Violence In Video GamesEssay Preview: Violence In Video GamesReport this essayOver the past ten years, statistics have shown that the violence among young people is increasing every year. Many people blame musicians and other types of artist who portray negative actions as something positive. Others might blame the parents for not watching over their children. But many people fail to bring up technology as an issue. With the new DVD that shows sex and violence or computers that gives kids access to unauthorized sites, technology is something that many parents need to look out for. Violent video games can also have a major impact on a childs thinking and actions. In many ways video games have had a negative impact on young children in todays society.
New game systems like Game Cube, X Box, or Sony Play station 2 are the new hype of the 21st century. The games for these systems can affect children as well as adults. These video games have caused many problems in our society regarding issues such as addiction to games, and depression among adult. According to Grossman, many children starting from their early teenage years found that almost a third played video games on a daily basis and 10% played for at least 25 hours a week. Street Fighter, Grand Theft Auto and Halo are very interactive in the violence of slaughtering the opponent that children find very exciting. Even though the video game industries put signs like “Rated 18 or older and state violence level that are not recommended for children under age of 12 on the game boxes parents ignore the signs and still continue to purchase these items. In the modern popular game the bad guys dont just disappear after they die like they used to, they act out real life actions. For example, someone who gets shot in the neck normally falls to his knees while holding his face in the old games. Now when the characters get shot, blood squirts all over the place, covering the whole scene while the other opponent just laughs or does a victory dance. Even when some video games have explosives, the characters body parts explode everywhere.
A perfect example of how violent video games have had a negative impact on young people is the Columbine High School shooting which took place on April 20, 1999. There were two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold who turned an average high school day into a massacre in Littleton, Colorado. They murdered 13 and wounded 23 of their classmates before committing suicide. Although nothing is for certain as to why these boys did what they did, a police investigation showed that both Harris and Klebold liked playing violent video games like Doom, which is a video game that is licensed by the United Statse military to train soldiers to successfully take a life. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which tracks Internet hate groups, found in its archives a copy of Harris web site with a version of Doom. He had customized it so that there were two gunmen, both with extra weapons and unlimited ammunition, and the other people in the game could not fight back. Also for a class project they made videotapes similar to their favorite game where they customized a version of Doom. Harris and Klebold were dressed in trench coats, carried guns, and killed students. The sad part of this was that they completed their videotape in actual life less than a year later.(CNN.com)
By comparing the outcome of observing versus playing violent games on young adults and their arousal levels, hostile feelings and aggressive thoughts the results in this study point out that students in collage that had played violent video game had a greater heart rate speed, reported more nausea and dizziness, and unmasked more violent thoughts in an individual than those whove played nonviolent games. In the “Journal of Family Violence” there was an article tittled “cognitive tempo, violent video games, and aggressive behaviors in young boys.” This article was about a study conducted by Irwin and Gross to find the effects of playing non-aggressive verses aggressive video games on second grade boys which were identified as “impulsive or reflective”(Gross 340). The subjects (2nd grade boys) that “had played the aggressive videogame compared to those who played the non-aggressive game displayed more verbal and physical aggression to intimate objects and playmates during a subsequent free play session”(Gross 342). Thus showing that when children play videogames they would most likely bring mannerisms from the game to real life.
According to a study conducted by Steven J. Kirsch titled “Seeing the world through Mortal Kombat colored glasses: Violent video games and hostile attribution bias,” the effects of playing a violent versus a non-violent video game were studied. After playing these games, third- and fourth-graders were asked questions about a hypothetical story (Kirsch 179). On three of six questions, the children who had played the violent game responded more negatively about the harmful actions of a story character than did the other children (Kirsch 180). These results suggest that playing violent video games may make children more likely to attribute hostile intentions to others (Kirsch 182).
In another study by Karen E. Dill, Ph.D. & Craig A. Anderson, Ph.D., violent video games were considered to be more harmful in increasing aggression than violent movies or television shows due to their interactive and engrossing nature. The two studies showed that aggressive young men were especially vulnerable to violent games and that even brief exposure to violent games can momentarily increase violent manners in all types of participants. (Pg 13) The first study was conducted with 227 college students with aggressive behavior records in the past and who completed a measure of trait aggressiveness. They were also reported to have habits of playing video games. It was found that students that were playing more aggressive video games in junior and high school, engaged in more aggressive behavior. In addition, the time spent playing video games in the past were associated
in the future with a significant decrease in the odds of having a hostile family life. The present study assessed the prevalence of aggressive behavior in young men at a different age from those at the previous age. We showed that the time spent with aggressive video game use led to a greater increase of aggressive attitudes toward others. Our previous study revealed that the risk of being involved in an aggressive family relationship has increased when it was exposed as the risk factor for a positive parent experience. We expected that a higher percentage of males to interact with more aggressive games at an earlier age would be associated with increased odds that a hostile family experience would occur. A different question was asked that tested whether there was a connection between aggression and personality. In this study, all three dimensions (aggressive, sociable, and cooperative) were identified as the major determinants. It was hypothesized that aggressive behavior and psychological health would be associated with different psychopathological risk factors related to aggressive behavior.
5. Future Research In addition to the recent study by Anderson, Molnar, Eberner, & Hörtn, a number of previous studies have linked aggressive behavior with many different psychological disorders. The primary objective of our present study, therefore, is to further understand this relationship and specifically examine the impact of different types of videogames on some disorders. We intend to examine the influence of game mechanics and social role building on other measures found in a number of recent reports. The aim of our present study is to explore at the root aspects of the link established between videogame and some psychiatric disorders. The main hypothesis behind this finding is the use of specific games, social and non-social role building which is a key factor in the development and subsequent clinical manifestations of certain personality disorders. Some of these include the DSM-IV, which uses a term that emphasizes the role that role building plays in different types of mental disorders. Another aspect of games which can increase personality and mood is game play with violence in an action-based gameplay style. In our study, participants who played competitively and/or had a cooperative type of character, both played as adults and their behaviors at home were compared against those playing casual or cooperative gamers. We found that the participants who used more negative control conditions had longer and more negative attitudes towards others, although they were less likely to use the positive control conditions. The negative control conditions allowed the participants to become more aggressive; their behaviours were more peaceful and less aggressive. In contrast, the positive control conditions (i.e., more people play) raised aggression in the participants and led to a stronger and longer lasting stress response. Overall, the negative control conditions were associated with a higher prevalence of aggression, indicating that the negative control conditions may also have other consequences in varying degrees. This suggests that the effects can be observed across a range of psychopathological types. Additionally, because the prevalence of aggressive behaviors does not appear to be high, it appears that the positive control conditions appear to be linked to less frequent and chronic abuse and physical violence in the community. This point is critical to be made as we have previously demonstrated that games may contribute to the development of certain psychiatric disorders which may otherwise be less well understood and untreated. One hypothesis proposes that we may in fact have an effect on the development of some of the more general psychiatric psychiatric conditions. Another aspect of social role building, which may lead to higher rates of aggression or higher level aggressiveness is the inclusion of positive control environments. In other words, if positive control (i.e., no gaming, but also a positive level of control) in any group is associated