Effects on Exposure to video game violence

Effects on Exposure to Video Game Violence
Part 1 Video games play a fairly large role in children’s lives today. The majority of video games played today are games found with the rating of mature and have large amounts of violence. According to IMDB, the three most popular video games in 2013 are, “Grand Theft Auto V”, “Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag”, and “The Last of Us”. The definition for Grand Theft Auto states, “Three very different criminals team-up for a series of daring yet profitable heists in the corrupt city of Los Santos.” The Last of Us is described as “20 years after a pandemic has radically changed known civilization, infected humans run wild and survivors are killing each other for food…” Each of the top three video games this year commends criminal acts including murder, and robbery. Within three weeks of the Call of Duty Black ops 2 being released, the number of kills within the game as “killed the world’s population (figuring with 7 billion people) about two and a half times over, being totaled around 18 billion kills.” (Lake, 2012). Video games allow people to partake in acts of violence without the consequences relating to violence. Or so people have thought. Just as George Gerbner proved with the cultivation theory that watching violent acts on television affect a person’s behaviors and attitudes, playing violent video games can have similar effects on the players. There is a direct correlation between aggressive behavior and the amount of time a person spends playing violent video games. Violent video games have a facilitating effect that prime the mind in the short term leading the user to greater irritation, increased aggression, and even amplified anxiety (Bartholow, Bushman, & Sestir, 2006). Those who engage in video game violence tend to have a changed perception of violence in the actual world. According to Grossman, as cited in Sparks, because of “desensitization, the media have trained children to associate violence and killing with pleasure. Video games that require the player to shoot a gun and react reflexively with the shooting response are, he claims, teaching an entire generation of children to associate shooting with pleasure.” (p. 110).
Video games can be used for educational purposes in a healthy way. Many video games are successfully used to enhance learning of certain subjects. There is nothing inherently wrong with video games, violent or not. However, too much exposure to violent video games lead to unhealthy media habits. Playing video games rated mature or higher more than three hours a day means the user is using video games in an unhealthy way and is at a higher risk for the effects relating to playing violent video games. Our research has shown that high risk video gamers are more likely to see the consequences of media exposure by an increase in aggression. There is evidence that repeated exposure to media violence will desensitize consumers to real world violence. This has been measured in reduced brain response in continual exposure to violent media. Also of note these same indicators measured increased aggressive behavior in a later task (Bartholow, 2006). One reason video games prime individuals for aggressive behavior is because the expectancy for hostile aggression is increased (Hasan, 2012). Violent video games can also desensitize growing children to suffering, and the use of interactive electronic media can run the risk of blurring the ability to distinguish actual situations from simulated ones (Subrahmanyam, 2000). Evidence suggests that violent video games create a significant level of higher aggression in consumers than non-violent video games. These effects are more prevalent in men than in women in certain studies, suggesting potential differences in aggression between men and women (Bartholow, 2002). Aggression was measured between participants in several studies by playing a competitive game in which the winner could blast a noise in the loser’s headphones. The volume of the noise could be controlled. The more aggressive the participant, the louder noise they blasted. Consequently, those in the control group that played violent video games generally blasted louder noises than their non-violent counterparts (Hasan, 2012).
While experimental studies regularly find that participants who partake in violent video games are more aggressively primed upon playing, non-violent video games actually can promote prosocial thoughts. The underlying assumption is that playing non-violent video games only creates a low risk for aggressive behavior, while instead it can lead to more friendly and passive behavior (Sestir, 2010). From our research, we were able to gather different insights on the effects of exposure to video game violence that led to creating the following questions:
1.When I get frustrated I play video games to de-stress This questions measures coping or pacifying habits to deal with stress. There was a correlation between more aggressive behavior the more they agreed with the behavior and less the more they disagree to the statement.
2.When I hang out with my friends we play first person shooter video games. First person shooter games are one of the top played games. Because of the violent acts performed with shooter games is the second most influential game type other than fighting games, depending if the person taking the survey played never to always, they would be at a higher risk or no risk in violent behavior.
3. When I hang out with my friends we play: Fighting games We wanted to show that the exposure to violent and aggressive gaming had on how often the individual. We also asked if they played with their friends because research shows that with people are more influenced with friends. In a group setting, the spiral of silence, is also something that could happen amongst friends as well as group think with violent behavior. The next three questions is measuring how often they play/ Depending on what they are playing and for how long they are playing, the individual will be affected by the violent content. These questions also relate to priming because they might be primed to behave more aggressively or violently on how recent they played.
4.On a typical weekday, about how many hours do you play video games?
5.On a typical weekend day, about how many hours do you play video games?
6. Yesterday, about how many hours did you play video games?
7.Of your three most often played games how many are rated: Everyone, Teen, Mature We wanted to find out what games they actually are playing. We found that depending on the type of game they played the most, there is a correlation of risk for violent behavior or none at all. For example, if the person taking the survey answered everyone for all three games they played the most, they wouldn’t be at risk for violent behavior.
The next three questions measure time spent and potential exposure to violent video games.The more time the more risk.
8.On a typical weekday, approx. how many hours do you watch other people play video games?
9.On a typical weekend, approx. how many hours do you watch other people play video games?
10.Yesterday, approximately how many hours do you watch other people play video games? From these questions we were able to measure the risk level middle school students are at for the effects of unhealthy video game habits.

