Violent Video Games And Aggressive Behavior

How and why does mass media influence aggressive behavior? More specifically, does playing video games cause aggressive behavior? Because children and teenagers spend an increased amount of time each day viewing/playing video games, they are shaping their values, attitudes, and behaviors. For people who do act out aggressively, the results can be deadly. Monthly, the news is filled with blood-chilling accounts of crimes committed due to a copy-cat obsession with violent video games. This paper will present a brief review of literature and reveal the difficulties in answering this question with certainty.

A huge controversy in today’s society is violent video games and their behavioral effect on the children and adults who play them. Violent video games have been blamed for bullying, school shootings, and even violence towards women. Many have fought that violent video games desensitize players to real-life violence, and that they are teaching the youth that violence is an acceptable conflict-solving strategy. Other sources have stated otherwise. The 2004 Secret Service has stated that only one-eighth of attackers have exhibited interests in video games. Violent Video games do not cause violent behavior or behavior problems because it has not been proven that there is a link between violent video games and behavioral issues, playing video games provide a safe outlet for aggressive and angry feelings and reduces violence in young children, and violent juvenile crime has actually gone down since the violent video game popularity has increased.

Prolonged scenes of massive violence, graphic sexual content, and animated blood are examples of statements that the Entertainment Software Rating Board uses to depict the content in over fifty- five percent of the video games rated yearly. The debate of whether the aggressive nature of these video games influences youth violence in our country has been heatedly battled for decades. Since the mid 1980’s, it has been suggested that high profile cases of violence are due to an aggressor’s excessive video game use. However, much like a cold case the type of connection between video game use and youth violence remains without a definite answer. Most believe that video game use negatively influences child aggression acts in our country. Others firmly declare that video games provide a realm of opportunity for child development. Ultimately, it is impossible to say that video game use affects every child the same way. New studies suggest that video games do not affect every child that plays a game. Although violent video games are innocuous for the majority of adolescents between the ages of twelve and eighteen, the effects of these games are aggravated in those with pre- existing antisocial or depressive traits.

The author, Jean M Twenge Ph.D. who wrote “Yes, Violent Video Games Do Cause Aggression”( 2012) says, violent video games are definitely the main cause of the increase in violence. In the article by Twenge, she states, “ studies have shown that violent video games actually cause aggression...it could be that aggressive kids want to play aggressive games, or that an outside factor such as family background causes both” (Twenge 2012) Twenge goes on about how many people play video game so they are reluctant to give them up, including the designers. “It makes sense that the video game industry would not want to believe that their product leads to aggression and violence in real life”. If it was proven that video games were the cause of violence, would people stop purchasing games? Twenge continues on to assert that she wants violent video games off the shelf “taking away violent video games would not end mass shootings. But the best evidence available suggests that it would reduce real-life aggression”(2012). Twenge's evidence proves that less violent video games would improve the youth, and make them less aggressive.

According to Hollingdale and Greitemeyer (2014), Video games that are violent are identified as very popular games that are played by the consumers. There is a concern that violent video games may pose a public health risk due to the levels of aggression due to the effects of the video games. In a cross sectional studies it has been found that there is a positive correlations with real life and video game aggression. Also in longitudinal studies shows that playing violent video games constantly it can predict that there may be later aggression even after controlling for initial levels of aggression. Experimental studies have showed that playing the video game is a factor of an increase level of

Technology is an important aspect of change in our world. As time goes on, we are introduced to more and more technology every year, which includes media such as video games. The increase of technology has also increased and improved the world including ways of communicating and distribution of information. More often used outlets of media are those used for entertainment purposes, like television, internet and video games. The ones who are most likely to engage in these media outlets are millennials and the most recent generation Z, because they have been introduced to these outlets from a young age. In fact, a study found that children spend around 9 hours a week playing video games (Polman, de Castro, & van Aken, 2008). It is evident that video games are progressively becoming more violent in nature, and with children spending as much time as they do playing video games, there are questions that must be asked, is the violent nature of video games effecting today’s youth? And if so in what ways?

