Increasing Cognitive Readiness

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

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.

In the discussion portion of the article the authors discuss the lowered reaction to the violent images in the video following the 20 minutes of violent video game stimulation. They also discuss the fact that results were quite dramatic across the different individuals and attitudes toward violence. They also give insight into their results and the implication of the GAM concerning the prevalence of lowered arousal levels to violence acts following the violent stimuli via video games. Using the GAM they discuss implications such as people’s lowered likeliness to respond a victim in a violent situation if they are not in an aroused state in the midst of the violent act.

In Chapter three I was introduced to the cognitive tool kit. First thing I did was looked up cognitive. I have seen and heard the term before however wanted to ensure I had the correct meaning of the word. Business Dictionary defined cognitive as psychological process involved in acquisition and understanding of knowledge, formation of beliefs, and attitudes, and decision making and problem solving. After reading the definition I came up with my own definition. Cognitive- Having the ability, skills and problem solving ability to respond intelligently as an independent and critical thinker. The cognitive capacities and values fostered by interdisciplinary studies are perspective thinking which is the ability to view a problem from an alternate viewpoint in order to gain a better understanding. The second Interdisciplinary Study capacity that involved is critical thinking. The ability to Analyze, critique and form an educated opinion is something I consider on of my strongest points. The third capacity is integration. Integration allows you to see the finish product of perspective viewing and the critical thinking process. The cognitive capacities and values are reflected in Maya Lin’s work allowed the visitor to place themselves in the solders shoes. Everything was calculated from the mirror reflected granted to the sloping. For those few moments the visitor went back in time and had an emotional attachment to the atmosphere. In Chapter four “The Rise of the

By conditioning the soldiers, they are able to kill other humans with relative ease. “Just as the army is conditioning people to kill, we are indiscriminately doing the same thing to our children, but without the safeguards” (Grossman 2). Grossman claims that media desensitizes the children to violence, and kids often associate it with pleasurable things, making violence not so bad to them. However, as Michael Zarozinski puts it, “Any image that you are exposed to repeatedly will desensitize you to it. Simply being desensitized to violence will not lead to violent behavior. It simply makes one think less of violence when it does occur and can lead to people overestimating their chances of involvement in violence” (1). Regardless, Grossman continues by saying that “When people are frightened or angry, they will do what they have been conditioned to do” (4). He claims that by kids playing games, learning to repeatedly point and shoot, these children are being subjected to operant conditioning and will shoot others when cornered. Grossman gives the example of a murder case in South Carolina. A couple of kids were robbing a convenience store, and the defendant shot the clerk reflexively without consciously deciding to. Grossman says this is due to the fact that the kid played too many video games, conditioning himself to shoot instinctively. The obvious flaw in this logic is that the kid must be in a situation where shooting someone is a viable option.

Additionally, although violent video games might expose children to violent behavior, the amount of violence are not as great as the ones in movies and television. The news is filled with stories of war and murder, and nearly every movie contains some forms of violence. Plus, these two media are different from games in a very important way because they involve real people, not computer-generated characters. One of the social psychological science faculties in

Many people agree with the statement that through the media in movies, television shows, and video games, showing violence affects the youth. Even though many agree, some have different opinions of explaining their reasoning behind their thoughts. Grossman is a great example because his reasoning comes from a lot of his personal experiences from a lot of different kind of training from the military. He believes his experiences from classical conditioning is connected to the classical conditioning that the youth experience. Grossman states, “adolescents in movie theaters across the nation, and watching television at home, are seeing the detailed, horrible suffering and killing of human beings, and they are learning to associate this killing a suffering with entertainment”

Have you ever wondered if a game or a movie can actually influence you to be angry? What changes in our mind when we watch violence? Imagine that you are playing a game of Mortal Kombat or watching a movie like The Punisher in your room on your beanbag chair and when you wake up in the morning and you go to the kitchen to talk to your sister and you yell at her all of a sudden for no reason. The research paper that you are about to read is going to tell you how and why it is affecting young children’s brain waves. My thesis is that violence in movies, shows, and games do influence children to change their behavior from happy to angry.

