Violent Video Games and Aggressive Behavior among Youths and Children - Research Proposal Example

Research Question Name: Institution: Research Question Question 1 Parameters of the research In the 20th century, one of the noticeable changes is the entertainment environment is the saturation of mass media content. In this new social environment, videos, radio, movies, television, computer networks and video games have great impact on people's daily lives. The mass media impact on behavior, values and beliefs. However, one of the most recreational activities in the modern world is video games. The game is popular among youths and children. The content of video games are usually violent and requires the player to overly kill or injure the purported enemies in order to progress to other stages of the game. It is argued that the content usually have realism because of constant and fast technological evolution. Video games are regarded as exemplary teachers, and they remain effective learning tools for children and youths. Therefore, there are high chances that coping of aggressive behaviors could result to the player not only learning but also practicing violent scripts. Regarding the results of aggressive behavior training, both long and short term effects of interacting with violent video games have been studied since 1980s. The early results indicated that indeed exposure to violent video games encourage aggressive behavior among players. Additionally, evidence have accumulated over the past decades that exposure to violent video games increase the risk of viewers developing violent behavior same to those growing up in an environment filled with violence. The importance of this research is to understand whether violent video games promote violent or aggressive behavior among youths and children. Even though the effects of violent film and television have been widely researched, violent in video games also results into increased aggression (Osofsky 2005, p. 780). The mentioned findings has strong implications on the public health for several reasons. Ballard and Weist (1996, p. 734) point put that children spend a lot of time playing video games, and most of them has violent content. Additionally, video game units are currently present in about 84% of home. For example, in 2004, it was reported that children spend approximately 49 minutes playing video games. Furthermore, on a daily basis 52% of children aged between 8 and 18 years spend most of their time playing video games. The use of video games is more prevalent during middle childhood with the rate reported at 65 minutes daily for children aged 8 and 10 years, and reduces to about 34 minutes daily for children aged between 15 and 18 years old. Question 2 The research question The research question is that does violent video games contribute to aggressive behavior among youths? Underpinning assumption The research question was developed under the underpinning assumption that violent video games results into aggressive behavior among teenagers. Aggression is defined as a physical or verbal behavior that is intended to harm another person and the perpetrator should have an opportunity to actually harm the person. In the recent past, there have been an opinion among psychologists that watching violent games particularly among children lead to aggressive behavior. Therefore, the focus is to find out whether violent video games are key factors that contribute to aggressive behavior among teenagers. This is because, there is wide spread of violence in the society today. Question 3 Epistemological position and theoretical framework According to Crotty (1997, p. 9), constructionism is the understanding of knowledge, and this is because people construct meaning differently even if the phenomena is the same. However, the meaning and truth emerges from human's interaction with the social world. This is because individuals do not experience the phenomenon in the same manner. In relation to this case, children and teenagers playing video games may or may not make them to develop aggressive behavior because they might or might not relate everything from the video games with real life situations/happenings. Therefore, in justifying why the epistemological position is constructionism rather than objectivism, and drawing from Crotty (1987, p.8) argument, objectivism is just discovering a meaning that have been in existence, which is not the case with the present research question. Theoretical perspective In this study, the phenomenology will be applied as it will assist in understanding people's experiences via social realities and the effects of violent video games to children and youths. In applying the perspective, Crotty (1987, p. 10) states that understanding should be best to humans ability to enable the phenomenon to show itself without being interfered by personal preconceptions. Question 4 Ethical issues Ethics is defined as adapting a set of moral standards, which govern the behavior of a given group or setting. According to Habibis (cited in Walter 2013, p.57), in carrying out any given research, there are certain elements that should be put into consideration prior to implementation. Adapting an ethical standard is significant in protecting the interests of the target group. In this particular case, the ethical issue that might be present throughout the process is participants' confidentiality, and obtaining their consent during data collection. Furthermore, the participants will have the full right to withdraw from the process if they wish to. Question 5 Methodology/research design Methodology provides order and identifies the manner in which a research should be carried out. According to Crotty (1997) methodology is defined as the research design, which shapes not only the choice but also the use of certain methods, and connects them to the desired outcomes. For this study, the preferred methodology of understanding how violent video games result into aggressive behavior among children and teenager is heuristic inquiry. According to Bryman 2012, p. 13 heuristic research is defined