Video Games : An Increase Level Of Aggression

Over the past few centuries,video games have become a great leisure and hobby among kids of all ages and cultures. With the advancement of technology, video games have advanced highly in its realism and genres. This high type of advancement brought the video game industry to a multi-billion dollar industry. However, with realism, comes negative effects as well. Ever since the creation of violent or “mature” video games, there has been a constant debate on whether it will increase violence in the player. Although, not all video games are violent, and just increase skills in a player such as hand-eye coordination. Nevertheless, there is research going on for the link between violent video games and youth violence. The question is which event happens first in the sequence, do violent video games aggravate a person’s violent behavior, or does a person get rid of their anger through playing violent video games? Either way, violent video games are not beneficial to our society.

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 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.

“Approximately 90 percent of kids in the U.S. play video games, and more than 90 percent of those games involve mature content that includes violence.”-(Time Health). The link between violent media and aggression in video games has also created a spawn of research studies that has gone back and forth on the issue of whether

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

Since violent video games, like Mortal Kombat, were created, adolescents who play these games become more aggressive than before. To me, playing violent video games is unsafe for these people since they have the negative influence on these people. I believe that researching on that topic would help us get the sense of what problems to avoid. I wish to know what are the possible effects of violent video games on adolescents’ aggression. The independent variable is violent video games, and the dependent variable is adolescents’ aggression. My hypothesis is that adolescents who play violent video games become very aggressive than those who don’t. For this essay, I would like to present the findings from each article that will answer

In this study, people meticulously studied other articles based on criteria they created for the research question, and conducted a trial themselves to come to a conclusion. “The research demonstrates a consistent relation between violent video game use and increases in aggressive behavior, aggressive cognitions, and aggressive affect and decreases in prosocial behavior, empathy, and sensitivity to aggression.” They deemed that violent video game usage has a direct and constant relationship with all behavioral activities related to

A significantly large portion of the video games created within the past 5 to 10 years contain some form of violence. On top of that, some of the most popular video games out in the market today are extremely violent and warrant an “M” rating for mature. Video game developers are well aware of this trend and continue to produce more graphic, interactive, and realistic content. Therefore, there is a concern that the vast amount of violence in video games is changing how youth develop and what they perceive as normal. Many researchers believe that there is a link between video games and increased aggression in the people who play them.

Video games provide a variety of experiences for people of all ages. Games can be played on various platforms including the computer, hand held games, and gaming consoles. Children and adolescents can be exposed to violent content through video games and it may affect the way they behave. Playing violent video games regularly can increase aggressive behavior in adolescents. Within this hypothesis, the independent variable is playing violent video games regularly, the effect is an increase, and the dependent variable is aggressive behavior in adolescents. Violent video games are games in which there is extreme behavior or images. Extreme behavior in video games is shown through killing or severely injuring another character using guns, the body,

Violent video games are advantageous because they can help people relax and deal with social problems/stress. For example, “No study has ever shown that violent video games result directly in actual violence, let alone mass shootings” (Kain). Also, “None of these extreme acts, like a school shooting, occurs because of only one risk factor; there are many factors, including feeling socially isolated, being bullied, and so on,” said Craig A. Anderson, a psychologist at Iowa State University” (qtd. In Carey). These quotes show that violent video games are not the reason for violence and shootings, hence they should not be blamed for these atrocious acts. Instead, violent video games should be looked on as a positive influence in people’s lives as they can help them stay preoccupied, and not have them focus on the negatives in their lives such as being bullied, not being socially welcomed and other dilemmas they may be experiencing. “In fact, numerous studies have been conducted and the results are mixed. Some studies have shown that video games increase aggression; others show the opposite” (Kain). In other words, even though some studies have shown that video games increase aggression; there are other studies that have shown video games releasing aggression and ultimately relaxing the player. Critics may argue that violent video games increase aggression and make people more violent. “Sure enough, compared with a group who had played a nonviolent video game, those who had been engaged in “Mortal Kombat” were more aggressive across the board” (Carey). However, violent video games can relieve stress and aggression; calming them down and making them safer to be around.

Ever since the spawn of video games people have been glued to the fun and challenges they present. Over the years, these fun and challenging games evolved into violence and shooting. As a result of this evolution, controversy has arisen about violent video games leading to behavior issues. Do they lead to aggressiveness and hostility? Does excessive video game violence change how the brain reacts to violence? These are just a few common questions doctors and researchers have been trying to answer. Through all of this debate, a common consensus has been established. The constant and repetitive violence in video games can lead to a wide variety of behavioral issues despite some debate.

The possible harmful side effects of violent video games has been long debated for many years, especially in light of recent tragedies such as the Columbine shootings which was initially thought to have been caused by excessive violent video game play. Over the years, many professional health associations have joined in agreement of these harmful effects (Anderson, Ihori, Bushman, Rothstein, Shibuya, Swing, Sakamoto & Saleem, 2010). Past research has revealed evidence that violent video games and media violence increases the likelihood of aggressive and violent behavior in both short and long term contexts (Anderson & Dill, 2000). However, because video game violence is a newer phenomenon with this technology emerging in the late 80’s and early 90”s, research is still very limited (Anderson et al., 2010). Nevertheless, Anderson and Dill (2000) produced two quantitative research studies in their published article, “Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life” using the General Affective Aggressive Model formulation, which revealed a correlation between video game violence and increased aggressive behaviors in both long and short term frameworks.

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

When considering the different common psychological perspectives that are available, it can become difficult to discern which one best accounts for a particular psychological belief. That being said, the author leans towards the opinion that the behavioral perspective is the psychological perspective which best accounts for the accepted connection between video games and aggressive behavior. This perspective is founded on behaviorism, but it also incorporates the social-cognitive theory. This perspective places observable behavior and the importance of learning as the key tenets. It is based off of the belief that an individual’s behavior is a product of the rewards and punishments that they have received as the results of their actions. However, it also recognizes the importance of cognitive factors, the value placed on different things and cause-and-effect reasoning, in shaping an individual’s behavior (Nevid 9).

There has been a considerable concern about video games causing harm to the mental well-being of teenagers, not only due to the actual number of teenagers playing video games but also because the topic is relatively new and unexplored. The problem of aggression has a big influence on a social psychology, due to its conceptualization as a problem in interaction between individuals (Krahe 2013, 2). Due to the number of different opinions that people have, it is necessary to understand what is right and what is wrong. The data shows that, on average, a teenager spends 9 hours a week on playing games. Also, 90% of all children ages from 2 to 17 in the United States play video games (Carnagey, n.d., 882). However, the actual problem lies deeper. The main concern about video games is actually whether they cause the level of aggression to rise or not. In this research paper, there will be a thorough analysis of both sides that will shed more light on the topic and further recommendations will be given.