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Video games impact levels of aggression
Video games have the largest impact on aggression violent games
Negative effects of violent games
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From the announcer yelling “Fight!” to the inevitable “Finish him!” Mortal Kombat and other similar games are no doubt filled to the brim with violence and graphic material. Where do game developers draw the line with this content being displayed in their games? A better portion of the gaming community bears the claim that violent video games are not harmful to our youth whatsoever. These claims are completely false and based from no statistics, or research at all. Admittedly, I used to take this stance as well, ignorantly. But upon deeper research, I have found that the exact opposite was true. Video games with graphic content can and will negatively impact children’s thoughts, interactions between peers, and their
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Growing up with violent thoughts can lead to anger management problems, and much worse mental issues. Video games in general propose a dire threat to the mentality of our youth. That threat is the blurring of the line between reality and virtuality. Tossing graphic content into the mix only spells for disaster. How someone is raised speaks a lot for who they will grow up to become. If someone is raised in a violent or even abusive household, they are more likely to become criminals themselves. While I admit, comparing a game with guns and gore to the mental trauma of being abused is by far a stretch. Still the presence of violence is powerful. Especially to the malleable mind of a …show more content…
Yanling Liu, et al., researchers in the Lab of Mental Health and Social Adaptation, have done some of these studies involving face recognition to identify mood changes and personality swapping. Liu writes that “studies have demonstrated changes in aggressive cue processing and emotional face recognition after violent video game exposure, which reflect alterations in cognitive bias.” Direct correlation of aggression and violent media exposure is proven in this study. Many studies against this claim argue that aggression is not caused by gaming; rather the opposite. The facial recognition would suggest that it is the other way around, and that video games are actually the cause of
At this day in age we bask in the luxury of having easy access to advanced technology at our disposal. From the World Wide Web, to cell phones, music, movies and video games the human race has thought of any and everything to keep us entertained. Over the years studies have shown reasonable concerns regarding the long-term effects of video games. These games can desensitize gamers to real life violence, which is usually seen in the younger crowd. The studies especially hit on the games containing player-on-player violence. Though these games are extremely entertaining and can get kids to settle down for a while, if not properly supervised, they can produce adverse effects. Other studies have shown that video games can be used as way to yield positive outcomes such as, good problem solving skills, cooperation in a group and the ability to flow. Although there has been psychological research on children learning through the actions of others some believe that children are automatically able to distinguish between what is just a game and what is reality. The longer they are allowed on their game system the more they become convinced that their games are real. Some researchers believe violent video games can channel the aggression of the child but the parents are to blame for what happens to the child after playing an excessive amount over a period of time. Children can become preoccupied with these violent video games which have been proven to be the cause of poor social skills, uncontrollable aggression and a false reality.
Children that play violent video games at such a young age will have a bad effect on them. “Not everybody who plays these games will become murderers, just as not everybody who smoke gets cancer” (Quittner, J). Every day people play with these games will have an effect on the way they look at things, they will begin to have aggressive thoughts, and they will begin to have a change in behavior. On average boys spend thirteen hours per week and girls spend five hours on video games. This amount of time a week will have a major effect of these children minds. “Violent video games effect people. They increase aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, and physical arousal symptoms.”(Rollins 1)
The first set of cold, clammy hands closes around my ribs. Another circles my ankle, my arm, my neck. With an irritated sigh, I restart the level for the third time as the words, “Game over” flash across the screen. Sound familiar? This scene is very common among modern zombie apocalypse games. Though the titles of these games vary, the theme remains the same: to fight for one’s life. Users are thrust into a world where they must combat violence thrown at them with violence of their own. The sheer thrill of it can be very exciting and relates well to many youth because of its life or death component. All of a sudden, eight year old boys are armed with machine guns to blast the heads off of shuffling zombies, bug-eyed aliens, and more commonly, modeled soldiers. But, while the video games continue to be mass produced, the cognitive and social skills of America’s youth suffer. With the mental health of the newest generation on the line, is it really justifiable to pass off buying the newest violent video game as innocent fun?
Research has shown that immediately after playing a violent video game, kids can have aggressive thoughts, angry feelings and physiological effects such as increased heart rate and blood pressure. In addition, studies that survey large populations of kids on their game-playing habits and measure aggressive personality traits or self-reported aggressive acts — physical fights, arguments with teachers — often find an association between games and aggression.
