The dramatic escalation of violence committed by and against people is shocking (Eron et al., 1994). Although according to Federal Bureau of Investigation, the murder rate in the year 2009 dropped almost 7.2 percent in comparison of the murder rate of 2008. Similarly crime rate of crimes like rape and assault had been decreased up to 4.2 percent each and crime rates of robbery and burglary fell by 1.7 percent and 4.2 percent respectively (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2009) but still the violence among the youth has increased sharply.
There is no simple explanation for the presence of aggression, nor is there any obvious, easy way to reduce it. The fundamental basis of violence is absolutely clear: the human capacity for aggression.
Cognitive Neo-association analysis:
Major social psychologists believe that people are motivated by a desire for cognitive consistency- a state of mind in which one’s beliefs, attitudes, and behavior are all compatible with each other. Cognitive consistency theories seem to presuppose that people are generally logical but it is also true that a powerful motive to maintain cognitive consistency can give rise to irrational and sometimes maladaptive behavior. People don’t always feel they also think. What is the role of their thought in their criminal or violent behavior?
The cognitive- Neo-association analysis emphasizes how feelings and thoughts interact. Negative effect automatically stimulates various thoughts, memories, expressive motor reactions, and physiological responses associated with both of two basic tendencies: fight and flight. These associations give rise to rudimentary emotional expression of anger and fear. Situational cues can intensify or weaken such automatic associations.
...
... middle of paper ...
...effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior and any potential sex differences, a difference was found between the two sexes. Male and female undergraduate students were asked to play both a violent and a nonviolent video game. With each game, the students were allowed to select the severity of punishment for the player who lost (a computer). Both males and females set higher punishments while playing violent video games. However, males set much higher punishment levels than females while playing the violent video game. This could be because men are more aggressive than women in general and are also more sensitive to aggressive cues. Other characteristics that could affect increased aggression are the level of development and maturity, the experience with the video game or games, and the ability to understand fantasy vs. reality.
“Study: Violent Video Game Play Makes More Aggressive Kids.” 2011. SIRS Researcher. Web. 23 Mar 2011.
The allegation that videogames cause violent behavior in children has been present as long as videogames themselves. Some researchers said that the Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, was one intense gamer. “Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech Shooter was seen by his roomates as odd because he never joined them in video games.”(Beresin) This debate will continue to go on in this country as long as there are horrific crimes that occur. There is much written in the research regarding this issue, and many differing views. The research that is presented in the next few paragraphs supports the theory that it is not the graphic video games that produce aggressive behavior, but other factors in a child’s life that create violent actions.
Adachi, P.J.C. & Willoughby, T. (2011). The Effect of Video Game Competition and Violence on Aggressive Behavior: Which Characteristic Has the greatest influence? Psychology of Violence 1(4), 259-274.
The American Psychological Association has conducted research pertaining to the effect violent video games play on children. In this article the APA discusses how some of their research has made it evident that violent video games may cause some children to be far more aggressive to their peers, but the same games seemed to have a positive affect on other children. The research that was conducted by the APA in this article shows that the violent video games alone have little or no effect on a child, but instead it is a mix of certain personality traits of the given child that make a child more susceptible to the violence that is presented to them when playing video games. The research presented in this article also shows some of the positives that come along with the activity of playing video games. These positive effects range from the usage of video games in a hospital enviro...
Studies on the link between videogames and violent behaviors began in the late 1970’s. The first time a violent video game was introduced and raised some eyebrows about the amount of violence being displayed was with a certain racing video game. “The controversy dates all the way back to Death Race, a 1976 8-bit video game in which cars run over bad guys, turning them into tombstones” (Kelly, 1). The studies between videogames and violent behavior continued into the 1980’s. “In 1984, a study found that arcade games have a “calming effect” and that boys use them to blow off steam. Both studies relied on surveys and interviews asking boys and young men about their media consumption” (Kain, 2). As a result, the link between videogames and violent behavior has been studied for a long time.
Reilly describes video games as violent regardless of the age, gender, and culture. Reilly explains that video games today are nothing but fuel of aggressive behavior. Reilly does one experiment that s...
