Violent Video Games 1

Violent Video Games and Increased Aggression

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Violent Video Games and Increased Aggression A vast majority agrees that the media as a whole has become violent in recent years. Specially movies and video games. Discussion are ongoing for decades about the ill effects of violence in media. Strong correlations are there between violence in media and increased aggression levels of the viewer. Specifically, violent video games are thought to increase aggression and delinquent behaviors among the players (Anderson & Dill, 2000; Bartholow & Anderson, 2002; Davison, 1983; Konijn, Bijvank, & Bushman, 2007). These findings put light onto the effects of violent gaming, and it is highly negative, both on community and to individual. So appropriate intervention plans are needed to prevent this problem becoming a crisis. This literature will try to prove the ill effects (aggression among players) of violent video games, and will discuss some of the possible preventive measures. Several factors might be the cause of these elevated rates of misdemeanors, first video games are active whereas watching TV is passive. People learn through performing activities i.e. games. So the chances of undertaking the violent behaviors portrayed in the video games increases. Furthermore, players of violent video games are likely to identify with a violent character. If the game is a first person shooter players have the same visual perspective as the killer, but these chances are less with a TV program.Konijn et al. (2007) hypothesized that violent video games are likely to increase aggression when players identified with violent game characters. Konijin, Bijvank and Bushman chose 99 boys with a mean age of 14 years from Dutch VMBO classes. Students were randomly assigned to play realistic or fantasy violent or non-violent video game. After 20 minutes of game play, students competed a competitive reaction time task against an ostensible partner to measure the aggression. In which the winner could blast the loser with loud noise through headphones. Similar set of

Violent Video Games 3 procedure was carried in (Bartholow & Anderson, 2002). In which they hypothesized that playing the violent video game would result in more aggression than would playing the nonviolent video game. A total of 43 undergraduate students (22 men and 21 women) were randomly assigned to play either a violent (Mortal Kombat) or nonviolent (PGA Tournament Golf) video game for 10 minutes. (Konijn et al., 2007) found that identifying with violent video game characters makes players more aggressive and Bartholow and Anderson concluded, Participants who played the violent video game showed more aggression toward an opponent during the retaliation task than did participants who played the nonviolent game. However this studies has certain flaws, they only measured aspects of identification. Which limits the ability to make causal inferences. With this it can also be seen that violent games directly reward violent behavior, such as by awarding points or by allowing players to advance to the next game level. Skinner (1938) found that rewarding behavior increases its frequency (as cited in Plotnik & Kouyoumjian, 2010). Increasing the likely hood of violent behaviors from the gamer out site the virtual reality. Additional studies fuel this argument, Anderson and Dill (2000) conducted two studies on video game violence. One correlational and other experimental. Anderson and Dill used undergraduates from Midwestern University. For study 1 they adopted a correlation design to examine the relationship between long term exposure to violent video games and several outcome variables (aggressive behavior, delinquency, academic achievement and world View). Study 2 was conducted in laboratory over two sessions in two consecutive weeks. This study was carried to examine the effects of violent video game play on aggressive thought, affect, and behavior and on world view. Both the studies showed that graphically violent video game increased aggressive thoughts and behavior. Furthermore they suggested that violent video game play and aggressive personality separately and jointly accounted for major portions of both aggressive behavior and nonaggressive delinquency. Even if these

Violent Video Games 4 results are not conclusive as more generalized testing is needed to reach a definite conclusion. These results are highly suggestive, and shows negative social behaviors are caused due to violent video games Nevertheless many deny the harmful effects of violent video games. A reason for this is people believe the media have a much stronger effect on others than on themselves. This effect is very robust and is called the third person effect. The third person effect is summarized as; a person exposed to a persuasive communication in the mass media sees this as having greater effect on others than himself or herself. Each individual reasons: I will not be influenced, but they (third person) may well be persuaded. In some cases, a communication leads to action not because others (third person) think that it will have an impact on its audience (Davison, 1983). This statement and the studies above clearly highlighted that media, especially violent video games, are a main cause of aggressive and delinquent behaviors among youth. So appropriate interventions are needed to bring the Youth out of this dilemma. Preventing this matter is of utmost importance. For this to happen the parent should be aware of the issue in the first place. But point to distress is there is lack of studies on interventions or prevention of increased violence due to video game or any other media. Although in a recent research it was found that the harmful effects of exposure to media violence can be reduced if parents guide their childrens media exposure and discuss their interpretation of media violence with their children (Nathanson, 2001; Robinson, Wilde, & Navracruz, 2001). Nathanson (2001) was conducted to understand why parents mediate violent television and how children interpret mediation messages. Two different surveys were carried out, both on children and parents. Yielded results show that when parents speak negatively about violent TV or restrict viewing of violent television content, children placed less importance on violent programming and had less aggressive attitudes. However, if Parents watch TV with their children and say nothing about the violent content, children

