Example Of Desensitization Essay

Desensitization

Some studies looked into showing the effects of desensitization amongst consumers of violence like the case “The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violence” (Carnagey et. al., 2007). This study looked at desensitization is a term used by scholars, public policy analysts, politicians, and the lay public to mean effects as varied as: (a) an increase in aggressive behavior; (b) a reduction in physiological arousal to real-life violence; (c) a flattening of affective reactions to violence; (d) a reduction in likelihood of helping a violence victim; (e) a reduction in sympathy for a violence victim; (f) a reduction in the sentence for a convicted violent offender, (g) a reduction in the perceived guilt of a violence perpetrator; and (h) a reduction in judged severity of violence victim’s injuries (Carnagey et. al., 2007). To put a clearer definition of desensitization to violence is a reduction in emotion-related physiological reactivity to real violence (Carnagey et. al., 2007) When looking at the term desensitization and violent video games the initial thought was that playing video games will in turn make youth more aggressive immediately after exposure, and become more aggressive adults (e.g., Anderson et al., 2003; Carnagey et. al., 2007). In this particular

study it was able to show that desensitization is able to do a variety of things such as desensitizing soldiers to violence (Grossman and DeGaetano, 1999; Carnagey et. al., 2007). The experiment done for this case demonstrates that violent video game exposure can cause desensitization to real life violence, violent game players were less physiologically aroused by real-life violence than non-violent game players (Carnagey et. al., 2007).

Impact on youth with elevated mental health
This particular study sought out to explore the effects of video game violence in youth that display clinically elevated attention deficit or depressive symptoms on the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (Ferguson and Olson, 2014). The results for this study found no evidence for increased bullying or delinquent behaviors among youth with clinically elevated mental health symptoms who also played violent video games (Ferguson and Olson, 2014). Past research has looked at measuring game violence effects in college students using laboratory methods and measures of relatively mild aggression where, the validity of the measures have been debated within the research community (e.g. Giancola and Zeichner 1995; Ritter and Eslea, 2005; Ferguson and Olson, 2014). The topic of the validity of studies is often a rather confusing one due to there not being a standard way to measure aggression. It seems that different studies have different methods of collecting data such as self-rating hostile feelings (Williams, 2011); or administering non-painful bursts of annoying noise to consenting opponents in reaction-time test (Anderson and Dill, 2000; Ferguson and Olson, 2014). In this particular study a variety of variables were looked at to answer gaps in research, these included depression/attention symptoms, trait aggression, parental involvement, support from others, stress, exposure to video game violence, delinquency, and bullying (Ferguson and Olson, 2014).
Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggression
When looking at articles on violent video games and aggression it seems as if for every connection made to connecting video games to aggression you find another article saying there is no connection.

For example, some researchers claim that playing violent video games leads to aggression (e.g., Anderson and Ford, 1986; Ballard and Wiest, 1995; Irwin and Gross, 1995; Schutte, Malouff, Post-Gordon, and Rodasta, 1988; Silvern and Williamson, 1987; Sherry, 2001), whereas others claim there is no such relationship (e.g., Copper and Mackie, 1986; Graybill, Strawniak, Hunter, and O’Leary, 1987; Scott, 1995; Winkel, Novak, and Hopson, 1987; Sherry,

