Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior - Essay Example

Video Game Violence 2005 Video games were first introduced in 1970's, and had become a preferred childhood leisure activity. The very realistic and exciting nature of video games has helped to make them enormously popular with children and youth. Now 79% of American children (the ages of seven and 17) play computer or video games on a regular basis - for an average of eight hours a week. [Anderson & Bushman, 2001] Most of the games appropriate for these young players can bring a lot of benefits, but besides this they raise violent features, gore, antisocial behavior among parents, educators, child advocates, medical professionals, and policy makers. Such organizations as the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics have concluded that video games provoke violence and aggression among the children and youth who play them. Besides this, many social scientists prove an even greater impact of video games due to the following four reasons: 1. children are more likely to imitate the actions of a character with whom they identify. In violent games the player is often a shooter or perpetrator; 2. video games by their nature require active participation rather than passive observation; 3. repetition increases learning. If the game is violent, the great deal of repetition has the effect for violent activity; 4. rewards increase learning, thus video games are based on reward system. [Calvert, 1999] There seem to be two main reasons for the inclusion of violent content in video games. First is that for the designer all that has to be done is to create the situation in which to put the hero, in many cases it is already known as 'it is kill or be killed'. Another reason is market demand, where boys tend to prefer violent video games. [Crick, 1995] Anderson and Bushman have conducted a meta-analysis of 35 different studies of violent video games (2001), and have discovered that violent video games increase physiological arousal: heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Lynch (1994, 1999) has shown that the effect can be greater for the children who are naturally more aggressive. Kirsh (1998) found that violent games increase aggressive thoughts, and that exposure to a violent video game increases hostile attribution bias, the manner in which aggressive children perceive the actions of peers, in the short term. There is also a corresponding correlation between hostile attribution bias and children's depression, peer rejection and negative self-perception patterns (Crick, 1995). Violent games were shown to increase aggressive emotions: students, more "addicted" to video games, were significantly more likely to be in a bad mood before, during and after play than non-addicted ones. [Griffiths & Hunt, 1998]. Violent video games are also tend to increase aggressive actions and decrease positive prosocial actions; this appears to be true for both boys and girls, and also for children who are not naturally aggressive. The researches show that even catroonish and fantasy violence, which is often perceived by parents and public policy makers as safe even for children, are counted for significant increases in aggression. It has also been proved that repeated media violence exposure increases aggression because it creates more positive attitudes, beliefs, and expectations regarding use of aggressive solutions, creates aggressive behavioral scripts and makes them more cognitively acceptable; it decreases the accessibility of non-violent scripts and decreases the normal emotional reactions to conflict, aggression and violence. [Funk, 1993] According to the arousal theory, violent games players become physiologically aroused (they showed increased activity in brain waves, heart rate, blood pressure, and skin conductance) through exposure to the level of violence presented. After habituating to that level they required higher level of aggression to be aroused - from overexposure to aggression [Calvert, 1999], that presupposes the gamers' violent behavior in real-life. Anderson and Bushman (2001) have even developed the 'General Aggression Model', according to which aggressive thoughts provoked by violent video games serve as the intermediary between violent video game content and aggressive behavior. But further researches didn't prove the theory, showing that gamers' reaction can be explained only by their temperamental peculiarities. According to Chess and Thomas (1996), only 10% of the population have that 'difficult temperament', which can possibly manifest those players' antisocial behavior by playing violent video games. Furthermore, some researchers suggest that playing video games may affect some children's physical functioning. Benefits of this are associated with creative and prosocial uses of video game (for example, in physical rehabilitation and oncology), where video games may be considered as a friendly way of introducing children to computers, and thus increasing children's hand-eye coordination and attention to detail. [Funk, 1993] Kestenbaum and Weinstein (1985) estimated that aggressive games calm players; Scott (1995) found evidence of catharsis. Teamwork in the process of a game needed to use cooperation in order to accomplish a task, lead to prosocial behaviors. Video games also presuppose assistance of the advanced players for the newcomers, promote sharing, help and encouragement of fellow players. Moreover, many gamers find playing video games as a way to improve and practice their mental focus and attention. Video games often provide gamers with a kind of relaxation from diversion of stresses and focusing on a fun game. Funk's studies also show that approximately 36% of male examined students play video games at home for 1-2 hours per week, 29% play for 3-6 hours, and 12% don't play at all; 42% of female respondents play video games for 1-2 hours, 15% - 3-6 hours per week, and 37% don't play any video games. It was found that playing video games had more positive effects on children that watching television. A research review done by NCTV found that 9 of 12 research studies on the impact of violent video games on normal children and adolescents reported harmful effects; however, it's not a direct cause of severe psycho-pathology, they