The Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior Essay

Ever since video games have become large part of the entertainment industry, while passing both the music and video industries, there has been a lot of controversy over the effects of it on its users. There was a research done by using the General Aggression Model (GAM), and it showed that violent video games such as First Person Shooter (FPS) and are actually linked to aggression. This peer reviewed journal article references and analyzes GAM’s research that have done. Their goal was to prove whether or not playing violent video games online increased aggression. They did this through an experiment by experimenting on different participants by having them play different game types which included: neutral video game-offline, neutral video game-online,

Continually being exposed to violent acts will eventually lead to violent behavior. Exposure to violence will cause some form of violence to develop over time. Unnecessary violence, such as video games, are causing problems that would otherwise not be an issue. For example, in one study, 161 nine through twelve-year old's and 344 college students were randomly assigned to play either a violent or nonviolent video game throughout a specific amount of time. The participants played a game against the computer in which they set punishments levels for their opponents. Those who played the violent games appeared to have harsher punishments than those who played nonviolent games (Cooper).

Looking into the world of video games I will explore research that has indicated the exposure to video games directly results in aggression or violent acts. Additionally, I examine research that has stated that a direct relation cannot be determined and that there may be other important factors not sufficiently addressed like societal influence. Also, I will introduce observations about the study of video games and their relation to aggression and violence and how they may be faulty or biased making any results reported necessitating additional scrutiny.

Many factors have been cases of study for researchers to support the thesis of behavioral changes as a consequence of exposure to violent video games and media. Among these factors the following can be found: repetition increase learning of aggressive behavior, violence exposure causes a desensitizing effect and depression as a risky factor in children and youth who play violent video games for a significant amount of time.

The video game industry has become a huge market in today’s society. It has been a fast-growing industry since it started. Today, many video games are directed towards youth. There have been several video games that have been released that are known to demonstrate violent behaviour. A concern that has developed is the possible connection between violent video games causing violent behaviour in young people. Many children and teens spend excessive amounts of time playing aggressive video games. Studies have shown the connection that both proves and declines the correlation between violent video games and violent behaviour. Some studies even show the benefits of playing these kinds of video games. The attitude “gamers” have towards video game research has also been a discussed topic.

The results from the above-mentioned experiment found that after participants played a violent video game, the behavior was perceived as a nonaggressive behavior and not an aggressive behavior. In contrast, playing the violent video games in the study led to negative scores over playing the neutral game. The experiment suggested that playing violent video games may alter the perception of a participant’s daily life aggressive behavior, which may influence real aggressive behavior (Greitemeyer, 2013).

Videogames are commonly known to any adolescent because as technology grows, so does its wide range of audiences. One study showed that, “The consumption of video games is at its peak during adolescence.” (Exelmans, 2015, p. 268). A lot of households in America have some sort of gaming system whether that is a Gameboy, Xbox, or Wii. A survey taken in Swiss founded that, “…more hours per week of…video game play were correlated with several aggressive behaviors,” (Olsen, 2007, p. 78). The purpose of my study is too see how violent video games can affect adolescents behaviors. This is important because by identifying whether or not violent video games correlate with aggressive and violent behaviors from adolescents can help us to be more conscious on what content children should be aloud to play, and what ages is that content acceptable to play without fear of someone’s children acting out aggressively because of a videogame. In addition to that, we can figure out better solutions to releasing aggression than through a game that makes an adolescent more frustrated when playing. Also, while using this survey we can see how many hours playing video games can affect your behavior. This study will also look at aspects of how the family members might feel about violent video games.

Studies performed by scientists, psychologists, and doctors worldwide to examine whether the violence in video games has a direct relationship to the outbreak of aggression in adolescents through young adulthood. Data was collected in Singapore over a three year period by interviewing the subjects of the study. Part of the study was asking questions to adolescents that played video games about how much time was spent on weekdays and weekends playing video games. More questions asked during the yearly interviews were about the gamer’s favorite game and was the game violent. The final questions each year where if they had feelings or thoughts about hitting someone and if it was

Video games have become immensely popular since their introduction in the 1970’s. The video game industry has since evolved into a leading player in the entertainment industry, and video games of all genres have become a popular pass time activity for children. However, according to a recent study, as many as 89% of these games have violence as a dominant theme. Potential harmful effects of the violent content of video games have been scrutinized over many decades. Views expressed in the debate over whether violent video games create aggression are often extreme, either idealizing or vilifying video games. Some studies suggest video games can provide an escape from school work and social activities and they may offer opportunities to display

Since violent video games have become very popular, the effect of these violent video games on aggression is a very relevant issue. As stated in an article written by Paul Adachi, “…31% percent of adolescents play video games every day…” and “… five of the 10 most frequently played games are violent” proving that many American adolescent partake in violent action that should not be experienced at such a young age (Paul Adachi). Lynch, Gentile,

There have been many debates and studies conducted on aggression in children and if video games are a major factor in cultivating that aggression. Determining the cause for aggression in children is a huge concern within the psychological community and the idea that video games could be behind it is one of the more popular ideas in recent years. However, this also means that the opposition for this viewpoint is immense and solid proof will be required in order to appease them. In recent years, there has been an increasing number of support and studies which show a direct correlation between aggression in children and video games.

Through extensive exposure to violent video games, individuals, especially adolescents, are subject to many psychological issues. After playing these video games, gamers typically exhibit more aggressive behaviour than they would have had they not played the game. Well known studies have been conducted by

Studies have been conducted to test whether or not violent video games increase aggression in children. The first study was conducted by Jia-Kun Zhang from Shanghai University of Sport and Qian Zhang from Southwest University. The purpose of this study was to investigate how aggression resulting from video games varies by gender and the child´s trait aggressiveness level. Two tests were conducted: the first being a test of two hundred and twenty children to see what games the children found violent. The second test was to see whether another set of two hundred and forty children showed more aggression after playing the violent game. Overall the results indicated that gender and trait aggressiveness affect aggression in children who play violent video games. “…children with high trait

The purpose of the study “Violent Video Games Stress People Out and Make The More Aggressive” was to investigate cardiac coherence as a mediator of the link between exposure to violent video games and subsequent aggression. The authors of this study went off of previous research that demonstrated the effects of violent video games on hormones (Lynch, et al., 1999) and aggression (Anderson et al., 2010), as well as the effects of stressful situations such as crowding and noise on aggression (Bushman and Huesmann, et al., 2010). Here, they tested the hypothesis that violent video games decreased cardiac coherence.

In an article written by Dai and Fry (2014), an experiment was conducted in which they compare the differences between playing and observing violent video games. Studies found that students who had played a violent virtual reality game had a higher heart rate, reported more dizziness and nausea, and exhibited more aggressive thoughts in a posttest than those who had played a nonviolent game.