The adversary also contends that violent media, in particular shooting games are training children to kill people. Leo affirms that “Psychologist David Gross of Arkansas State University, a retired Army officer, thinks ‘point and shoot’ video games have the same effect as military strategies used to break down a soldier’s aversion to killing” (Leo). There are several problems with this evidence however, including the fact that the comparison between military strategies and violence in the media is not the same. Military strategies have a purpose to actually remove their soldier’s aversion to killing whereas the media’s purpose is to entertain someone. The other side states that said media, specifically video games, are targeting people to want to kill innocent people. Leo contests that “One ad for a Sony game says: ‘Get in touch with your gun-toting, testosterone pumping, cold-blooded murdering side’” (Leo). However the problem with this evidence is that an advertisement doesn’t actually cause violent

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

Anderson to support his claim by showing that most blame of violent outbreaks in society are blamed on one single thing, like video games, but if you look at the studies there are some many different factors that affect the behavior of today’s society. The author then goes on to say “Most researchers in the field agree with Dr. Anderson evidence and findings,” which establishes an accepted respect of authority for his source. This gives the reader a feeling of comfort in knowing that these sources are scholarly and can be trusted. Another source used by the author explains a recent experiment by psychologists at Iowa State University have found that after a short usage of the fighting game “Mortal Kombat” that they indeed acted slightly more aggressive shortly following the experiment but ultimately couldn’t find any results in long term effects. Mr. Carey states “Many similar studies have found the same thing: A dose of violent gaming makes people act a little more rudely than they would otherwise, at least for a few minutes after playing, but little is found about what actually follows,” this gives more support to his claim by displaying that his claim is the generally accepted and agreed upon opinion of most scholars in this field of study. Throughout the article the author gives each of his source’s full detailed background to explain why they are creditable and trustworthy

One of today’s most debated topics is whether violent video games cause bad behavior. This topic has been researched for almost 30 years and there are still major opinion differences. Many psychologists say violent video games do cause bad behavior, and claim that games such as Manhunt, Grand Theft Auto, and Modern Warfare, desensitize people to violence, making it a norm in society. Others disagree, claiming that these games, although they can be very violent, can help people develop critical thinking skills. (Nonviolent video games are preferred for this though). The truth is, violent video games do both; studies indicated that some games increase aggressive thought, feelings and behaviors in both the long and short term. But, studies

This question judges the social effects of a repetitive sequence of medial entertainment in relation to the increase in an individual’s aggressive behavior. The violence of today’s video games are far more visually gruesome then they were ten years ago. An example is the modern popular game Goldeneye 007, whose bad guys no longer disappear in a cloud of smoke when killed. Instead they perform an elaborate maneuver when killed. For example, those shot in the neck fall to their knees and then their face while clutching at their throats. These graphic games can increase an individual’s aggressiveness by portraying the act of a murder, as in Goldeneye 007. By answering this question, we can become more aware and be able to identify possible

In another study, researchers observed whether operant conditioning could take place from exposure to violence in video games (Carnagey & Anderson, 2005).

The Bobo doll study found that children were more likely to imitate violent behaviour they witnessed in a film if they perceived the behaviour would generate positive outcomes (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1963). Later findings across three decades of cognitive research on the effects of learning and priming concluded thoughts are connected by similar association, with media stimuli cognitively relating to memories and responses to trigger violent schemata retrieval in real- world situations (Berkowitz, 1984; Bushman & Geen, 1990; L Rowell Huesmann & Eron, 2013). Findings in two general aggression model (GAM) studies that complement cognitive frameworks, both monitored increases in physical arousal as potential determinants for short- term violent behavior. Again, positive correlations were found following exposure to media violence.(Bushman & Anderson, 2001; Thomas, Horton, Lippincott, & Drabman, 1977).