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How much of an influence do violent video games have in terms of making young people aggressive? An article in the scholarly journal Aggressive Behavior (Barlett, et al., 2007) (titled "Longer You Play, the More Hostile You Feel: Examination of First Person Shooter Video Games and Aggression During video Game Play") states that 70% of college students are "avid" video game players. Also, video game sales are "steadily increasing, reaching 2.9 billion dollars in 2004" (Barlett, p. 486). The most frequently rented games are violent, very often including sexual themes, the article states. Moreover there is frequently a great deal of "blood and gore" associated with these games, and adolescent children prefer violent video games to more mellow or sports-related games. Add to that the fact that video games are becoming much more realistic, some are in 3-Dimensional formats, and they have "an addictive quality," Barlett writes.
And so this is prime territory for research into just how much of an affect do violent video games have on young boys, in particular. Going back to 1980, research on video games and aggression show that adolescents who spend "the most time" in arcades where violent video games are available are the most aggressive. It should come as no surprise to parents or teachers or guardians that, as the article points out, "multiple literature reviews" and "meta-analytic work" by scholars and researchers reflects the fact that "...playing a violent video game significantly increases the aggressive thoughts, aggressive feelings, and physiological arousal of the players" (Barlett, p. 487). This, in turn, increases the amount of aggressive behaviors that are witnessed in empirical studies involving video games.
Scientists using a model called General Aggression Model (GAM) report in this article that the exposure "to the mere presence of the violent content in certain video games" raises the hostility level of the player "significantly." And this raising level of hostility in the video game player occurs "unconsciously" (Barlett, p. 488). Interestingly, when a player is playing in a cooperative situation with others...
The United States Army, however, eventually introduces its recruits to a real battlefield, whereas the America's Army video game does not. Participants in the "SeeMePlayMe" multiplayer online tournament of America's Army do not use real machine guns when they shoot at enemy troops and do not lose any limbs when they are shot in turn. When people play America's Army, the shoot and kill enemy troops in a virtual world.
The second way is that individuals, specifically children can become desensitized to violence. This is because, daily exposure to violence may make one lose their emotional impact on them. Apparently, when one becomes emotionally numb, it becomes easier for them to engage in violence (Harding). The General Aggression Model This is a model that attempts to explain both the development of aggression an individual differences in susceptibility to the influence of
Winning a game activates a cerebral reward center, in a way that 'teaches' players to be violent in a Pavlovian way, so the players associate acting violently with gaining a reward. This thesis has been supported by recent MRI scanning research examining the brains of children who have just played violent video games: "A new study employing state-of-the-art brain-scanning technology…say that brain scans of kids who played a violent
Video Games and Journalism This past summer Rupert Murdoch, founder and CEO of News Corp., the world's second-largest media conglomerate, found himself in the midst of a controversy stemming from a phone-hacking scandal perpetrated by several reporters from his now-defunct New of the World tabloid. On July 19, 2011, before a group of British lawmakers, looking dejected and frail, the media icon confessed that his organization "had broken our trust with our
Dopamine is a pleasure inducing chemical that is secreted whenever an individual engages his/her mind in the playing f video games. The New brain research that was conducted years back (Bartholow, Bushman & Sestir, 2006) was the first to show that the playing of violent video games results in bad health of the players. The emphatic responses of the brain to the simulation of certain real-life violence such as shooting
" (Eagleheart, 2000) Eagleheart (2002) notes that violence does constitute a primary concern for children, particularly in schools. Rather than contributing video games as a cause of violence in children, she encourages educators and others to look deeper and consider that violene has goals; that the particular goal will depend on the individual. At times, goals of violence may be evident, conscious choices from a child is playing now wants. Other
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