Video Game Violence and Aggression - Essay Example

Video Game Violence and Aggression Introduction The propensity of our nation’s people toward violence and aggression has been cited as psychological, social and public health issue. Acts of violence not only occurring in the streets but in neighborhoods, and schools. Past research on media violence and behavior suggests that exposure to this type of violence is related to increased aggressive behavior. Video game violence has also been proposed to have significant negative effects on society, especially adolescent and children. Concern has been raised about the negative portrayal of social interactions, and the desensitizing nature of violence (Anderson, et al. 81-85; Funk, Bechtoldt-Baldacci, Pasold, & Baumgardner 23-39). This paper will review available literature to find out whether exposure to game violence can lead to aggressive behavior in children. Individual Effects: Research on Violent Video Games Violent video game research raises similar concerns about the negative impacts of media violence. This reaction is an extension of the general concern about the effects of media violence and television viewing. The increase in the violent content of the games has led to greater anxiety about possible impacts, especially on youth. Because of the interactive nature of the games, many researchers have concerns that the negative impacts of video are likely to be higher (Anderson, et al. 85-90; Funk, Bechtoldt-Baldacci, Pasold, & Baumgardner 23-39). Two meta-analyses and studies on violent video games provide an overview of the major findings. Before reporting the findings on the two meta-analyses, however, it is important to note that the studies included in these analyses have been conducted over a period of time that has seen substantial technological advances and thematic changes in the games. In particular, the games have become more realistic and more violent with each new generation. The meta-analyses have therefore combined, compared, and contrasted studies of games that have varying degrees of realism and violence, dependent on the generation of game. This is why it is important to also include the most recent study in this literature review, one that is representative of existing technology and current levels of violence in games. The studies conducted by Anderson and Dill and Gentile, Lynch, Ruh-Linder, and Walsh will therefore be reviewed in addition to the two meta-analyses. The two meta-analysis studies that have explored video game violence are a study by Bensley and Van Eenwyk and Sherry. These authors included available literature on video games leading up to mid-year 2001. The studies were first grouped by research design, experimental, quasi-experimental and correlational, and descriptive. They were also further grouped based on age categories and educational level. The studies were evaluated separately based on each of these ages categories, as well as the type of research design and the type of outcome measure of aggression used. Two criteria were used to evaluate the strength of evidence to support the hypothesis that violent video games contribute to aggression; “the strength of design of the available studies and consistency of findings”(Bensley & Van Eenwyk 246). The last two age categories, high school students, and college student/young adults, are of most interest to this particular study and are therefore reported. These two age categories included a total of twenty studies (ten experimental, eight correlation and two descriptive surveys). Bensley and Van Eenwyk (p. 257) concluded that the research evidence from these studies yielded that violent video games do not lead to real-life aggressions. They recognize, however, that today's current games are substantially more violent than the games studies thus far. They therefore give the proviso that this conclusion could change as more controlled studies are done and the graphic realism of the games being studied increases. They make this proviso based on a study of college students conducted by Anderson and Dill. This highly controlled study explored the short­-term and long-term effects of today's current and more realistically violent video games and will be reported further on in this chapter. Sherry is the second meta-analysis to be reported on the effects of violent video games. This research examined findings from a number of empirical studies on the effects of violent games (Sherry 409). The analysis included studies from the period January 1975 to July 2000. This meta-analysis was based on a total of twenty-five research papers (six cross-sectional surveys and nineteen experimental designs). Analytical coding sheets were developed and included the following characteristics: study descriptives (title, authors, date, type of publication), sample characteristics (demographic data and sampling technique used), research design, and the type of outcome measure of aggression used (behavioral or scale measure). The overall results of the meta-analysis suggest that there is a small effect of violent video games on aggression. Some of the data showed that while there was an arousal effect from playing violent games, it was temporal in nature; lasting approximately 75 minutes after game play, but then diminishing with longer playing time. This seems to counter other research that has shown that increased exposure to media violence leads to stronger and more lasting effects. There are several possible explanations for this apparent decrease in arousal effect. One is boredom; due to repeated sequences that players go through while advancing through levels of game play. That is, players may become bored with the game and less aggressively aroused by it. Two other possible explanations are catharsis (arousal is decreased by enacting game violence) and desensitization (players become desensitized to violence through repeated exposure). It is the last explanation that is supported by most of the media violence literature. Another important finding of Sherry's meta-analysis was that human violence (versus alien or non-human depictions) and fantasy violence (using violence as the main fantasy plot of the game) are the strongest