Video Games as a Form of Catharsis - Research Paper Example

Testing Whether Participants View Video Games as a Form of Catharsis, and Whether the Belief Can Be Moderated through Information Introduction The paper investigates the views of video-game players as a form of catharsis. It further explores whether the belief that video games are a form of catharsis can be moderated through information. Catharsis is the process of disposing off repressed emotions after incidents that trigger such feelings as anger, humiliation, discontentment, or loss (Ferguson, 2010). The abstract preceding this introduction provides a brief overview of the entire research while this section explores relevant literature and sets out the aims and hypotheses to be tested. Other sections include the methods, results, and discussion. Literature Review Video games have become an important aspect of everyday life for many people. Both adults and children take to playing video games during their free time (Serrone, 2012). However, the entry of violent forms of these games has been a point of major discussion; with discussions occurring both in the ordinary research literature to media reports. What makes the discussion more vibrant is the lack of a common agreement on the real effects of violent video games on those who play them. Much more worrying is how they affect child, adolescent and youth growth and development. While some researchers have found evidence of a relationship between violence and video games, there is an equally large volume of research that has concluded that violent video games do not affect character, both in the short-run and in the log-run (Freeman, 2013; Ferguson, 2010). As indicated above, playing video games as an activity harbours several advantages and disadvantages. One widely discussed disadvantage is apparent loss of valuable time (time that could have been used for other more productive purposes) (Olson, Kutner & Warner, 2008). Certain games have addictive effects and could affect the character of a habitual player (Gentile, 2013; Olson et al, 2008). Furthermore, playing video games, especially the violent type could lead to violent tendencies, lack of apathy and general aggression (Ferguson & Olson, 2013). On the other hand, they are a useful tool for teaching children cognitive and reading skills. Another advantage of playing video games is that they have been associated with catharsis (Sherry, 2001). For instance, when disappointed, a person may turn to a video game that they like and help ‘forget’ their awful feelings after a series of convincing results. Such may include crushing an enemy or simply performing extraneous thinking tasks that wear their mind off and distract them from their main source of frustration (Carnagey & Anderson, 2005). This could help them avoid committing such crimes as murder, assault, and self-harm;and other vices such as abusive language (Ferguson, Olson, Kutner& Warner, 2014; Griffiths, 1999). Consequently, such incidents as bullying in school could be reduced through introduction of easy access to video games. However, research into the relationship between video games and catharsis remains inconclusive, with various studies producing contradicting results; some indicate that video games are a form of catharsis while some differ (Markman, 2010). Griffiths (1999) and Olson et al. (2008) further suggested that age and gender influence the tendency to engage in playing violent or non-violent video games after accumulating repressive feelings. According to these authors, boys/ men are more likely to take to violent games, and could equally recommend them as their preferred form of catharsis. Females were depicted as being more likely to prefer non-violent video games. Younger persons are also more likely to play violent video games as opposed to those in more advanced ages (Olson et al, 2008). Aims and Hypotheses The controversial nature of literature on the link between video games and catharsis prompted this investigation. The researcher aims to establish whether video game players believe theirplaying is a form of catharsis, and how making players learn of the relationship could affect their conception of the relationship.The roles of gender on preference will also be investigated. In line with these aims, the research questions explored in this research are: 1) Are violent video games are the more preferred form of catharsis than non-violent video games? 2) Do males have higher preference for violent video games than females? Similarly, do females have higher preference for non-violent video games than males? 3) Is there a relationship between age and preference for violent video games? 4) Does reading pro-catharsis or anti-catharsis articles affects the attitude of the reader towards their conception of watching violent or non-violent video games as a form of catharsis? The corresponding hypotheses are: H1: There is no significant difference between participants’ preference rating of non-violent and violent video games. H2: There is no significant difference between males’ and females’ preference for both violent and non-violent video games. H3: Age and preference for violent video games have a negative correlational relationship. H4: There is no significant difference among participants’ rating of preference for either violent or non-violent video games after reading pro- or anti-catharsis articles. Methods The participants comprised sixty randomly selected members of the university community. All participants were aged at least 18 years. The participants were issued with questionnaire forms to fill in both demographic (age and gender) and preferential details based on individual perceptions. One-third of the participants were issued with pro-catharsis articles to read while a similar figure was issued with anti-catharsis articles. The remaining one-third was left as the control group; they were not exposed to either forms of literature. Questionnaires were preferred since they can easily capture important data, including scale ratings such as the likert scale (Roberts, 2007). Furthermore, they allow the respondents more time to fit in filling