Running Head: PRIMING EFFECT / Do Video Games Really 1
PRIMING EFFECT OF COMPUTER GAME VIOLENCE ON CHILDREN’S AGGRESSION LEVELS / Do Video Games Really Cause Violence in Adolescents?
Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal / Psychology Today
Eric Boyd
Northwest State Community College
Whether or not video-games violence causes aggression in kids is indeterminate. Studies with differing conclusions are published frequently. It is prominent because of the plethora of variables and limitations with scientific studies on the subject. The two papers discussed in this paper have differing opinions on the subject.
The first article discusses hostility as an outcome from playing violent video-games in adolescents. In addition, it discusses how the levels of hostility differ by sex. Two studies to test the hypotheses are detailed in this article. There are three hypotheses. “Hypothesis 1: Children who play violent, compared to nonviolent, computer games will show stronger aggression. Hypothesis 2: Among adolescents who play violent computer games, boys will show stronger aggression than will girls. Hypothesis 3: After playing violent computer games, children with high trait aggressiveness will show stronger aggression than will those with moderate and low trait aggressiveness.” (JIA-KUN, Z., & QIAN, Z. (2016), p. 1749).
PRIMING EFFECT / Do Video Games Really 2
The participants of study one, with the consent of parents, were 220 elementary-school children. The test began with the selection of two video-games. A violent one, and a non-violent one. Participants played each game for 15 minutes followed by a seven question quiz. The quiz evaluates the game’s elements of entertainment, thrill, violent content, violent depiction, terror, attentiveness, and actuality. The elements were rated on a scale of one to five, five being exceptionally high. The participants did differentiate which video-game was the violent one. This meant that playing the game wasn’t mindless, but that they picked up on the elements of it. It was also noted that male participants enjoyed the violent video-game more than females.
The participants of study two, with the consent of parents, were 240 elementary age children. The group was split in half. 120 participants would play the violent video-game. 120 would play the non-violent video-game. The participants played the game selected for them for 15 minutes. After playing the game, 30 non-aggressive words and 30 aggressive words were selected randomly to be presented to the participants. They were to respond quickly whether the word was aggressive or non-aggressive. The purpose of this test was to prove that playing violent video-games primed hostility in adolescents. The results of this test showed that male participants playing violent video-games had an increase in aggression. It also showed that females had no notable increase in aggression. There are some notable limitations. The test design leaves important, unanswered questions in aggression development. The aggression level changes should be documented over time. There was also no separations in the sub-types of aggression in the.
PRIMING EFFECT / Do Video Games Really 3
The second article discusses the “link between video game playing and violence in children?” (Vitelli, R. (2015)). The author, Romeo Vitelli, Ph.D., Psychology, expands on the 2011 Supreme Court ruling that video-games are protected under the first amendment. This 7 to 2 decision declared that current studies haven’t undeniably proved that violent video-games result in increased aggression in adolescents. “Studies looking at video game violence have yielded conflicting results though research” (Vitelli, R. (2015)).
Vitelli uses information from a research study published in the journal Psychology of Media Culture. The study used the data from a 2008 survey of 6567 eight grade children. The survey was taken to assess violent behavior. The participants were asked whether they played a mature-rated video-game in the past year, and asked about their living environments. “Participants completed measures of impulsiveness and sensation-seeking including items such as "I sometimes do crazy things just for fun;” “I like to try new things even if they scare me or I know it’s something I shouldn’t do;” “I get a real kick out of doing things that are a little dangerous;” and “I like to have new or exciting experiences even if they are illegal.” (Vitelli, R. (2015)). Participants were also asked about their relationship with their parents. This study separated the results into males and females. The results of this study showed that violent video-game did not have negative effects on the participants behavior or personality. It did show the negative impact of a rough, home life. The limitations of this study include that fact that it focuses on on age point, rather than the effect over time. The study also did not include the amount of time spent playing the violent video-games.
PRIMING EFFECT / Do Video Games Really 4
There are thousands of resources, articles, and studies related to this topic. These two articles discuss studies with different tests, searching for answers to the same question. Do violent video-games have an effect on the behavior of adolescents? Two studies were part of the first article, a scholarly journal article. In the second article, the author just referenced the study. The most important difference between the articles, are the results of the studies presented. In the first article’s studies, the data verifies that violent video-games have a negative impact on the behavior of adolescents. The second article discussed a study where the data shows that video-games do not have a negative impact on the behavior of adolescents.
Both articles attempt to find answers to a question with numerous variables. The first article is a scholarly source. Scholarly articles tend to be lengthy, and present as much information as possible. They are often written formally, and reviewed by qualified peers. The author(s) of a scholarly article should also be qualified individual(s). The article should also be available through some academic publisher. It is important to use scholarly sources because you can trust the information presented by them. The information is usually plentiful and validated.
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Article 1:
JIA-KUN, Z., & QIAN, Z. (2016). PRIMING EFFECT OF COMPUTER GAME VIOLENCE ON CHILDREN’S AGGRESSION LEVELS. Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, 44(10), 1747-1759.
Article 2:
Vitelli, R. (2015, December 02). Do Video Games Really Cause Violence in Adolescents? Retrieved September 08, 2017, from
https:www.psychologytoday.com/blog/media-spotlight/201512/do-video-games-really- cause-violence-in-adolescents