Classical Experiment on Violence in Video Games

Classical Experiment on Violence in Video Games

I a design a classical experiment Violence video games, Elements include: • Identify components • What research question? • What hypothesis? • How select subjects assign a group? • How conduct experiment? Describe procedures.

Design of a classical experiment on Violence in video games

Components

The game will involve the use of the following apparatus. They include;

A video game for example, a Nintendo 64 game system

Appropriate game cartridges, including one violent video game (wrestling) and one nonviolent video game (basketball). In the wrestling game, the human violence should be prevalent in that the object of the game is to punch, kick, and use blunt weapon and other wrestling moves to subdue the opponent. While, the basketball (NBA LIVE '99), game is meant to have no violence since the player is not supposed to hurt the opponent and if it happens, the player is warned and penalized. In addition, the person playing should concentrate at scoring more goals that the opponent in the shortest time possible Uhlmann & Swanson, 2004()

Other apparatus to be used include; one VHS camcorder, one-meter tall inflatable Bobo doll and a television.

Measures of aggressiveness will be done in the following ways;

The study will measure aggressiveness using two cognitive measures and one behavioral measure.

In the behavioral, the participants' interaction with the Bobo doll will be keenly observed.

The cognitive measure entails; one for prime aggression and the other for normative beliefs about aggression.

The priming measure is a word completion task where the participant will be provided with a missing letter to form a complete word which forms at least one familiar aggressive word and at least three non-aggressive words Funk, 2005()

2. Research questions

What are the short-term effects of violent video games on a person behavior?

What is the long-term effect of violent video games on a person who has played it for a long duration?

What impact does viewing of a violent game being played have on a third party?

3. Hypothesis

Playing of violent video games has an impact on the behavioral tendencies, i.e. aggression of someone exposed.

4. Criteria for selecting a group

The groups to participate in the study will be randomly selected from a school, the school will be chosen for convenience purposes. The participants randomly selected will be from as low as third grade to sixth grade students and their grades will form their groups, but the experiment will involve more of boys than girls because;

Boys are the vast majority of video game players.

Boys are more likely than girls to demonstrate aggression.

5. Inclusion criteria

The student should not be below 10 years of age.

He/she should be mentally sound.

6. Description of procedure for experiment

The game will employ a 2 x 2 between groups factorial design with grade (third vs. Sixth), where media content (violent vs. non-violent), will be availed to them. Two participants will be randomly assigned to each of the two conditions.

Procedure

The experiment will take place in a quiet at the participants' school. The participants will be individually escorted to and from their classroom by the experimenter. Upon arrival, they will sit and read and complete the assent form. Thereafter, the participants will be exposed to a 15 minutes video game. The student will be exposed to one of the video game content (violent wrestling game and non-violent-basketball game) Funk, 2005.

For both games, the students are given instructions on how to play games in case they do not understand how to play them. After completing the entire 15 minutes video game session, the experimenter will present to them the word-stem and normative beliefs tasks in counterbalanced order. The experimenter will start with the word-stem where a series of partial words will be read, and the participants will complete the word with the appropriate missing letter. For example, the experimenter will read a letter let's say ( _UN) from a real word. The stem can be completed to form either an aggressive (e.g. GUN) or non-aggressive word (e.g. FUN) depending on the letter chosen by the child. In case the child fails to give an answer in the next 15 seconds then he/she is given a hint, such as (F / G).

The second stage is where the participant is asked if he may like to play with the Bobo doll. The experimenter will leave room for the participant to play, while leaving a hidden camera activated to watch how the participant will handle the Bobo doll. For this part, the scoring will be on the basis of the participant's engagement intensity with the doll and not the frequency.