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Violent video games affecting young people's behavior
Violent video games affecting young people's behavior
Do violent video games cause aressive behavior
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Since the rise of violent video games, a common topic of discussion has been that violent video games incite violence in young teens. Despite what these people may think, violent video games have many upsides as well as the whole idea of inciting violence may just not be true. Research has stated that among many things that violent games do help, they can help reduce the amount of youth violence, increase intellectual skills, provide an output for aggressive behavior, and help kids or even adults relax. With many groups of people trying to get violence in video games taken away, I believe that violent video games are what helps regulate emotions in young teens as well as helping improve thought processing and memory retention.
Research has found that linking violent video games to violent or aggressive behavior is unwarranted and unnecessary. It has been shown that there is yet to be any proof of this revelation being true, and even more proving it to be false. Statistics show that “sales of video games from 1995-2008 have more than quadrupled, while the arrest rate for juvenile murders fell 71.9% and the arrest rate for all juvenile violent crimes declined 49.3% in this same period.”(Akhaven) Another study done in 2005 states that “the US had 2,279 murders committed by teenagers compared to 73 in Japan while per capita video game sales were $5.20 in the US compared to $47 in Japan.”(Goldfein) A few people have went far enough to be able to say through their research that a lot of things said about violence in video games are linked to aggressive behavior is completely false. A duo of people have even stated that “a casual link between violent video games and violent behavior has not been proven.”(Dmitri) The same duo has also st...
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Dmitri Williams and Marko Skoric, "Internet Fantasy Violence: A Test of Aggression in an Online Game," Communication Monographs, June 2005
Susan Villani, Cheryl Olson, and Michael Jellinek, "Media Literacy for Clinicians and Parents," Child Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, July 2005
Olson, Cheryl, Sc. D. "8 Reasons Video Games Can Improve Your Child." Parents Magazine. Parents, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
Grohol, John M., Psy. D. "Video Games Can Help Boost Social, Memory & Cognitive Skills." Psych Central.com. PsychCentral, 26 Nov. 2013. Web. 09 Feb. 2014.
Jeffrey Goldstein, "Immortal Kombat: War Toys and Violent Video Games," Why We Watch, 1998
"The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative: Implications for the Prevention of School Attacks in the United States" (1.6 MB), United States Secret Service website, July 2004
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.
Since the 1970 video games have become more popular than ever before. Generating 11.7 billions of dollars of sells every year or more, the video game industry is considered one of the largest industries in this century. However, video games have been a topic of controversy. With the sales of violent video games going up and the increased violence in schools and teenagers, video games are always to blame. Many people speculate that video games are the cause on why many teenagers have developed aggressive and violent behavior, are desensitize to violence, and the increase violence in schools and public places. In contradiction, video games have little or no fault in teenagers’ violent behavior and shouldn’t always be blamed.
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.
In conclusion violent video games could make the player so violent to make the player kill a person and cause behaviour problems. However, violent video games may lead to a positive impact on student’s behaviour at school, as reported form teachers, maybe it isn’t the games causing violence in people, and it could be because of the area that they are living in. Therefore it is clear that violent video games don’t cause violence in real life, it’s generally because of the way they are treated at
“Contrary to the claims that violent video games are linked to aggressive assaults and homicides, no evidence was found to suggest that this medium was a major (or minor) contributing cause of violence in the United States.” (Markey, 290)
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.
Although violent video games are thought to encourage real world violence, they actually help to prevent it. I am focusing on violent video games and how they affect juveniles because I feel that this issue needs to be looked at in the criminal justice community. It is an unnecessary distraction to blame the actions of a disturbed youth on a form of entertainment that has been used by millions of people without incident. A review article published in The Psychiatric Quarterly found that many studies which claim to indicate an increase in aggression due to video games are, in fact, biased! Once the bias is taken into account, the studies no longer find any correlation between youths who play violent video games and youths who demonstrate aggression and violent behavior.
In this research called: The good, the Bad and the Ugly. Ferguson points out that there is continuing concern that playing violent video games may increase the risk of aggression in players. Not often discussed is the possibility that playing violent video games may promote certain positive developments, particularly related to visuals cognition. In his results Ferguson found that violent games may increase aggressive thoughts, but these thoughts do not seems to lead to aggressive behavior. This doesn’t means that video games is completely sane, but it give a opportunity to considerate that video games is not the only reason of aggressive behavior on children, even though they are playing violent
”Violent Video Games Poison the Teenage Brain: A Study.” American School Board Journal. Feb 2007, Vol. 78, No. 1.
During different periods of time, people used different types of entertainment. Nowadays, the adults are usually entertaining themselves with media, and children, who are not really impressed by television, usually are font of video games. In would be good, if the games were not violent. Would you like your young or teenage child to play games, where they kill each other, and get points for this? I consider it to be the rhetorical question, because the effect of violent video games on children is negative, and probably there are no parents in the world, who would appreciate their child’s resort to violence, even if this violence is virtual. Playing violent video games can have several negative results on young children and teenagers, but it can also have neutral, or even calming effect.
This article points out that not only is there no relation between the two, but that other studies have been collecting their research in the wrong way. The article states that, “the resultant aggressive behaviors are also outside a real-world context in which the aggression appears to be sanctioned by the researchers themselves,”(Vincent,2014). This is suggesting that video games have absolutely no relation to violence and the researcher’s themselves are creating the violence in the subjects.
Methodology This research was conducted using the online databases at the Oregon State University Library.... ... middle of paper ... ... In fact, violent video games influence children’s behavior badly, thus the child is more aggressive.
“YOU SUCK!” “I killed him!” “Head shot!” These are just a few examples of dialogue spoken by children while they are playing violent video games. These video games might seem like harmless fun, but what if the violence in these games is affecting the behavior of young players interacting with others?
Violent video games are special games, which negatively influences to the attitude and behavior. These video games are popular between children and teenagers. Since 1980-s years violent games are in political discussion. Because when teenagers usually play violent video games, they are becoming aggressive and then they face with psychological problems. For this, some people claim that violent games are harmful for society and they affect to behavior and health.
“90% of pediatricians and 67% of parents agreed or strongly agreed that violent video games can increase aggressive behavior among children” ("Do Violent Video Games Contribute to Youth Violence?”). Pediatrics and parents are aware that kids that play violent video games see a change in their behavior. Many cases they see the kids with anger problems and causing them to do violent acts. Violent video games have been around for many years where some older titles, such as ‘Mortal Kombat’ and 'Grand Theft Auto’ both are some of the most controversial ones. The video game industry has been growing and with the large amounts of violent video games being produced. “Total US sales of video game hardware and software increased 204% from 1994 to