Effects of Prosocial Video Games on Prosocial Behavior - Essay Example

One was particularly interested in confirming the traditional and common belief that playing video games impact negatively the users. There were minimal or relatively few studies that established any direct link toward indicating that playing video could have generated positive effects. As such, the findings from this article could be beneficial as points of revelation on any positive impact that playing video games could have generated from the participants.

Description of Article’s Focus that Captured One’s Interest
It was specifically disclosed that the study aimed to “examine the possibility that playing video games with prosocial content (in which the predominant goal is to benefit another game character) may promote prosocial behavior” (Greitemeyer & Osswald, 2010, p. 211). One was therefore interested in finding out what types of video games could be classified as containing prosocial elements which could allegedly promote prosocial behavior.

The authors’ presentation of information initially provided an authoritative source that outlines the effects of playing violent video games, including the following: (1) increased tendencies to exhibit aggressive thoughts and behaviors; (2) increased manifestations to exhibit antisocial behavior; (3) increased preponderance to exhibiting lesser prosocial behavior. At these theoretical backgrounds, the authors specified their research aim, to wit: “to address whether playing video games not only affects social behaviors negatively (as previous research has shown) but may do so positively as well” (Greitemeyer & Osswald, 2010, p. 212).

Four appropriately designed experiments were used to test, validate, and confirm the reliability and consistency of their findings. Each experiment identified distinct objectives; where experiment 1 was designed primarily to determine reactions to assist a victim of mishap spontaneously; experiment 2 solicited participants' willingness to participate in further studies; experiment 3 was designed to determine the participants’ response in assisting a harassed woman; and finally, experiment 4 was explicitly noted to “to examine why playing prosocial video games fosters prosocial behavior” (Greitemeyer & Osswald, 2010, p. 217).

From the results, it was revealed that playing video games that were identified to have prosocial content contributes to exhibiting increases in prosocial behavior (Greitemeyer & Osswald, 2010, p. 219). The authors clearly explained the rationale in terms of pinpointing that the visual content of the video being played was instrumental in affecting the participants’ internal state, which has a repercussive effect on responding, either antisocially or prosocially. This was indeed a revelation as opposed to the traditional focus of previous research studies that delved only into the negative impact of playing video games. Read More