Violent Video Games Don't Cause Kids to be Violent
Do violent video games cause young people to become violent after playing the video games? This has been a hot topic of debate in the United States for several years. There are valid opinions on both sides of the issue, but this paper takes the position that violent video games do not cause kids to be violent.
The Literature on Video Games -- Pros and Cons
The Website ProCon.org has assembled a "pro" and "con" list of explanations with reference to the question of whether or not violent video games cause kids to be violent. This paper will use a few of the pro-versus con arguments prior to listing other reasons why it is fair to say violent video games do not cause kids to become violent.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, among the most highly influential law enforcement organizations in the world, rarely takes position on social issues. But in 2000 the FBI included playing violent video games on a list of behaviors "associated with school shootings" (procon.org). The rebuttal to that report is that "…violent youth are being drawn to violent video games…youth that are predisposed to be violent seek out violent entertainment" like video games (procon.org). In fact a report in 2004 by the U.S. Secret Service indicated that when reviewing attacks in schools, only "…one-eighth of attackers exhibited...
In D.A. Gentile (Ed.), Media violence and children. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishing. [the authors of this book contend that learning comes from repetition. The fact that the violent games require violent acts to be played over and over again creates an ideal learning situation. But what the players are learning is antisocial behavior and the idea that violence is a good way to resolve conflict.] Hockenbury, S.E. & Hockenbury, DH
The variables of situational input (like current violent media exposure) affect hostile behavior via the impacts they have on the individual's current interior state, characterized by cognitive, sentimental, and stimulation variables. Hostile media maximizes aggression by instructing the observers the way to be violent, through priming hostile cognitions (as well as formerly learned hostile scripts and hostile perceptual schemes), by escalating provocation, or by making a hostile emotional state.
Behavioral and Cognitive Consciousness and Cognitive Behavior Treatment Prelude In this modern era, technology has made us its slave. Life has never been this flexible and convenient bringing efficiency and speed too. The technology has certainly altered our methods of communication, socializing, entertainment and maybe the way we behave. In this research paper, both popular sources and scholarly sources will be employed to discuss the possible effects of video gaming on youth.
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
Methodology The methodology that will be employed in this study will be a desk survey of existing studies. The data complied by the studies will be analyzed, as will be the processes and methodology used in those studies. The data compilation and yield will be discussed in comparison between studies, and an attempt will be made to take the information and use it in an overall presentation that shows that the
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