Essay: Video games and violence in children

The purpose of this research paper is to address the question does playing violent video games increase aggressive behavior in children? My hypothesis on this matter is that in fact playing violent video games does increase aggressive behavior in children and adults alike. My reasoning for this is unlike violent movies, violent video games require input from the player. By aggressive behavior I am specifically talking about verbal and emotional behavior, not physical behavior because juvenile crime has decreased in the last decade since games were introduced. My theory on this is that the violent video games give the player to get physical aggression out in the game versus on someone in real life. In this study the independent variable is the violent video games and the dependent variable is the aggressive behavior as a result of playing the violent video games. If I was conducting this experiment the two research methods I would utilize would be the case study method and experimentation. All research methods have their strengths and weaknesses case studies and experiments are no different. Case studies have the advantage in that they provide detailed information, they provide insight for further research and they permit investigation of otherwise impractical situations. The disadvantage that case studies present is that they cannot generalize the results to the wider population; researchers own subjective feeling may influence the case study (researcher bias), they are difficult to replicate and time consuming. Laboratory and or controlled experiments are conducted in a well-controlled environment and have the advantage in that they are easier to replicate a laboratory experiment. This is because a standardized procedure is used. They allow for precise control of extraneous and independent variables. This allows a cause and effect relationship to be established. In a laboratory setting you do not have other outside factors that could cause someone to show aggressive behavior where in a natural setting aggression could come from a lot of other sources. This means that in a natural environment we could not directly link aggression to violent video games, which is why I think the best method is laboratory experiments for this question. Laboratory experiments have disadvantages in that they are limited because the artificiality of the setting may produce unnatural behavior that does not reflect real life. This means it would not be possible to generalize the findings to a real life setting. Demand characteristics or experimenter effects may bias the results and become confounding variables. When going about my case study I will select my participants, which are children (under the age of 18) from various ages and backgrounds that I will interview about how they think they behave after playing violent video games. I will gather as much information as possible about my subjects to ensure that I develop interviews and activities that will result in obtaining the most advantageous information to my study. I will draft a list of interview questions and decide upon how I will conduct my study. I will then develop and write my case study using the data collected throughout the research, interviewing and analysis processes. When I conduct the experiment portion of my study I will do it over a six-month period by gathering children of various age groups, both boys and girls to determine if violent video games make male and female children more aggressive. I would also expose them to various amounts of playing time to see if the more a violent game is played does that individual become more aggressive compared to someone exposed for a limited amount of time. I will also compare males and females to see how each gender reacts after playing violent video games, is one group more aggressive than the other or do they both show the same levels of aggression towards others. I would also take note on how the child conveys the aggression towards others, whether it is verbal or physical. Will there be a difference in behavior from the kids playing versus kids just watching? My studies look to answer these questions through the use of case studies and laboratory experiments because some people claim that violent video games are good for you, players believe that violent video games are cathartic. Other people claim that violent video games increase aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, physiological arousal (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure), and aggressive behavior. Violent games also decrease helping behavior and feelings of empathy for others. I can conclude that violent or non-violent behavior really depends on the individual and their maturity level while playing video games. It is whether they can process and know what they are seeing is not real and that you cannot replicate those actions in real life. This is not a question that can be easily be answered and doing case studies and laboratory experiments may not get us to the complete answer, but my study will show how the majority react in a specific age group and what can be done to help people’s behavior as a result of playing violent video games. I would also be interested in finding out how we can help people who are addicted to violent video games, withdraw and find other means to get their anger and frustration out in a non-violent manner.r text in here…