Psychology Research Study - Video Games and Violence Essay Example
A Careful Analysis of a Research Study: Dr. Andersen’s Hypothesis
The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of a recent study examining the effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior in young children. Let me first provide a brief summary of the study. (a) The hypothesis is that violent video games cause aggression in young children. (b) The target population is young children. (c) The samples are young school age children and the sample sizes are sixty children separated into two groups with 30 children being in the experimental group and 30 children being in the control group. (d) The independent variable is violent video games and the dependent variable is aggression. (e) The result of the experiment were that there was a higher test score for aggression in the children who played violent video games for one (1) hour everyday after school.
The investigator of the study controlled for several extraneous variables. (a) Two of the variables that were controlled were (1) the amount of time spent playing a violent video game, which was for one hour after school and (2) another variable that was controlled was the length of time of the experiment, which was a three-month duration.
Unfortunately, the investigator failed to control for several important variables, potentially jeopardizing his interpretation of the results. (a) In this experiment, three variables that were not controlled were (1) whether or not the children were exposed to any other violence outside the experiment, such as watching violent movies or television shows during the course of the experiment or the title and type of violent video game that was played for one hour after school as well as the level of violence in the game played for the experiment versus the level of violence in games played outside the experiment and (2) whether the children had access to playing any other video games, violent or otherwise previously or outside of the one hour after school
The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of a recent study examining the effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior in young children. Let me first provide a brief summary of the study. (a) The hypothesis is that violent video games cause aggression in young children. (b) The target population is young children. (c) The samples are young school age children and the sample sizes are sixty children separated into two groups with 30 children being in the experimental group and 30 children being in the control group. (d) The independent variable is violent video games and the dependent variable is aggression. (e) The result of the experiment were that there was a higher test score for aggression in the children who played violent video games for one (1) hour everyday after school.
The investigator of the study controlled for several extraneous variables. (a) Two of the variables that were controlled were (1) the amount of time spent playing a violent video game, which was for one hour after school and (2) another variable that was controlled was the length of time of the experiment, which was a three-month duration.
Unfortunately, the investigator failed to control for several important variables, potentially jeopardizing his interpretation of the results. (a) In this experiment, three variables that were not controlled were (1) whether or not the children were exposed to any other violence outside the experiment, such as watching violent movies or television shows during the course of the experiment or the title and type of violent video game that was played for one hour after school as well as the level of violence in the game played for the experiment versus the level of violence in games played outside the experiment and (2) whether the children had access to playing any other video games, violent or otherwise previously or outside of the one hour after school