Works Cited
Bartholow, B. D., & Anderson, C. A. (2002). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior: Potential sex differences. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38(3), 283-290.
Bartholow, B. D., Bushman, B. J., & Sestir, M. A. (2006). Chronic violent video game exposure and desensitization to violence: Behavioral and event-related brain potential data. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42(4), 532-539.
Hasan, Y., Bègue, L., & Bushman, B. J. (2012). Viewing the world through “blood-red tinted glasses”: The hostile expectation bias mediates the link between violent video game exposure and aggression. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(4), 953-956
Lake, A. (2012, December 2). Call of duty black ops 2 statistics and figures. Retrieved from http://www.examiner.com/article/call-of-duty-black-ops-2-statistics-and-figures Most popular video games released in 2013. Retrieved December 16, 2013, from http:// www.imdb.com/search/title?sort=moviemeter,asc&title_type=game&year=2013,2013
Bestir, M. A., & Bartholow, B. D. (2010). Violent and nonviolent video games produce opposing effects on aggressive and prosocial outcomes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(6), 934-942.
Sparks, G. G. (2011). Media Effects Research: A Basic Overview: A Basic Overview. Cengage Learning.
Subrahmanyan, K., Kraut, R. E., Greenfield, P. M., & Gross, E. F. (2000). The impact of home computer use on children 's activities and development. The future of children, 123-144.

Cited: Bartholow, B. D., & Anderson, C. A. (2002). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior: Potential sex differences. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38(3), 283-290. Bartholow, B. D., Bushman, B. J., & Sestir, M. A. (2006). Chronic violent video game exposure and desensitization to violence: Behavioral and event-related brain potential data. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42(4), 532-539. Hasan, Y., Bègue, L., & Bushman, B. J. (2012). Viewing the world through “blood-red tinted glasses”: The hostile expectation bias mediates the link between violent video game exposure and aggression. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(4), 953-956 Lake, A. (2012, December 2). Call of duty black ops 2 statistics and figures. Retrieved from http://www.examiner.com/article/call-of-duty-black-ops-2-statistics-and-figures Most popular video games released in 2013. Retrieved December 16, 2013, from http:// www.imdb.com/search/title?sort=moviemeter,asc&title_type=game&year=2013,2013 Bestir, M. A., & Bartholow, B. D. (2010). Violent and nonviolent video games produce opposing effects on aggressive and prosocial outcomes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(6), 934-942. Sparks, G. G. (2011). Media Effects Research: A Basic Overview: A Basic Overview. Cengage Learning. Subrahmanyan, K., Kraut, R. E., Greenfield, P. M., & Gross, E. F. (2000). The impact of home computer use on children 's activities and development. The future of children, 123-144.