The world of video games has million adherents and almost the same number antagonists. The children all over the world are attracted for hours before the screens where their favorite virtual heroes are jumping, fighting, farming, space ships confronting, etc. whatever one can think about. The question of the effect of violent games on kids’ brains and later on their aggression and criminal behavior is bothering parents, scientists, pedagogues, and all people who are engaged with children’s and juveniles’ behavior.
Many people who by profession deal with this group of the society notice that something is happening, something is changing. Teachers feel that they are compelled to change their manner of teaching from year to year. Are the kid’s brains changing? Very impressive in this aspect is the author Jane Healy, who, with an easy going style, narrates in her book “Endangered Minds” about her study related to this phenomenon, her conversations with teachers with many years of service but still in the business and not bitter and burned out. (Healey, p. 14)
She heard things like “I feel like kids have one foot out the door on whatever they are doing”, “Ten years ago, I gave students materials and they were able to figure out the experiment. Now I have to walk them the through the activities step by step” or “I’ve modified my teaching methods because of their lack of attention span and their impatience.” (Ibid)
What is the effect of violent video games on these shaping growing brains and are the latter influenced by their violence and how? The common opinion is that the children and juveniles are influenced by the violent video games. Even an addiction can be noticed in most of the cases. Dave Grossman and Gloria DeGaetano partially try to answer the question in their book Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill, writing: “We don’t think we have to tell you how deadly the combination can be of viewing ultraviolent imaged with the amusement park fun of shooting at things until they drop.” (Grossman, D., DeGaetano, G. p. 68) Further the authors describe the feelings of mastery and control that the player experiences during the game. They declare that the weaker the child or the teen feels in the real life, the more this feelings may become a factor of addiction. Especially this happens often with kids with lower self-esteem.
In addition to that factor, the level of the play is precisely calibrated to the player’s level of ability. Instead of bringing under control the challenges of the real world, the teens are easily attracted to the virtual world of the games where they usually are the winners. (Ibid)
The main idea of the authors is that the children must not be exposed to violence in any media format because that will have a negative impact on their minds. Actually we all agree that the violent video games have negative impact on children’s and teens’ brains and physics.
But what really influences them, the games themselves or some other factor connected with the games. Paul Adachi and Teena Willowghby made a research, published in 2011, in which the results showed that not the violence of the games shaped the aggressive behavior of the teens but the competition that was performed playing the video games formed that aggressiveness. They sought “to isolate the effect of video game violence and competitiveness on aggressive behavior.” (Adachi, P., & Willoghby, T, p. 259). They performed two experiments. First of all they matched violent and non-violent video game on the following components: “competitiveness, difficulty and pace of action.” (Ibid) then it was compared the effect of each game on aggressive behavior using a certain measure of aggressive behavior. The results of both groups showed that the video game with violence was not enough to elevate the aggressive behavior than the examined in the next group with the non-violent game. It was established also that the more competitive games produced higher levels of aggressive behavior, they concluded that the competition, not the violence elevated the aggression in the behavior but unfortunately they could not explain how. (Ibid)
Their theory was confirmed by Dr. Christopher Ferguson, a clinical psychologist who devoted most of his experiments to the juvenile audience. The research of the influence of the violent video games on the juvenile’s behavior as the ground of his article: Three Studies Examining Digital Poison? The Influence of Violent Video Games on Youth.. The article targets the community of scholars hoping to show the influence of the violent video games on the juvenile behavior. The first group that was involved in the experiment consisted of children eight to eighteen years old. They played violent video games and after that they had the opportunity to act aggressively. The second group was the same but it played competitive but not violent games and also received the opportunity to act aggressively. And there was a third group consisting of the same age juveniles, they played violent games but their families, peers and personality traits were under control as well. None of the groups provided evidence connecting the violent video games to the aggressive behavior. (Ferguson p. 259)
Very interesting conclusions on the topic made Dr Lawrence Kutner, Ph. D. together with his wife Cheryl Olson, Sc. D. in 2008. They are well-known as co-directors at the Center for Mental Health and Media by the Harvard Medical School. After years of reading and listening how the violent video games cause aggression in children, they decided to do their personal research. The studies presented in the book they wrote during and after the study, demonstrated that there are children who have factors that make them conducive to aggressive behavior which is not connected with the playing of violent video games. As a whole the studies evince that playing violent games has no effect on a certain children and has effect only on children who are predisposed to aggression.
