Output Variables: Personological And Situational Input Differences

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.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of a recent study examining the effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior in young children. Let me first provide a brief summary of the study. (a) The hypothesis is that violent video games cause aggression in young children. (b) The target population is young children. (c) The samples are young school age children and the sample sizes are sixty children separated into two groups with 30 children being in the experimental group and 30 children being in the control group. (d) The independent variable is violent video games and the dependent variable is aggression. (e) The result of the experiment were

In the short term, the exposure to violence in the media may influence aggressive behavior by lowering the mood or activating aggression-related cognitive processes. Therefore, the individual is primed to behave aggressively in the short-term, and in the long-term this exposure may strengthen these aggressive cognitive processes, and therefore lead to a more aggressive personality overall. This theory would suggest that reading aggressive material would predict aggressive behavior. However, the Downward Spiral Model (Slater, Henry, Swaim, & Anderson, 2003) describes a bidirectional effect of media aggression. This implies that aggressive individuals may seek out violent media and thus reinforce and intensify such tendencies.

In their article “The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violence” (2007), authors Nicholas Carnagey, Craig Andersonb, and Brad Bushman claim that violent video game exposure increases aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, physiological arousal, aggressive behaviors, and decreases helpful behaviors. They support their claim by conducting an experiment showing that violent video games increase aggressive thoughts in child’s mind “participants reported their media habits and then played one of eight violent or nonviolent video games for 20min. Next, participants watched a 10-min videotape containing scenes of real-life violence while heart rate (HR) and galvanic skin response (GSR) were monitored” (Carnagey, Anderson, & Bushman, 2007). Their purpose is to show whether violent video games affect’s on the behavior or not. Mainly, their main audience were parents and people who are interested in studying children's behavior. Later on, they share the findings from their experiment, which happened to be true that they were influenced, and show the relationship between video games and children and how can we avoid the bad influence of violent video

Throughout a number of recent studies, participants playing violent video games have consistently shown increases in their aggressive behavior, both during and after the gameplay. A study that linked violent video games to child aggression found that in every group they tested, “Children who were exposed to more video game violence did become more aggressive over time than their peers who had less exposure” (Harding 1). An increase in aggressive behavior after playing violent video games is quite common in most cases, although many gamers would argue that other factors, such as people’s emotions, cause this negative change in behavior. This reveals numerous questions surrounding the effects that video game violence might have on

Researchers state that, “the most frequently cited mechanism by which the games can result in aggressive behavior is the social learning theory” (Sherry 413). The researchers go on to argue that since game players are rewarded for performing violent acts in the video games adolescents may transfer this to the outside world. Another mechanism researchers cite for the effects of violent video games is the general arousal method. This method says that the highly violent games provide the arousal that is necessary to become more aggressive (Sherry 413). These arguments are valid and open up the controversy on video game violence, which has been going on for years.

Bushman conducted three studies to test his hypothesis that “high trait aggressive individuals are more affected by violent social media than that of low trait aggression.” (Bushman. Web. 1995). These three studies were conducted empirically with 420 psychology students. Study one gave the students a film description, and then they chose of which to view. These films have not been shown in theaters or televised. They were given scores on the “Physical Aggression subscale,” which results from a questionnaire testing verbal and physical aggression, anger and hostility.  (Bushman. Web. 1995). The participants with high trait aggression were more likely to watch violence than the opposed. Study two, “participants reported their mood before and

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

This study concluded that violence in video games had nothing to do with violence. In reality, the study found that the level of competitiveness tended to increase violent behavior. The study found that regardless of if the video game had violence or not that violent behavior never increased or

In “The Effect of Online Violent Video games on Levels of Aggression” Jack Holligdale and Tobias Greitemeyer want to find out the effects video games have on aggression. Violent video games have previously been identified to be the most popular video games played by consumers. Research into the effect of violent video games on levels of aggression has led to concerns that they may pose a public health risk (Holligdale & Greitemeyer, 2014). Holligdale and Greitemeyer examined whether playing a FPS (first person shooter) game online would exacerbate the negative effects of violent video game play on aggression. A first person shooter game, is a game in which the gamer experiences the action through the eyes of the main protagonist, centered on a projectile weapon (Holligdale & Greitemeyer, 2014). The pair also examined the effect of particular game experiences including difficulty, enjoyment and action, previously identified to be associated with increased aggressive thoughts, on levels of behavioral aggression. The independent variables in the study are neutral and violent video games either online or offline. The dependent variable in the study is the amount of aggression shown by the participant. Prior research such as cross-sectional studies have found positive correlations between violent video game play and real-life aggression. Some longitudinal studies have showed that habitual violent video game play predicts later aggression after video game play. There have also

Violent video games do not sway our character and lead us to violent acts. Scientists cannot substantiate this issue because there is “... no hard data to prove that excessively violent

In 2011, a study shows that seventy-one percent games that contain violence interfere with the gamer’s behavior. Most people think there is some kind of connection. Scientists continue to investigate and they get closer and closer to finding that violent videos do affect a person’s behavior. Some researchers found that video games like first-person shooters, indeed influence violent behavior. It is shown that at least a few minutes of playing a violent video game, people can act a little

The topic of violence in video games has been a highly controversial conversation for many years. According to a 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation study, 10 hours and 45 minutes on average are spent per day using technology among all 8- to 18-year-olds, which is over a 2 hour increase over the past five years (Rideout et al, 2010, 2). Exposure to violent video games is significantly linked to increases in aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, and delinquency and decreases in prosocial and helping behavior (Anderson, 2004, 118), consistent with the General Affective Aggression Model. This model predicts the short and long term effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior. Many experiments have proven this, though there are some researchers who think that the results may be flawed and that the research needs to be corrected.

Since several video games contain some sort of violent content, it has been hypothesized that gamers nowadays tend to be more aggressive. Gentile also states that “playing violent games increases aggressive behaviors, increases aggressive cognitions, [and] increases aggressive emotions.” This is an intense list of negative consequences, but what makes violent games instill such hostility? Many video games today include multiplayer in addition to classical single player modes. With real life opponents, gamers are much more competitive and inclined to demonstrate dominance over friends and real life opponents. Whereas facing a computer can be competitive, there may be a stronger feeling of satisfaction after defeating a nonvirtual enemy which could translate into real life aggression towards real people. Though correlation does not mean causation, the fear that violent video games may increase problematic antagonism is clearly not misplaced.

As Humans, we use the word aggression in our day to day conversation to characterize our behavior and perhaps behaviors of others. We conclude that people are aggressive if they scream at or hit another individual, however, other harmful acts such as the killing of enemy soldiers during the war might be regarded as an aggressive act by everyone. Social psychologists have spent lots of time trying to determine what should be considered aggression and reasons why individuals exhibit aggressive behaviors towards other. Hence, for many decades social psychologists have carried out various psychological research on aggression and new evidence has emerged on the problems that researchers are exploring the fundamental construct of aggression for a long time continue to experience, raising new questions and posing new perspectives about aggressive behaviors.