...Violence in Video Games: Examining Violence and Competitiveness as Predictors of Verbal Aggressiveness Sean D. Badeer, Kathrine L. Lukes, Sarah A. Oltjenbruns, & Sergio D. Orozco Wayne State College Wayne, NE April 11, 2013 Abstract Violence in video games is the topic of much debate and controversy in the public arena. For this reason, it has been a heavily researched topic in areas of psychology and communication (Jeong, Biocca & Bohil, 2012). Much of the research on the topic examines the relationship between the violence in video games and aggression. However, despite the large community of research on the topic, researchers in communication have yet to examine the relationship between video game competitiveness and verbal aggression. Competiveness is a factor that must be considered if there is to be an accurate depiction of the impact of video games on aggressiveness (Adachi and Willoughby, 2011). The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of competitiveness and violence in video games on verbal aggressiveness. Furthermore, this study examines the relationship between verbal aggressiveness and attitudes toward violence. In the results of the study, the correlation between competitiveness and verbal aggressiveness was found to be significant. The correlation between video game violence and verbal aggressiveness was not significant. Furthermore, no significant correlation was...
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...[Your Name] [Instructor] [Class] [Date] Violent Video Games do not CAUSE VIOLENCE Introduction Correlation does not prove Causation. Since 1992, there have been 387 school shootings in America. In the wake of these tragedies, the investigators and our society have looked to find somewhere to point the blame. Some blame gun laws, some blame our school system, but almost all conclusions place at least some blame on video games. When 90% of today's teenagers video games are 90% likely to include mature levels of violence, there's clearly an issue. However, the issue is mistakenly simplified down to the equation that violence in games = violence in real life, mistakenly because correlation does not prove causation. Today, I want to talk about why video games do not cause violence, and can even be a healthy way to release aggression. body Research is inconclusive. Unfortunately, research on video games and violence is inconclusive and does not ever come to a consensus. For every study that you find that proves video games cause violence, you have a study that proves that video games have no correlation to real-life violence. Media psychologists, communication scientists, and pediatricians disagree greatly among themselves as to whether or not there is a causal relationship between gaming and violence. There is more than a 20% variation in opinion over whether or not gaming produces real-life violence. That variation does not sound convincing to us, who like to pretend we...
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...people who were watching. The similar issue is concerning our society in the 21sth century. The only difference is that the cockfights were replaced with media violence. This has been a raising concept since the invention of television and introduction of the video games. This essay will discuss the validity of the claim that media violence causes aggressive behavior on the juvenile audience. The paper will firstly show the correlation studies and experimental studies about media violence and its influence on children. It will then move to other reasons which causes the aggressive behavior. Finally, this essay will also examine the influence of aggressive video games on players. Children found a new environment of amusement after the television came on the scene. They were exposed to large number of new programs. Even if there was a potential peril to juveniles, people were not aware of what sorts of programs or what quantities of it were dangerous. At that time there was not enough proof that violence programs was the cause of aggression (Carter& Strickland, 1993). Thus, the researchers began to conduct various kinds of research and studies to prove the correlation between the media violence and the aggressive behavior among juveniles. The early correlations studies found that there were some differences between the viewers and non viewer’s outlook. Those differences did not exist before the television was introduced to the market. In addition, the findings showed that there...
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...Aggressive Behavior 1. This was an interesting article that talks about if there a correlation between playing video games and aggressive behavior between young kids. I believe this article is true about how kids that play violent video games tend to be more aggressive compared to kids that didn’t in a controlled environment. My main question about this article is that they prove that there is a strong correlation between the studies but they also left out other factors like the child’s development of social development and they didn’t have an even amount kids in the same age group so the fact that they used more kids in one age group might of effect the study in their favor to get the results that violent video game do tend to lead to aggressive behavior. Also, the interesting things that I think that they should do is what are the effects long term and short term. 2. I learned that girls in game condition was not related to aggression but, specifically for boys, playing a violent video game lead to more aggression than watching television violence. Which also comes into the development of each sex because boys are more open to the environment of aggression and girls on the other hand are more of the non-aggression and would rather place with dolls. Boys are more open to be aggressive with each other most because of gender roles and the development of hormones. Another fact that I haven’t paid that much attention to because of the acceptance of technology is that the time children...
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...Do Violent Video Games Influence Youth Violence Noel Averruz EN1420 ITT-Technical Institute Ever Since Violent Video Games were invented People have been trying to prove that they influence Violence in Juveniles. Although many prospective studies have been done on video game violence and the affect they have on the youth, none have been able to completely validate the claim that violent video games do influence the youth to become violent in their everyday lives. Out of the many studies that have been done to examined video game violence and the influences it has on player aggression none of the results necessarily tap well into serious aggression or violence. One of these studies was performed by Dr. Ferguson who recruited 302 mainly Hispanic youth between the ages of 10 and 14 years. Dr. Ferguson recruited these youth from some of the most at risk areas for these youth which included places that had neighborhood problems like gangs and rebellion against authority figures. The youth were interviewed twice, once at the beginning of the study and the second time 1 year later. Dr. Ferguson took many variables into consideration like exposure to violence through violent video games and violent TV shows and movies. He also took into consideration the effects of negative life events, negative relationships with adults, negative or delinquent peers. Dr. Ferguson also looked at the youth’s life at home. He took into account how the youth’s communicated with their parents and...