as search for discovery of not only essence but also meaning in human experience. The selected methodology is drawn from interpretivist approach, and the main reason for adopting it attempts to understand the perspectives and perspectives of individuals by investigating the social construct of violent media in the society. In approaching the selected research design, the best style is case study that Bryman (2012, p. 18) defines as intensive examination of a given setting. He adds that it is the collection of social theory data using qualitative data techniques from a particular target group. Therefore, in linking the methodology of case study design and heuristic research to the epistemological position, which is constructivism ad well as the phenomenology as the theoretical perspective, it assists in not only identifying the methods of data collection but also analysis. In this research, the selected method of data collection is based on interviews and observation, and different techniques would be used to determine whether violent video games are linked to aggressive behavior. Thematic analysis will then be used to analyze the collected data by identifying the dominant themes in relation to how the games lead to aggressive behavior. Question 6 Methods for collecting the research data The method for collecting data would involve sampling the selected participants by focusing on children and youths who play violent video games. Therefore, in regard to the mentioned, the sampling method that will be used is the non-probability sampling of quota, and identify and observe how often do they play violent video games, and the impacts of the same in their behavior. The advantage of using the sampling technique is that it ensures that are participants are equal, hence it eliminates error and biasness in the process. According to Bryman (2012, p. 203), the objective of the quota sampling technique is to produce a sample that would reflect the whole population in terms of the people proportion to existing different categories. Through a qualitative structured interview, the participants would be asked open ended questions. The advantage of open ended questions for this particular study is that the researcher would be able to get a greater insight whether violent video games are linked to aggressive behavior among youths and children. The interview process would be based on the personal as well as wider perspective on the phenomenon. It is important to note that because the case is about media issue and violence, which are social issues, there are high chances of the participants misleading the questions. Therefore, to ensure that the participants understands the questions well, the researcher would present the questions verbally and then record to the whole process so as to remove any sampling error during the analytical process. Additionally, the observation method would also be applied in the process to observe whether children or teenagers who play video games exhibit violent behavior in the real life situations. To ensure that the method is not compromised, the researcher would ensure that the participants are not aware that they are being observed. Combining both interview and observation technique would provide comprehensive data and results in answering the research question, and concluding whether indeed violent video games are linked to aggressive behavior among teenagers and children. Question 7 Methods for analyzing the research data In order to analyze the collected data, the research would use thematic analysis to analyze the collected data. According to Willis (cited in Walter 2013, p. 324), thematic analysis focused on identifying both themes and patterns of behavior. For this research, the necessity of theme analysis would involve identifying and grouping all the related themes, which would be gathered from the primary data collection techniques i.e. interview and observation methods. It is important to note that the related themes would either be from raw data or generated before establishing the research theory. In scope of this study, the themes would be generated from raw primary data collected through observation and interviews. As a result of theme generation, the researcher would then proceed to discuss the findings with respect to literature review and the collected data. it will establish the truth behind the notion that most of the videos are violent with about 93% of the video games rated ideal for teenagers consumption having violent features. The findings will further relate to the argument that percentage might even be higher. even among the video rated E to mean appropriate for everyone's consumption, 65% of the games were found to contain intentional violence. In games rated as M, there is no research to quantified the amount of violence in them. Conclusions would then be drawn from the findings whether children or teenagers who play video games develop aggressive behavior. Question 8 Literature Anderson, C A and 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. Bartholow B.D and Anderson, C.A. 2002. Examining the Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior: Potential Sex Differences. J Exp Soc Psychol 38:283–290. Dill K.E and Dill J.C. 2001. Video game violence: A review of the empirical literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review Journal 3:407–428. References Ballard, M. E., and Weist, J. R. 1996. Mortal Kombat: The effects of violent video game play on males’ hostility and cardiovascular responding. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 26, 717–730. Bryman, A 2012, Social research methods (4th ed.) Oxford University Press, Oxford. UK pp 183-203. Crotty, M 1998,'Introduction: The research process', the foundations of social research: meaning and perspective in the research process, Allen & unwin, Crows Nest. Pp 1-17. Osofsky, J. D. (2005). The effects of exposure to violence on young children. American Psychologist, 50, 782–788. Walter, M (ed.) 2013. Social research methods, 3rd edition, South Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Read More