The revolutionary study behind the book Grand Theft Childhood was funded by the United States Department of Justice with a $1.5-million grant, and the authors had a wide research agenda.” They collected written surveys from more than twelve hundred middle-school students and over five hundred parents in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.”(Salen, K. p. 388) Further she wrote that since they did not find a strong relationship between kids who were playing violent video games and following aggression, they found correlation to bulling and other negative school yard behavior. (Ibid, 389) The advice of Dr. Kutner to the teachers and parents was that they should pay more attention to the markers that show the child’s disposition to aggression and misbehavior.
In the article Violent Video games and Real-World Violence Patrick Markey, Charlotte Markey and Juliana French, the scientists write about their study of the effect of violent video games on aggression behavior. They also formed two groups with the same task as previous authors. One of the groups had to play for fifteen minutes violent video games and then the level of aggression was measured. The other group had to play non-violent video games for fifteen minutes as well and again the level of aggression was measured. The conclusion was that: “violent crime was more likely to show decreases instead of increases in response to violent video games were contrary to what was expected.” (Markey, P., Markey, C., French, J., p. 15) Dr. Markey explains that with the catharsis, i. g. when people play violent video games they let off their aggression in the virtual world not in the real one. (Ibid) In the article an interesting idea is expressed that the naturally aggressive individuals are looking for this kind of games and they spend a lot of time playing. Meanwhile they are not in the streets where they could demonstrate their aggressive behavior therefore it may be considered that keeping the violent individuals playing at home leaves the streets free from violent people. A little bit naïve but real. (Markey, et al, p. 15)
The discussions related to the effect of the violent video games on the adolescent aggression and criminal behavior is confusing. Many scientists are confident that playing violent video games increases the aggression among the children and juveniles, other due to their researches are on the opposite opinion. The reason for obtaining so different results is unclear. There are some ideas that the skill level should be included as a marker in the studies. The studies are carried out for the last two decades and it is not possible to determine which group is multiple. Unfortunately the American Psychological Association has taken the side of the malevolent scholars. (APA, n. p.) There is a third group which does not like long playing because of other considerations as immobility, bad air and so on depending on the game and the place.
Works cited
Adachi, Paul J. C., and Teena Willoughby. “The Effect of Video Game Competition and Violence on Aggressive Behavior: Which Characteristic Has the Greatest Influence?” Psychology of Violence 1.4 (2011): 259-274. PsycARTICLES. Web 23 Mar. 2016
Confirms Link Between Playing Violent Video Games and Aggression, APA Review, August 13, 2015 Web March 23 2016
Ferguson, Christopher J., et al. “Digital Poison? “Three Studies Examining the Influence of Violent Video Games on Youth.” Computers in Human Behavior 50 (2015): 399- 410. ScienceDirect Web 23 March 2016
Grossman, Dave, and Gloria DeGaetano. Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill: A Call to Action Against TV, Movie & Video Game Violence. 2nd Ed. New York: Harmony, 2014. Print.
Healey, Jane, “Endangered Minds: Why Children Don’t Think and What can We Do About It?”, Touchstone Rockfeller Center, New York, 1999, ISBN: 0-671-67439-1, Print
Kutner, Lawrence, and Cheryl K. Olson. Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth about Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008. Print.
Markey, Patrick M., Charlotte N. Markey, and Juliana E. French. “Violent Video Games and Real- World Violence: Rhetoric versus Data.” Psychology of Popular Media
Culture 4.4 (2015): 277-295. PsycARTICLES. Web. 2 Mar. 2016.
Saalen, Katy, editor, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008.Notes, glossary, index. P. 278 ISBN: 9780262693646, Web March 23, 2016