2001).
This study was a meta-analysis of existing studies of the effects of violent content video games on aggression will provide important information for consideration of theoretical and methodological issues leading to a systematic program of research in this area (Sherry, 2001). This article addressed five objectives: (a) provide a cumulative measure of effect size across all studies, (b) test for consistent of differences in effect size due to levels of graphic violence in games, (c) test for the effect of length of treatment on effect size, (d) demonstrate any relationship between effect size and age of subjects, and (e) demonstrate any relationship between effect size and type of outcome measure (Sherry, 2001).
The results for this meta-analysis were that first, there is a small effect of video game play on aggression, and the effect is smaller than the effect of violent television on aggression (Sherry, 2001). The other was, within the range of games studied, the type of violence contained in the games is a predictor of aggression, with human and fantasy violence being associated with stronger effects than sports violence (Sherry, 2001). The third was, there is a trend suggesting that longer playing times result in less aggression and finally, the studies provide a mixed support for various theories of aggression due to television viewing (Sherry, 2001). Add a conclusion to this section
Video games and youth violence
This study conducted by Christopher J. Ferguson built up on previous research in a sample of 302 (52.3% female) mostly Hispanic youth (Ferguson, 2011) The study seeks to improve upon past designs in several ways mentioned such as, focusing to a much greater extent on clinical and criminological measures that are well validated as outcome measures for pathological, serious aggression and rule-breaking (i.e., parent and youth report versions of the Child Behavior Checklist; CBCL) bullying other children (the Olweus Bullying Questionnaire; OBQ) and criminology violent behavior (Negative Life Events, NLE) (Ferguson, 2011). The second thing being looked at in this present study will be the implementation of third party variables such as outside factors (Ferguson, 2011). The participants in this study were 603 mainly Hispanic youth that were recruited through the use of the “snowballing” method, contacting local organizations, and the study was advertised through the local newspaper and FM radio stations (Ferguson, 2011). About six factors were taken into consideration for this study that were measured through a Likert scale these were, negative life events, family environment, family violence, depressive symptoms, serious aggression, bullying and delinquent behavior. The overall results for this current study suggest that long-term prediction of youth violence remains spotty at best and practitioners may need to be careful not to “profile” youth who have not committed serious aggressive acts (Ferguson, 2011). The conclusion of this study finds no evidence to support a long-term relationship between video game violence use and subsequent aggression (Ferguson, 2011).
Publication Bias
This meta-analytic review is deigned to answer questions related to the size of non-experimental and experimental studies on the relationship between violent video game exposure and aggressive behavior, aggressive thoughts (cognitions and affect), prosocial behavior, and physiological responses (Ferguson, 2007). The three main goals were to 1) to provide an estimate of the effect size for the relationship between violent video game exposure and the four dependent constructs mentioned above for research occurring over the previous ten years (1995-2005) that is corrected for publication bias, (2) to examine whether there is any evidence of publication bias in the research reviewed here, and (3) examine any moderator variables that may be associated with differences in effect size noted across studies (Ferguson, 2007). The results indicated that publication bias does exist for experimental studies of aggressive behavior, as well as for non-experimental studies of aggressive behavior and aggressive thoughts (Ferguson, 2007).
This particular study struck out to me due to the fact when looking for articles I couldn’t understand why a lot of the one published are almost the same type of study conducted but with different variables. However, it was rather interesting to see some of the past research done for this topic that states how the researchers Anderson and Dill (2000) readily invoke the memory of Columbine specifically in asserting the relevance of their media violence literature then in turn Bushman and Anderson’s (2001) claim that media violence is ignored by newspapers and the public as a potential cause of violent crime, then Lawrence and Birkland (2004) found media violence and other pop culture elements as the 2nd most often discussed cause of the Columbine shooting in articles published in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times (Ferguson, 2007). Yet only 1% of news stories focused on the responsibility and moral character of the perpetrators themselves (Ferguson, 2007).
Future research
It is evident that a lot of research has been conducted to see the effects of video game violence with the use of different measures ranging from filling in blanks to having noise blasted in the person’s ears. It is also apparent that authors that are trying to be published my be extra cautious when conducting there studies to best accommodate for the results they are seeking to find. Meaning, that perhaps they are “creating” themes/results that will allow them to be published.
For this topic it seems that for any future research to be conducted you would want to see if perhaps during the time after the tragedies there is a connection between what the news outlets report on and peoples perceptions on what’s to blame for the occurrence of mass shootings. It would also need to be important to see peoples perceptions of the video games a longtime after. The reason I would think this would be important to investigate would be to see if perhaps the public sees video game to be the cause for the mass shootings or if it just relates to what the media is displaying.
Another area for future study for this particular topic would be to develop a way of measuring aggression that is similar across the board due to different studies coming to their findings a variety of ways. It seems impossible find similar ways of everyone collecting data and perhaps that is why for every claim made you can find something contradicting it.
Conclusion
When first starting this particular research I wanted to seek out if