behavior in children and adolescents. “Violent media increase aggression by teaching observers how to aggress, by priming aggressive cognition (including previously learned aggressive scripts and aggressive perceptual schemata), by increasing arousal, or by creating an aggressive state” (Anderson and Bushman 355). As more children are becoming exposed violence in video games in the recent years, violence in schools and other locations where children are prominent has increased. “A national crime victimization survey compiled and maintained by the United States Department of Justice, shows that overall crime rates in United States society have fallen. Simultaneously, school- based studies reveal that many violent behaviors have increased among children and adolescents” (“Causes of School Violence” 1). Exposure to violence in video games can lead to aggressive behavior, desensitization, and an increase in crimes committed by children and teens in our society.
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...
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.