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... This article examines the effects of increased student usage of traditional video games as well as online games. The demographics of the typical game player will be examined along with effects on the individual development and sociological perceptions. This article will also look at the potential education utility of video games and the effect of games on student engagement and social development. The College Gamer Recent data from UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute provides useful information about video game usage on college campuses. The data show that most college students have played video games, many play them regularly, and a small percentage use them as a primary means of entertainment and leisure. In the 2009 Freshman Survey, around 1% of respondents admitted to playing over 20 hours of videogames per week. Over 35% of the respondents stated that they play at least one hour per week. There is an enormous gender disparity in the amount of time spend on videogames. While less than 1 in 50 incoming freshmen women played more than 10 hours of videogames per week, 1 in 10 males admitted to doing this (UCLA Higher Education Research Institute, 2009). The disparity increases with 10 times more males than females admitting to playing more than 20 hours per week. Video game usage tends to drop significantly during the first year of college. Over 7% more students report playing no video games at all after the first year than they...
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...Gamers Really a Threat? Within the last fifteen years, the video game industry has grown exponentially and is now arguably one of the most robust industries in the entertainment world. Video game sales have more than quadrupled in this time as well, which accounts for this multibillion dollar industry. Inside this enormous industry, hundreds of genres span the base of the industry but a few genres make up the core. Within this core are game categories, such as FPS (First Person Shooters), which have some aspect of violence to it. The popularity of these violent video games has risen greatly within the last 5 years. In 2008, from the age group 12-17 in the United States, 97% of them played video games, and 10 of the top 20 best-selling video games in the United States contained violence (ProCon.com). These violent video games are attributed to the cause of increase in school shootings as well as increases in domestic and youth violence. Critics of these violent video games argue that the because the violence is encouraged to do well in the game through reward, that the player becomes desensitized towards the violence and will teach children that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflicts (ProCon.com). Video game advocates claim that the research is deeply flawed because there has been no link between video game violence and that of social violence. Many argue that the game actually relieves anger and aggression in a safe outlet (ProCon.com), as well as it keeps kids occupied...
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...some sort of game or video game. Whenever we play a game that is fictional you never have the thought that these games are real and mimic them.You never think that playing a game will have an effect on how you behave around other people. There have been stories in the news before about a child or teenager committing some sort of violent act because they saw it in a game they played. When you read these stories the blame is usually blamed on the game that he or she played. These correlations are made because there is an assumption that if you play a violent game then it will lead to violent behavior. People are led to believe that if you play a violent game then it will change your behavior. There is the idea that you will become more aggressive, easily agitated, and...
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...Media Violence as an Instigator of Aggression and Violence You are what you watch. Easy to say, and not too difficult to imagine either. A little over a decade ago, two boys who later became household names in America, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School in Colorado and went on a mass murdering spree where they killed 12 students, 1 teacher and injured 23 others before shooting themselves. While their motives behind doing so can not be ascertained, one possible contributing element which did surface was the influence of violent video games. At the risk of oversimplifying what is possibly a complex psychological mindfield, Harris and Klebold did enjoy playing a game called Doom, which is licensed by the American military for the purpose of training soldiers to kill effectively. Harris had customized his own version of this game and put it up on his website, which was later tracked by The Simon Wisenthal Center. This version of the game had two shooters with an unlimited supply of weapons and ammunition, and their targets lacked the ability to retaliate. A class project required them to make a video of themselves similar to the game, and in it, they dressed in trench coats, armed with weapons, and conduct the massacre of school athletes. Less than one year had gone by when Harris and Klebold played their videotape out, in real life, and became the protagonists of the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history (Anderson & Dill 772). ...
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...In recent decades there has been a growing concern among researchers, parents, and the public in general that violent interactive media may incite violence in teens and young adults. Particularly, it has been suggested that violent video games may condition a person to commit atrocities. It's not unreasonable to suspect a correlation between the exposure to violent media and the eventual enactment of violent crime; however, much consideration of variables such as mental illness, physical and mental abuse, and any other variables that would cause an individual to have a predisposition to violence must be done if any position or perspective is to be gained on the issue. A case that has been the center of much controversy regarding video games...
