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... nvolves manipulation of falling blocks and has no aggressive content whatsoever, Overkill, which contains a moderate level of aggressive content, and Fatal Fury, regarded as one of the most violent martial arts games available. The students were told that the study concerned a hand-eye coordination task in relation to personality. Split half versions of the EPQ and Buss-Duke inventories were created, one to be completed prior to playing the game, one to be completed after playing the game. Half the subjects were to be given version A first, and the other half, version B. An equal number of men and women took part in playing each type of game for 10 minutes, after which they were administered the second version of the combined inventories so as to measure changes in personality and aggressive affect.
Aggression ratings were derived as total change in aggressiveness, measured before and after participation; they could be positive (more aggressiveness) or negative (less aggressiveness). A three way analyses of variance with two between factors (gender and level of aggression) and one within factor (type of aggression) determined that the only statistically significant differences were between levels of aggression. After playing the nonaggressive game both males and females experienced higher increased aggression levels, than after playing both the highly aggressive game. Most significantly, however, both males and females experienced the lowest aggression levels after playing the moderately aggressive game. The overall pattern then, is that the moderately aggressive game substantially decreased feelings of aggression, whereas the highly aggressive game resulted in much less of an increase in aggression than would be expected. The greatest change occurred among the men who participated in the nonaggressive game, having a substantially increased level of aggressiveness.
Of note is the fact that they had ranked considerately less aggressive prior to playing the game than both groups of men assigned to play the aggressive games. This emphasizes the fact that individual personality is just as important as the varying levels of aggressive content in video games. For example, Huesmann (1982)! concluded that children who are exposed to the least violence may be the most aroused and most likely to act aggressively. In sum, the hypotheses that a linear increase in aggressive affect would occur as a result of increasing aggressive content in video games was not supported by the findings of this study.
Furthermore, individual personality differences may play a more important role than previously examined in these studies. DISCUSSION: The two studies presented in this paper explore the effects of video games on aggression in their own way. The first study served to analyze effects of video game playing on aggression, but as with any self-report questionnaire, there are many limitations imposed in this kind of research. Given these limitations however, the analysis proved to be informative and allowed video game players (and non players) to express themselves and allowed for analysis of personality characteristics (such as low frustration, etc. ) Their self-evaluations regarding when they felt better playing video games (i. e. when they were tense) and the effect playing had on them (relaxing them, ) demonstrate that there are positive effects from playing video games.
The second study was demonstrated no significant differences in aggression, or aggression-related variables. The results did not support the hypotheses that playing video games with high aggressive content would lead to more aggression then playing a video game with low aggressive content. As mentioned before, it has been known for some time that watching televised violence sometimes leads children to mimic that violence in real life. It would then follow that watching violence in a video game would have the same effect. The variable that is not taken into consideration however, is that simply watching televised violence, containing aggressive cues, does not allow for any interaction other than idly watching. In a video game, all that changes; players actually get to interact and aggress back within the confines of the game.
This gives players the chance to be active participants and (unlike when watching TV, ) to release the tension that may have been obtained by either watching the video game, or any pre-existing tension which might have driven the player to the arcade in the first place. Also, when something happens within the game itself that causes tension, the player focuses on the game, not on the world around him. The evidence provided in this paper disproves the notion that video games have the power to increase postgame aggression, but a few factors still need to be examined. Subjects in the experiments did not have to pay to play the video games, and although not stated, the difficulty level did not appear to be excessively high.
This is not always true in a video game parlor, where players actually spend earned money and often severe mental and physical efforts to attempt to survive the game field. Also, the games have radically changed over time. Initially the trend in video game machines was that an outsider (Alien, Spaceship, Monster, etc. ) was the focus of the aggression. Within the last few years, there has been a steady increase in violence against human beings (often one-on-one, ) as opposed to other creatures. Whereas this initially applied to games where one player boxed or used karate vs. another human, now the fighting has become so violent that upon punching the opponents!
head, it will explode -blood spattering the virtual world- (e. g. DOOM for the IBM-Compatibles). This is a trend which should perhaps be studied in relation to aggression levels.
It may do well for the public to note that although video games are getting more violent, films at the movie theaters by far lead them in this aspect, as well as their sexual content. It is possible that violence being so commonplace in the movies, downplays the aggression cues in video games and therefore after having watched a particularly violent film, seeing computerized renditions of violence are not as significant in comparison. For the most part, however, it has been demonstrated that the concern of video games turning players into violent individuals that aggress against others in the real world is not a supported theory by these studies. Berkowitz, L. Some Determinations of Impulsive Aggression. John Wiely and Sons.
Carver, C. S... Coronary- Prone behavior patter and interpersonal aggression. Alfred A. Knopf Green, R. G...
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Ballentine Publishing. New York. Mahler, B. A... Some Effects of Observing Violence Upon the Behavior of the Observer.
Jones University Press, Greenville South, Carolina. 1988 Green, R. G. & Brekowitz, Progress in Experimental Personality Research, Academic Press, Orlofsky, S. Some Conditions Facilitating the Occurrence of Aggression after the observation of violence. Foster city, C. A. , 1982 Bibliography: Berkowitz, L. Some Determinations of Impulsive Aggression.
John Wiely and Sons. Boston, Mass. 1974. Carver, C. S... Coronary- Prone behavior patter and interpersonal aggression. Alfred A.
Knopf Publishing, New York. 1982. Green, R. G... Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Ballentine Publishing.
New York. 1978. Mahler, B. A... Some Effects of Observing Violence Upon the Behavior of the Observer.
Jones University Press, Greenville South, Carolina. 1988 Green, R. G. & Brekowitz, Progress in Experimental Personality Research, Academic Press, New York, 1990 Orlofsky, S. Some Conditions Facilitating the Occurrence of Aggression after the observation of violence. Foster city, C.
A. , 1982
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Research essay sample on Televised Violence Significant Differences