In the book “Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy,” the authors relay the general information concerning the history of violence in video games as well as the beginning of the issue of violence in video games (Anderson, Gentile, and Buckley 2007). They state that it was “during the 1990s that violent games truly
Violent video games and violent adolescent behavior, is there a connection? Millions of violent video games are sold around the United States, millions more are sold overseas, but the numbers of violent crimes, that could be associated with violent video games is low. Assault, robbery, burglary, rape and murder occur daily. The drug industry accounts for the majority of these crimes. The cases not related to drugs, fall into a number of categories, including Psychological Disorders. Disorders that can cause violent behavior are psychotic or anti-social behavior, depression, schizophrenia, delusion, disassociation, and any others recognized by a Psychologist.
Video games have positive and negative aspects. Acording to a study, those who spend hours and hours in playing ‘civic games’ were found to take more part in different community services like social work, politics or protests, as compared to those who never took interest in vidoe games. Hence video games are proved to increase one’s social interaction skills. The kind of friendship and ethics that are learnt by the young gamers while playing video games provide evidence that they are not completely harmful to our society. (Heins, 62)
Research has shown that violent video games will not turn people, more specifically teenagers, into psychotic killers. Video games are more of a hobby, or addicting obsession amongst teens. In fact, crime in America has been reduced because video games act as a way to vent out any anger or urges that can go through teenagers “Imaginary Guns”. “Teenagers are able to understand the difference of video game violence and reality”. Video games are said to be a poor influence on the younger generation of kids. Even so, more and more individuals, teenagers count in the category, are starting to play video games on a day to day basis. Video games are a form of entertainment to the new generation, just as songs are heard and television is watched by many individuals around the globe. Video games are interactive entertainment that actually can “work out” the brain by having to think of strategies in order to progress in a game or things of that matter. Video games have many positive effects on the brain and can keep the brain active by doing interactive objectives that video games have to offer. Let’s say an individual were playing a video game having to solve various amounts of puzzles in order to solve a murder case and catch the criminal, or maybe even find missing pieces of a puzzle just to unlock a gate. All these activities keep the brain active and focused on what a person(s) trying to accomplish in the game. This activity will expand the imagination and the brains way of thinking to solve each puzzle or event that plays out in interactive games.
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.
Parenting.com brought up research on video games to argue about. They mention that a first-person shooter game is more serious than watching violence on T.V. A recent meta-analysis in 2010 of 12 earlier studies found a link between times spent playing video games and violent behavior later in life (Emmons, 2013). They mention the study that was taken place in 2004 from Journal of Adolescence showed that video games are more desensitized than TV. That the children that play violence game are more interactive than watching, their physical activity are different. However, they mention the other studies that failed to link between violent video game exposure and aggression (Emmons, 2013). They brought up a good point that most of the studies had focused on normal kids, the study does not consist of children with e...
The debate about media violence has been going on for hundreds of years. The newest form of media being scrutinized is videogames. I will be taking you through this debate and sharing with you some things that you may find surprising. This is not a new topic and has ...
There have been so many experiments and studies to try and figure out if video games have a negative or positive effect on our children. A growing body of research is linking violent video game play to aggressive cognitive, attitudes and behaviors (D.A. Gentile, 2004). The 'Path of the 'Path of the 'Path of the 'Path of the 'Path of the 'Path of the 'Path of the 'Path of Video games can obviously be dangerous for our children, causing aggression, bad performances in school and obesity. Although we cant blame all of these problems on the use of video games, there have been many studies to prove so.... ...
Scott, Derek. “The Effect of Video Games on Feelings of Aggression.” The Journal of Psychology 129.2
Throughout history many things in general have been improved upon. Four major improvement areas are: warfare, medicine, education of society, and technology. All of these improvements have brought with them positive effects. Warfare has allowed oppressed people to rule themselves; medicine has saved countless lives with vaccines and treatment programs; education of societies has allowed people to make their dreams come true; and, advancements in technology have made the previous three possible. With these positive effects also come negative effects, which are seen on a grand scale. Advancement in warfare has caused numerous deaths, medicine has advanced to the point where ethical questions arise because of cloning and stem cell research, the education of society in addition with the advancement in technology have allowed these negative advancements to be achieved.
I must admit that violent video games and toys do teach kids how to act violent and how to be rewarder for the bad things they do in the games but kids must learn to tell the difference between violence in games and the violence in video games. According to the article Playing violent video games: good or bad? By Darcia Narvaez “The player practices violent behavior hundreds if not thousands of times, much more practice than normal activities receive. Whatever a person practices repeatedly becomes an automatic response. Violent games teach children how to behave like a criminal and to intentionally hurt others” (Narvaez). She is saying that children are learning how to be a criminal in video games but just because kids are being taught that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will use that in the real world and turn into a criminal. Some parents teach their kids to be honest and to be good people, the values that parents teach the kids are more important for kids then the ones that they learn from video games or somewhere