suggest that there is a short-term relationship between playing violent games and increased aggressive behaviour in younger children. [Funk, 1993] Video game violence was rated by the National Coalition on Television Violence (NCTV) to develop a system to rate the violent content of video games, which ranges from XUnfit and XV (highly violent) to PG and G ratings. Among the games surveyed, 11.4% received the XUnfit rating, another 44.3% and 15.3% - the violent ratings of XV and RV, a total of 20% received a PG and G rating. But the emerging problem is that the definition of violence is very subjective, while treating violence according to severity, not to the context in which violent acts occur. [Anderson & Bushman, 2001] Another problem of video game is that they stress autonomous action rather than cooperation (very often game scenario presupposes an anonymous character to perform an aggressive act against an anonymous enemy). Studies also show that males play video games more frequently that females, and this not because of their desire to witness violence, but because they are looking for strong role models which could be found in these games. [Clark, 1993] Although Griffiths in his researches (Griffiths, 1999; Griffiths & Hunt, 1998) notes that there is no real consensus on the affects of violence in video games on players, but it's still important to stress upon the limiting conditions, such as social and personal characteristics of the user, such factors as gender, age, classlevel of education, under which the effects of violent video games on personality can be taken into account. As for the gender factor, Cooper and Mackie found more activity and more aggressive play in female subjects than in the male ones. [Cooper & Mackie, 1986] According to age, it was stated that children aggression was often manifested in increases in violent or aggressive play, while older players' studies showed that their increased aggression was manifested by other means, such as increased hostility on a test or heart rate. [Griffiths, 1999] Economic status, as one more limiting factor taken into consideration while estimating the level of violent games influence on audience, proved that working class families tended to rent and purchase more of the graphically violent games then middle class families [Silvern & Williamson, 1987], that's why the affect on players from working class families thus would be more strong. Nowadays there exist two rating systems for video and computer games, which classify games according to the amount of violence, crude language, drug use and nudity in their context. Most North American video games manufacturers have adopted the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) system, the personal computer industry has also adopted the Recreational Software Advisory Council (RSAC) system. On February 11, 2003, Congressman Baca introduced H.R. 669, the Protect Children from Video Game Sex and Violence Act of 2003, which imposes penalties on those who sell or rent to minors video games that depict nudity, sexual conduct, or other content harmful to minors. It allows parents to decide whether the game is suitable for their children or not, making parents themselves be more responsible for the well-being of their children. The game industry now is approximately a $20 billion industry, where violent video games make a large proportion of it, that's why it's not likely to abolish this kind of industry. Video game creators are directly influenced by the current market demands, so that the only way as the recommended policy is to leave the current rating system in place and provide educated people with the control over the market, and the parents to decide what devices to provide their children with. Video and computer games will continue to be an exciting part of children's reality. Researches have proved that more than nine of every ten American children play video games. There are a lot of good games available besides that huge number of items inappropriate for all youth and harmful to some. As long as children have easy access to them, the problem will continue to exist. So that instead of criticizing video games, researchers should focus their efforts on the constructive aspects to improve the quality of gaming, and increase the parents' protection and nurture of their children. References 1. Anderson, C.A., & Bushman, B.J. (2001). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological Science, 12, 353-359. 2. Calvert, S.L. (1999) Children's journeys through the information age. New York: McGraw Hill. 3. Chess, S. and Thomas, A. (1996) Temperament: Theory and practice. New York: Brunner/Mazel. 4. Clark, C.S. (1993). TV Violence. CQ Researcher 3 (12, Mar26): 167-187. 5. Cooper, J. & Mackie, D. (1986) Video Games and Aggression in Children. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. v 16, n 8, 726-744 6. Crick, N. R. (1995). Relational aggression: The role of intent attributions, feelings of distress, and provocation type. Development and Psychopathology, 7, 313-322. 7. Griffiths, M. (1999) Violent Video Games and Agression: A Review of the Literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior. v 4, n 10, 203-212. 8. Griffiths, M. D., & Hunt, N. (1998). Dependence on computer games by adolescents. Psychological Reports, 82, 475-480 9. Funk, J.B. (1993). Reevaluating the Impact of Video Games. Clinical Pediatrics 32 (2, Feb): 86-90 10. Kestenbaum, G.L. &Weinstein, L. (1985) Personality, psychopathology, and developmental issues in male adolescent video game use. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry 24: 325-337. 11. Kirsh, S. J. (1998). Seeing the world through Mortal Kombat-colored glasses: Violent video games and the development of a short-term hostile attribution bias. Childhood, 5, 177-184 12. Lynch, P. J. (1994). Type A behavior, hostility, and cardiovascular function at rest and after playing video games in teenagers. Psychosomatic Medicine, 56, 152 13. Silvern, S.B. & Williamson, P.A. (1987) The effects of video game play on young children's aggression, fantasy, and prosocial behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 18: 454-460 14. Scott, D. (1995) The effect of video games on feelings of aggression. The Journal of Psychology 129: 121-132. Read More