up the forms in their own schedules, which ensures better response rate than other methods, including lab experimentation (Harris & Brown, 2010).Correlation analysis was used to investigate the existence of linear relationship between age and preference for violent video games; analysis of variance (ANOVA) for investigating the difference in respondents’ preference after exposure to different types of literature; t-tests for the difference between preference for violent and non-violent video games; and independent samples t-test for investigating whether males have higher preference for violent video games than females.The SPSS software was used for the analysis. Results Out of the 60 participants, 29 (48.3%) were male while 31 (51.7%) were female. The participants were divided into equal groups of 20 (representing 33.3%) for each category; based on the kind of literature they were supplied with. The article types that participants drew information from include pro-catharsis, anti-catharsis, and control literature. Asked whether they preferred violent video games or not, twelve (20%) participants indicated that they preferred violent video games, while 48 (80%) indicated they did not prefer them. Asked whether they preferred non-violent video games, 7 (11.7%) participants indicated they did while 53 (88.3%) said they did not. The average age of participants was 28.53 years. The youngest participant was 18 and the eldest56 years. Asked to rate their preference of non-violent video games as a form of catharsis, the average score was 4.45, with the highest score being 10 and the lowest 1. A similar procedure yielded a mean rate of preference of 4.37 (out of a possible 10) for non-violent video games while the lowest and highest scores were1 and 9 respectively. Inferential Results Age and gender had significant negative correlation (ρ = -0.373, p = 0.003). This result conforms to the hypothesis that, as age advances, participants tend to avoid violent video games. Using a t-test, the difference between the participants who believed that video games are a form of catharsis for the violent and non-violent groups was found to be statistically significant (t = 11.491, df = 59, p < 0.001). This implies that, with the violent video game favourites averaging higher than the non-violent video game favourites, the former have significantly higher ratings.Independent samples test was used to investigate whether participants believed that video games are a form of catharsis. In order to test this, the participants’ preference of non-violent video games as a form of catharsis was examined based on gender. Males had a higher score (mean = 5.03, std. dev = 3.076) than females (mean = 3.90, std. dev = 2.868). However, the difference is not statistically significant (F = 2.174, p = 0.146 for the violent video game favourites) and (F = 1.029, p = 0.315 for the non-violent game favourites). When type of literature exposed to was introduced to investigate the differences among participants, the pro-catharsis group (mean = 5.20, p = 2.895) ranked higher than the anti-catharsis group (mean = 3.75, std. dev = 2.807) and the control group (mean = 4.45, std. dev = 3.00) for the violent video game favourites; and the pro-catharsis group (mean = 4.65, std. dev = 2.183) ranked higher than the anti-catharsis group (mean = 3.95, std. dev = 2.605) and the control group (mean = 4.50, std. dev = 2.417). The ANOVA table for the test indicated that the mean differences (despite being visible from the above listing) were not statistically significant for both violent video game favourites (F = 1.180, p = 0.315) and the non-violent video game favourites (F = 0.469, p = 0.628). Similarly, none of the post hoc tests was statistically significant, implying that within each group, there was no significant difference between any two means. Discussion References Carnagey, N. L & Anderson, C. A. (2005). The effects of reward and punishment in violent video games on aggressive affect, cognition, and behaviour. Psychological Science. 16(11): 882-889. Ferguson, C. J. (2010). Violent crime: Clinical and social implications. Los Angeles, LA: SAGE Publishers. Ferguson, C. J. & Olson, C. K. (2013). Friends, fun, frustration and fantasy: Child motivations for video game play. Motivation and Emotion. 37(1): 154-164. Ferguson, C. J., Olson, C. K., Kutner, L. A. & Warner, D. E. (2014). Violent video games, catharsis seeking, bullying, and delinquency: A multivariate analysis of effects. Crime & Delinquency. 60(5): 764-784. Freeman, D. (2013). Violent video games may curb bullying in vulnerable children, study suggests. The Huffington Post. Available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/28/violent-video-games-bullying-children-study_n_3823490.html. (Accessed: 1st June 2015). Gentile, D. E. (2013). Catharsis and media violence: A conceptual analysis. Societies. 3: 491-510. Griffiths, M. (1999). Violent video games and aggression: A review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behaviour. 4(2): 203-212. Harris, L. R. & Brown, G. T. L. (2010). Mixing interview and questionnaire methods: Practical problems in aligning data. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation. 15(1): 1-19. Markman, A. (2010). What you don’t know can hurt you: Violence, catharsis, and video games. Psychology Today. Available at https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201007/what-you-don-t-know-can-hurt-you-violence-catharsis-and-video-games. (Accessed 1st June 2015). Olson, C. K., Kutner, L. A. & Warner, D. E. (2008). The role of violent game content in adolescent development: Boys’ perspectives. Journal of Adolescent Research. 23(1) 55-75. Roberts, C. (2007). Mixing modes of data collection in surveys: A methodological review. London: City University. Serrone, C. (2012). Mood management and video-game engagement: The importance of user-experience and gender in assessing the psychological effects of video-game play. (Paper 4211: Thesis). San Jose State University. Sherry, J. L. (2001). The effects of violent video games on aggression – A meta-analysis. Human Communication Research. 27(3): 409-431. Read More