Aggressive Behavior and Violent Video Games

Paper Summary:

This paper examines studies pertaining to violent video games as encouragers of aggressive behaviour. The paper explains that these studies take different approaches to the same mechanism that much previous research has asserted to exist between young people who play violent video games and observable aggression expressed in their thinking and self-expression or behaviour. The writer points out that one paper was found to be more thoughtful, varied, less reductive and more generative of new questions than the others towards reflection on what studies of this variety can produce in terms of useful or stimulating information. The writer then looks at how all three studies indicate the sway in psychology of what previous studies have found in numbers, in studies of varying quality or small differences seeming to be unanimous in correlating violent video games and user aggression. The writer concludes that many studies addressing violent video games in relation to aggression obviously point to an unspoken question as to why such aggression of sometimes very serious forms is demonstrated by many persons in North America - a society that has attained one of the highest standards of living, ever seen.

From the Paper:

"A comment is made on violent media as known to produce aggressive behaviour according to various studies of different kinds. The conclusion repeats the introduction's statement on violent video games perhaps inducing automatic aggressive associations of the self. However, the reader is never quite sure what aggressive associations of the self are. One presumes that a student of a certain age has enough insight to report that, yes, he or she is aware of feeling angry or 'wired up' after interacting with a violent video game, but this need mean very little. Perhaps a student having had a difficult morning or a delayed trip to school would report that he or she also felt aggressive, or a student having had to deal with an intense, unpleasant experience of another kind. Again, is aggression anger, or anger expressed outwardly, or annoyance?"

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bartholow, B.D., B.J. Bushman and M.A. Sestir. (2006). Chronic Violent Video Game Exposure and Desensitization to Violence - behavioral and event-related brain potential data. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 532-539.
• Cicchirillo, V. and R.M. Chory-Assad. (2005). Effects of Affective Orientation and Video Game Play on Aggressive Thoughts and Behaviours. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 49, 435-449.
• Uhlmann, E. and J. Swanson. (2004). Exposure to Violent Video Games Increases Automatic Aggressiveness. Journal of Adolescence, 27, 41-52.

More papers on Aggressive Behavior and Violent Video Games:

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• Research Paper # 32175 : "Violent Video Games Do Effect Aggressive Behavior"
• Essay # 67692 : "Violent Video Games"

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