Previous research has found a link between exposure to violent videogames and aggression. The current study investigated whether the endorsement of traditional masculinity ideology moderates this relationship in college men. The sample, 168 men, filled out a demographic questionnaire, the Male Role Norms Inventory-Revised, an adaptation of the Exposure to Violent Videogames Measure, and the Aggression Questionnaire. Exposure to violent videogames was, as expected, correlated with aggression. Endorsement of traditional masculinity ideology was also correlated with aggression. The endorsement of traditional masculinity ideology was found to moderate the relationship between exposure to violent videogames and aggression. High endorsement increased

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.

The article, Violent video games and anger as predictors of aggression, explains the research that was done to show how video game violence is conjoined with aggression. The study was done with 79 females and 88 males. The result of the study was that those who were more angry at the time, were the ones who were more affected with the study. Jack Thompson (2000) explained how those people who were involved in school shootings were more likely prone to being video gamers. Especially now that video games now have more violence in them, which makes people want to buy them more because of how entertaining it is. They also believe that those who are known to be angry and play violent video games are characterized to be socially awkward, lonely,

In addition, despite controlling content such as hostility traits, and frequency of gameplay, exposure to violent content in video games was shown to be a significant predictor of physical fights (Gentile, Lynch, Linder, and Walsh 18). The current research study indicates trait hostility not to be the sole factor that leads to aggressive behaviour (Gentile, Lynch, Linder, and Walsh 18). If it were the sole factor, then children and adolescents who had low traits of hostility would not get into physical fights with others, making their video game habits an irrelevant determining factor (Gentile, Lynch, Linder, and Walsh 18). The same notion should be seen in individuals with high hostility traits, who, regardless of their video game habits,

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In today’s society, violence increases in the behavior of children growing into young adults more than it has in the past. Aggressiveness overwhelms the parents of those who once had innocent babies. Patterns of disrespectful social conduct is witnessed across the world. What influences this behavior in children? What can cause the negativity in a household of what used to be a loving family? Video games. One of the most popular activities for children, teens and young adults to pursue in their spare time. Hours spent staring at a television set manually making decisions towards unknown characters and objects can testify as one of the reasons behind violence growing in fans of particular video games.

“Recent contents analyses of video games show that many as 89% of games contain some violent contents” (Gentile, Lynch, Linder, Walsh 3). More than half of video games being sold around the world contain some form of violence. All of the violence involved in the video games being played by children is a pattern leading to aggression. Aggression can be caused by many things; however, violent video games are the main cause of aggression in young adults. “If a child began playing violent video games at a young age, then he might think that violence in real life is the same as the game violence and that it doesn’t have a real impact on others” (Gilad, Alto 1). Thinking that violence in the virtual world is the same as in the real world is the first step to showing aggression. Aggression in children caused by video games is the biggest effect parents and researchers worry about. Violent video games teach children that shooting and killing people are

Past studies have shown a link between violent video games and an increase in aggressive behaviors. The intent of the present study was to further investigate these findings. It was predicted that players who engage in violent video games would show higher rates of aggression. Participants (N = 20) were asked to complete two short surveys, the Buss and Perry (1992) aggression questionnaire and Anderson and Dill’s (2000) video game exposure scale. The results of the study did not support the prediction, nor did they corroborate the findings from previous research. Identifying the relationship between violent video games and aggression is rather complex. Earlier studies have shown varying results; however, much of the research has shown a positive correlation between video game violence and real-world aggression.

Controversy about video games continue to escalate between parents and gamers, regarding the psychological effect of simulated, realistic, and 3D violence on the minds of young children and growing teenagers. Yet, research shows that video games contribute very little to today’s everyday violence, despite complaints and concerns that games influence a child’s normal behavior. Technology is a way of life in today’s world, computers are used by toddlers, adolescents, and adults alike. No matter what career path a person chooses, the computer plays an essential role in the job. The more our technology progresses and as our industry grows stronger, computers and electronic entertainment will grow to be found everywhere around the world. This includes videogames.