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...NAME: Simba Elijah Kiage ADM NO: 643419 ASSIGNMENT: A Report on Active Theory of Television Viewing Course: Jnr2223 INSTRUCTOR:Kioko Ireri, Ph.D. SUMMARY PURPOSE Delivered for the fulfillment of a Bachelors Degree in Mass media SCOPE: The Report covers the Active Viewing Theory, its contribution to understanding media effects on audiences documented challenges from research scholars. Presented To: Kioko Ireri, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Journalism & Mass Communication Patron, Journalism Club, Journalism Department United States International University-Africa. Introduction This theory finds its roots in Bandura’s 1977’s social learning theory which states that some prim aspects of television programming normally get and retain the attention of the viewers. It is therefore from here that Bandura suggested that once a child is exposed to the television programs, perceptive watching followed by an almost automatic attention and interpretation. This is a theory then that rests under media effects category. The many researchers who have put its hypothesis to research over the years have all tried to ascertain whether it is true indeed that viewers get directly involved with the media messages they consume from the media (Television) This theory however hasn’t really been accepted across by all media researchers as some have come out to question the perceived active television watching by the audiences saying that in reality television viewing as...
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...Video Game Violence The objective of the study described in the article was to measure how much video game violence could influence aggressive behavior. In the first Pilot Study, a violent and nonviolent video game were selected and compared on their level of competitiveness, difficulty, and pace of action. Participants played the games and the effect of each game on aggressive behavior was then compared using another sub-experiment in which they were then asked to make some hot sauce for someone who isn’t fond of spicy things. In the second Pilot Study, competitiveness was isolated categorized based on the difficulty and pace of gameplay, and then strategically controlling for violence. The effect of video game competition on aggressive behavior was then examined in the same sub-experiment as the first Pilot Study. The article addresses that perhaps competitiveness is the real reason and characteristic that has an effect on aggression when researching the correlations between video games and real violence. This is according to recent research by the APA. Research has been found to support that video game violence alone did not increase the aggressive behavior. The experiments featured video games that were categorized by competitiveness, the pace of action, and difficulty of the game. What was significant about these experiments was that the more competitive the game was, the more aggressive the behavior. It didn’t matter the level of violence that was in the game...
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...Steele Video Games and Violence The video game industry has become a very lucrative industry since their humble start thirty plus years ago. Today a large amount of people are devoting countless amounts of time playing video games with violent storylines. Research shows that spending vast amounts of time playing video games that contain a large quantity of violence intensifies aggressive behavior, attitudes, thoughts and affects. Video game violence correlates directly to aggressive attitudes and behaviors of the people who are exposed to violent stimuli, whether meditated or not. 1972 was the introduction to what we know as the multi-million dollar video game industry. The history of the video games spans over three eras (1977-1985) the Atari Era, (1985-1995) the Nintendo Era, and (1995-present) the Play Station Era. Video games during the Atari era contained little violence and that violence was quite intangible. With the advancement of computers it enabled development of more complex and violent video games during the Nintendo era, resulting in the popular game Mortal Kombat that was the first fight game that involved player interaction. We are currently in the third era the Play Station era and it has been significantly enriched by the advancement in computer technology and the switch from game cartridges to CD-ROM. Video games substance has radically changed since the Atari era. According to Carnagey & Anderson (2004) “content analyses of video games show...
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...Video Games Negative or Positive? Do video games have a direct correlation with the aggression and violence in the people who play them? This is the controversy discussed in the following articles. Jack Hollingdale of the University of Sussex, UK and Tobias Greitemeyer of the University of Innsbruck, Austria have collaborated in writing The changing face of aggression: the effect of personalized avatars in a violent video game on levels of aggressive behaviors. Hollingdale and Greitemeyer argue that “Studies have found that exposure to violent video games correlates negatively with helping behaviors in the real world and, as a result, exposure to violent video games poses a public health threat to children and youth” (Hollingdale and Greitemeyer 1). However, Christopher J Ferguson from Texas A&M International University, the department of behavioral applied science and criminal justice, sees the more positive side of the violent video games. In his article Blazing Angels or Resident Evil? Can Violent Video Games Be a Force for Good he disputes that “the negative effects of violent games have been exaggerated by some elements of the scientific community, fitting with past cycles of media-forced moral panics” (Ferguson 1). Both articles use statistics and specific examples to prove their thesis. Ferguson uses the claim of value more than claims of fact which seem to discredit his argument. Hollingdale and Greitmeyer support their thesis with psychological studies...
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...EFFECTS OF COMPUTER GAMING ON NEUST STUDENTS’ IN CABANATUAN CITY 1. FOREWORD ....................................................................................................................................................................... 3 2. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................................................... 4 2.1. THE REPORT ....................................................................................................................................................................... 5 2.2. BACKGROUND ....................................................................................................................................................................... 5 3. RESEARCH DIRECTIONS ....................................................................................................................................................................... 8 3.1. ACTIVE USER PERSPECTIVES ....................................................................................................................................................................... 9 3.1.1. Important studies ..................................................................................................................................................................... 11 3.1.2. Problems with the Active User perspective ............................................
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