Violent Video Games 5 report higher than normal aggressive attitudes. Downside to this study is that, the study only assessed parental mediation of violent television. So advice is given to conduct a similar procedure to assess the parental mediation of violent video games. Another method of prevention under question is whether limiting the exposure to violent video games could have an effect on the aggressive level of the subject. Robinson et al. (2001) conducted a study to check this hypothesis. They advised elementary school children and their parents to limit the exposure to violent media including the violent video games for six months. Students level of aggression to different situations were found before and after limiting the exposure. They found that there was much potential to reducing the exposure to video game violence, as limiting the exposure to violent media had considerably decreased the aggression level of the children. So other (leisure activities that does not depend on any form of media) more productive activities are to be found, to limit the exposure to violent media especially from violent video games. Additional ways to prevent the aggressions that arise due to violent video games can be educating parents and teachers about specific techniques to reduce the effects of media violence. Specifically gamming violence. Studies are ongoing to find the best methods to educate the teachers and parents (Anderson et al., 2003). Parents must monitor the childs use of media. First of all games that the child play must be screened and age appropriated. Rules can also be assigned on the content the child is allowed to play on video games at home and fixed time must be assigned indicating how much time the child can spend playing the games. All media including the video gaming devices can be placed in a public area of the house making sure that the child does not spent too much time alone playing games or watching TV. Most importantly parents should encourage the children to become more physically active. Make the children take on a sport to misdirect their attention from violent video games or the media.

Violent Video Games 6 Studies (Anderson & Dill, 2000; Bartholow & Anderson, 2002; Davison, 1983; Konijn et al., 2007), show that violent video games increase the antisocial behaviors among youth who play these violent video games. So effective interventions are needed to reduce these hostile effects. Sadly there is only a handful of studies at present discussing possible interventions, to the aggressive feelings that arise due to violent video games. Nevertheless parental interventions are always a safe bet in situations like these, as parents have high influence over the activities the child take part in. Finally lack of studies suggest need for conducting studies finding better methods to prevent the influence of violent video games. Further study could be designed to check whether playing age appropriate games help reduce the aggression and delinquent behavior among the youth who are actively playing violent video games.

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References Anderson, C. A., Berkowitz, L., Donnerstein, E., Huesmann, L. R., Johnson, J. D., Linz, D. M., Neil M, & Wartella, E. (2003). The Influence of Media Violence on Youth. American Psychological Society, 4(3), 81-110. Anderson, C. A., & Dill, K. E. (2000). Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 78(4), 772-790. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.78.4.772 Bartholow, B. D., & Anderson, C. A. (2002). Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior: Potential Sex Differences. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (38), 283-290. Davison, W. P. (1983). The Third-Person Effect in Communication. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 47(1), 1-15. Konijn, E. A., Bijvank, M. N., & Bushman, B. J. (2007). I Wish I Were a Warrior: The Role of Wishful Identification in the Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggression in Adolescent Boys. Developmental Psychology, 43(4), 1038-1044. Nathanson, A. I. (2001). Parent and Child Perspectives on the Presence and Meaning of Parental Television Mediation. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 45(2), 201. Plotnik, R., & Kouyoumjian, H. (2010). Introduction to Psychology: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning. Robinson, T. N., Wilde, M. L., & Navracruz, L. C. (2001). Aggression lower with less TV, video game use. Brown University Child & Adolescent Behavior Letter, 17(3), 4.