predictors of aggression. This conclusion is disconcerting given that the majority of today's most popular games are based on both of these types of violence. Sherry's analysis did show small effects on aggression and therefore did indicate that there may be some reason for concern. Findings of a more recent study bring additional understanding to the technologically advanced and realistic violence found in current video games. This study used two different methodological approaches (experimental and correlation), and investigated both the short-­term and long-term effects. In addition, the authors incorporated several theories of media violence within their test model (the General Affective Arousal Model, GAAM). The correlation portion of Anderson and Dill's (p. 772) study investigated the long-term effects of violent video game play. The study involved 227 college students (149 female, 78 male) and looked at personal aggression measures and actual aggressive behavior. Anderson and Dill concluded time spent playing violent video games was positively related to aggressive behavior and delinquency, and was especially true for the men in the study. Overall, those who reported more video game play in junior high and high school engaged in more aggressive behavior when they were college students. The second component of the Anderson and Dill study was an experiment that tested the effects of violent video game play. A pilot test was first done to select a pair of games to use in the research that were substantially different in terms of the amount of violence found in them. The experiment was conducted with two hundred and ten college students (104 female and 106 male) from an undergraduate psychology class. Overall the findings indicated that participants who played violent video games were more aggressive towards their opponent for a longer period of time than other participants. The findings therefore indicated that “exposure to a graphically violent video game increased aggressive thoughts and behavior” (Anderson & Dill 772). The research findings from both of these studies are consistent with the GAAM (General Affective Aggression Model). This model predicts that aggressive behavior will increase in the short-term (e.g., the laboratory setting) and the long-term (e.g., delinquency). In the short-term, games are essentially seen as priming a set of aggressive thoughts. In the longer term the effects of violent video game play are thought to allow players to learn and practice these aggression-related scripts repeatedly making them more accessible to real-life conflict situations that might arise. While Anderson and Dill (p. 790) acknowledge that the negative effect of violent game play cannot be unequivocally stated based on only one pair of studies, their findings are supportive of this and indicate a need for further investigation. More recently, Gentile, Lynch, Ruh-Linder, and Walsh studied 607 eighth and ninth grade students' video game use, level of parental monitoring, and exposure to video game violence. Relationships were also explored between video game violence, hostility, school grades, arguments with teachers, and involvement in physical fights. According to the results, the average amount of time spent playing video games was nine hours per week, with males spending significantly more time playing video games than females (Gentile et al., 22). Gender differences also existed for preference of video games; males preferred games with higher levels of violence than girls. Only 13% of participants reported having parenta1 1imits set about time spent playing video games. Nineteen percent reported parental limits surrounding the use of video games based on the game's ratings. Adolescent males who preferred higher levels of video game violence were also found to be more likely to be involved in fights, arguments with teachers, and poor school performance. The authors also found that self-reported hostility mediated the relationship between video game violence and the aforementioned behavior in a path analysis (Gentile et al. 22). A limitation included the reliance on self-report measures. However, this research continues to demonstrate associations between video game violence and aggressive behavior. Conclusion To summarize, literature has consistently demonstrate a significant relationship between media violence and aggression. The major findings related to media violence, both television viewing and violent video game play, have provided insights into effects of media on individual human behavior. Yet, there is still a great deal of debate and controversy about the findings of both television and video game research. Detractors strongly debate whether it has been conclusively shown that media violence has a direct and independent negative impact on aggressive attitudes and behavior. This review of the literature, especially the violent video games research has provided few definitive findings, and little ground for strong conclusive statements. While studies such as Anderson and Dill provide strong evidence, the authors admit that additional research needs to be conducted before they can confidently draw conclusions. Work Cited Anderson, C. A., Berkowitz, L., Donnerstein, E., Huesmann, L. R., Johnson, J. D., Linz, D, Malamuth, N. M., & Wartella, E.. “The influence of media violence on youth.” Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 4(3), 2003, 81-110. Anderson, C.A., & Dill, K.E.. “Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 2000, 772–790. Bensley, L. & Van Eenwyk, J.. “Video games and real life aggression: Review of the Literature.” Journal of Adolescent Health, 29, 2001, 244-257. Funk, J. B., Baldacci, H. B., Pasold, T., & Baumgardner, J. “Violence exposure in real-life, video games, television, movies, and the Internet: Is there desensitization?” Journal of Adolescence, 27(1), 2004, 23-39. Gentile, D., Lynch, P. Ruh-Linder, J. & Walsh, D. “The effect of violent video games habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance,” Journal of Adolescence, 27, 2004. 5-22. Sherry. J. “The effect of violent games on aggression: A Meta analysis.” Human Communication Research, 27(3), 2001. 409-431. Read More