Playing violent video games is considered to have negative effects on the players. Violent video games create an aggressive behavior in the people who play them. Experimental, correlation, and longitudinal studies have supported the idea of an increased aggressive behavior due to playing violent video games. Based on experimental studies, “. . . individuals in laboratory environments have demonstrated short-term increased levels of physiological arousal, hostile feelings, hostile attitudes and aggressive behavior following sessions of playing violent video games compared to non-violent video games.” In addition, correlation studies “. . . have demonstrated a significant relationship between exposure to violent video games, trait hostility, and aggressive or antisocial behavior,” which support...
Scott, D. The Effect of Video Games on Feelings of Aggression. The Journal of Psychology. March 1995 v129 n2 p121-132.
Violence in America’s society is definitely a major problem. This problem can be traced back as far as fetal development. It seems that in most cases of bad treatment, the families come from poverty or bad neighborhood areas. The whole main purpose of this speaker was to develop a good understanding on why most of the violent crimes occur in today’s hurting society. It is not rocket science to realize that most angry violent acts are due to a disturbed child or individual that lacked attention, love or care. Violence is not a new problem, scientists are just finding out new facts about how it starts and how it can be prevented.
The scientific study of violence in human says that everyone has, what scientists call, a “Seat of aggression” known as the limbic system. This area is located low in the central brain which is regulated by the brain’s frontal lobes. The two different areas communicate by sending chemical transmitters and hormones. One of them is called serotonin which heightens aggression in humans. Scientifically, humans have found that aggression in humans is natural but just because violence is scientifically natural does not mean it has to be socially innate. Violent behavior is “A response to particular sorts of provocation or stimulation,” therefore, focusing on interpersonal violence, aggression is caused by an unfavorable interaction with another human being or group. To then find the origin of violence, on a social level, the question of what the root is of unfavorable interactions between individuals and groups needs to be answered. The answer: the source of violence comes from tribalism and pressure.
The purpose of this paper is to present a literature review on existing articles relating to the possibility of violent video games promoting aggressive behavior. The hypothesis set forth was that people who played non-violent video games displayed more Prosocial behavior versus those who played violent video games displayed more antisocial and aggressive behavior. A search was conducted on regular search engines on the internet, and on EBSCOhost using the title “can violent video games promote aggressive behavior.” The research articles presented are obtained from five case studies each focusing on different measures that were obtained, methods used, the participants involved, the designs of the study, and the results of the studies.
Nothing does more to tear our families apart than violent crime, guns, gangs, drugs, and the fear that walks alongside those terrors. Violent crime and victim rights have become a major concern for most citizens in the United States of America. Statistics indicate a decline in violent crimes in our country and an increase in our national prison population. Released prisoners commit most violent crimes. Gun control legislation, reform programs, victim rights awareness, and other programs are abundant in our country, but do little to alleviate violent crime. In this paper I will try to present the liberal and conservative views on this issue as well as my own views.
Children and adolescents that play violent video games undergo through aggressive behavior. The violent activity in the video games influence
Have you ever wondered if violent video games can cause aggression in children? Thousands of children all over the world engage in violent video games for a large amount of time during their day. According to ProCon.org 60% of middle school boys and 40% of middle school girls who played at least one Mature-rated (M-rated) game hit or beat up someone, compared with 39% of boys and 14% of girls who did not play M-rated games. I will be using naturalistic and case study research methods to determine if violent video games cause aggression in children.
A study in the medical journal Pediatrics discusses how a group of 181 Japanese students from the ages 12 to 15, and 364 U.S. children from the ages 9 to 12 were tested in order to observe the effects of violent video games. It was recorded that the children who were more subjected to the violent video games were more aggressive than their complements who did not participate in the games. (Moeller) The children who played the games also ended up controlling numerous situations inadequately; this involves pushing or shoving for what they wanted, or yelling at each other. It is tolerable to have faith in that this is a standard stereotype for children at this age; however, children are becoming more and more out of control and belligerent. Research has also found that, controlling for prior aggression, children who played more violent video games during the beginning of the school year showed more aggression than other children later in the school year