Criticle Article Review: Violent Video Games Essay

In a study conducted to measure the effect of violent video games in adolescents, they measured blood pressure and heart rate for three different sessions, and the results were that the measures of heart rate and blood pressure weren’t significant enough to prove there was an affect, however the adolescents reported to be more aggressive and angry when playing a violent video game rather than a sports video game.

The main argument of this article is that video games have a direct link to short term and long term aggression. The author presents this argument by providing studies from peer reviewed articles that all conclude that video games do cause an increase of aggression. The main point of this article is to answer the question, “Do violent video games lead to aggression.” The article is about the effects of violent video games leading to aggression. The author uses recent examples, like the Sandy Hook and Washington Navy Yard shooting. In both of these examples, the author cites that both shooters had a history with playing violent video games. The author uses a study which selected individuals to play violent video games for a certain period of time. The study would then compare the results to a group who played non-violent video games. The study concluded that violent video games cause a direct link in aggression due to humans reenacting the actions the characters within the video games perform.

Studies have shown that repeated exposure to violent video games over time does affect the structure and functioning of the adolescent brain. The brain is a malleable and ‘plastic’ structure that can change and evolve with every stimulus we give it. Whether this stimulus comes from studying Spanish, training in basketball or playing a video game, every single input can affect the structure and functions of the brain if the conditions are right. While some video games enhance multitasking, visual perception and the brain’s ability to process information, research has suggested that violent video games can influence aggressive behaviour, aggressive cognition and physiological arousal. A study conducted by Doctor Vincent Matthews and his colleagues at Indiana University School of Medicine have found that there were sustained changes in the regions of the brain associated with cognitive function and emotional control after a group of young adult men were playing violent video games for a week. Similarly, in laboratory studies, some researchers have found an increase of about four percent in gamers’ levels of aggression after playing violent video games. However, other research groups have concluded that factors such as family background, mental health and

There are indicators that links playing violent video games to increasing aggression in young people. Teenagers who are expose to violent games are more supposable to increase the likelihood of experiencing aggressive thoughts, in which turns into the likelihood of engaging in physical aggression against another person. Furthermore, violent video games produce an emotional desensitization to aggression and violence to the youth (Anderson). Based on the observation teenagers are exposed to when they are playing violent video games, they will reenact almost immediately in real life if the situational contact is sufficiently similar to the ones in the games. Therefore, consumption of violent video games produces negative behaviors that are controlled by negative

The paper discusses how violent video games affect a person's behavior and if they manifest violence and show aggression in the real world after playing such video games. I learned that not all people who are exposed to video game or media violence turn violent. I think it depends on the person if he wants to get influenced from the game, to mimic what the game shows. This is just like the next source, discussing about what kind of behavioural problems violent gaming brings about.

Some would argue that people’s emotions have a much greater influence on the change in behavior while playing violent video games. For example you could base the violent behavior “...not by the actual game, but by the emotions caused by prolonged use and frustration of not being able to get through the tough parts. Sometimes the seriousness of people’s emotional responses is not always taken into significant account when the research is conducted” (Danielski 1).

The majority of people have an involuntary response to scenes of violence, often followed by changes in one's heart rate and skin conductance. The negative emotional response that follows inhibits aggressive behaviour, which provokes a helping behaviour. However, those who are exposed to violent video games or violent media, show a reduction in their skin conductance and heart rate when they are met with real violence. Young children become desensitization to these violent acts and tend to exhibit aggressive behaviours to follow. To these children, violent scenes becoming less arousing, and their exposure to media violence may reduce their physiological reaction to violence surrounding them in the real world. These behaviours may take an effect

Violent video games are significantly associated with: increased aggressive behavior, thoughts and also cause increased physiological arousal and decreased pro-social behavior (Anderson). At the Indiana University School of Medicine, researchers say that brain scans of kids who played a violent video game showed an increase in emotional arousal and a corresponding decrease of activity in brain areas involved in self-control, inhibition, and attention. However what was not clear was what the MRI images indicate a lingering–or worse- permanent effect on the child’s brain, and what the effects longer playing times might have (Kalning). All of which are negative effects. Evidence form brain scans in another test seem to support a connection between playing video games and activation of regions of the brain associated

Another set of randomized experiments also examined the effects of violent video games on psychology. In these experiments, after two groups of participants played violent or nonviolent video games, they were required to list their thoughts on paper to assess their aggressive cognition. Unfortunately, the results tell us that violent video games appear to make people generate more aggressive thoughts than those who played nonviolent video games

Video games have become very influential on children and adults (Stafford, 1999). With violent video games humans are more prone to act aggressively, to have aggressive thoughts and become numb towards violence (Harding, 2009). Apart from these they are

On the other hand, some people, although they already know some of the positive aspects of video games, still believe that the negative will overcome the positive ones. The connection between violent games and real violence is also fairly intuitive. In playing the games, kids are likely to become desensitized to gory images, which could make them less disturbing and perhaps easier to deal with in real life. When video games aren't about violence, their capacity to teach can be a good thing. For patients suffering from arachnophobia, fear of flying, or post-traumatic stress disorder, therapists are beginning to use virtual realities as a desensitization tool. Though this presents an evidence that violent games do in fact increase violent thoughts, this data still cannot serve as an evidence because the test is conducted in a controlled environment, without considering other aspects that might result in the change in behavior.

Does exposure to violence in video games, on TV, and in social media have an effect on those exposed to it? Are those who are underage more susceptible to any detrimental side effects from viewing these things? This has long been a topic of discussion among lawmakers, psychologists, and the scientific field as a whole. It concerns parents and community members, especially in the wake of a seeming rise in violence at school from bullying, fighting, or in the extreme cases of school shootings. Were any of these types of incidents encouraged by exposure to violence in media?

Risky behavior by children and young adults can include violence against others or lack of remorse for consequences. The type of faulty thinking creates stressors in children which can lead to the onset of many symptoms. Children who partake in video game violence are more likely to have increased feelings of hostility, decreased emotional response to the portrayal of violence, and injury that lead to violent behavior through imitation. A new study employing state-of-the-art brain-scanning technology says that violent video games can cause an individual to become violent. Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine say that brain scans of kids who played a violent video game showed an increase in emotional arousal and a corresponding decrease of activity in brain areas involved in self-control, inhibition, and attention. In short, when playing a violent game, an individual’s brain processes the game playing as “fictional”, but later can project some of the unknown effects as violence or aggression.

Violent video games can desensitize children. Studies show that most video games in today’s society contain some type of

With the advent of violent video games, one key element which researchers explore for the impact of video games on its users is if the users become desensitized to violence. The reason why this debate is essential is because of the many games containing high contents of violence. Carnagey, Anderson, and Bushman (2007) give an operational definition of what desensitization to violence means by saying how through it one experiences an emotional-related physiological reduction to react to real violence. Thus, when one becomes exposed to real life violence or violent stimuli, one becomes less reactive, since one has already become attuned to violence. Carnagey et al. (2007) assert how if children or civilians become desensitized to violence it can bring about detrimental effects for the society. At the same time, because