The correlation between violent video-games and aggressive behavior in children Student Number: 36379113

Video-games have become one of the main sources of entertainment for children. As the popularity of video-games rise, the influence of this market continues to teach younger demographics. In a 1993 survey of 357 7th and 8th graders, 75% were playing a minimum of 1 hour of video-games a week. Another survey conducted in 1996 showed that 4th-8th grade boys and girls were playing 5-10 hours and 3-6 hours a week playing video-games, respectively (Dill & Dill, 1998, p. 408). Many popular video-games depict scenes of violence, where the player is instructed to carry out violent tasks, such as killing other players, to win or be rewarded with points. Children learn through play. They mimic their environment and accumulate that knowledge into a cultural understanding of the world around them. Consequently, there is a relationship between aggressive, violent behavior in children to the violent video-games that become increasingly popular in this age demographic. This correlation is based on childrens memory, attention and perception of the real-world in relation to the visual stimuli video-games provide and can be quantified through psychological study. The concept of the working memory model states that through repetition, it is possible to store information into long term memory (Weiten & McCann, 2013, Chapter 7). It can be argued that through chronic exposure to violent video-games where aggressive conditions are repeatedly stimulating the individual, this behavior will become stored in the individuals long term memory. Aggression will then trigger related feelings and in situations of similar violence in the real-world, the stored information (the aggression related skills, memories and beliefs) will be recalled as appropriate responses. Repetition of aggressive behavior could increase the likelihood of aggressive response recall. It is argued that with this portrayal of other humans as marks to destroy, the player begins to lose empathy due to the violent video-game play they are engaging in. (Dill, & Dill,1998, p. 410).Children have been proven to be extremely sensitive to visual stimuli, placing their attention in a more focused manner and quickly becoming familiar with the skill set of the experience (Dixon, Zelazo, & Rosa, 2010). Physiologically, when presented with certain arousal, individuals can produce the fight and flight response as way of self-preservation. When faced with angry emotions, this can induce this type of arousal which causes a reaction that is either to attack or to run away. In children, from at least three years and up, presenting them with angry visual images can emphasize their bodies tendency to respond with the fight and flight response as well as distort their perception of time (Gill, Niedenthal, & Droit-Volet, 2007). With this information, it can be deduced that video-games offer visual stimuli that capture the attention of children enough that through repetition, children become efficient at the responses that are expected in these video-games.

In one study, individuals who play violent, shooter-type games versus individuals who did not engage in these types of video-games were observed at a shooting range, specifically the types of shots they inflicted on the target. The results concluded that the individuals who played violent video-games would fire more accurately and were more likely to aim for the head region of the target (Whitaker, & Bushman, 2012, p.5). This shows that the virtual world of video-games have a very real impact on an individuals skills with lethal weaponry. Culture is not engraved into our genetic material, it is learned through participation and experience with the culture around us (Graf, 2013, in-class communication, September 4th).With this notion, children who play violent video-games go through a process of enculturation into a fantasy world where concern for the human condition is frowned upon as only through aggressive response is one rewarded. As video-games reward releasing anxiety in aggressive manners, children may internalize this message and instead of creating effective coping methods they may attack something, or act out violently, as this is what they have become accustomed to in play. It is clear through analyzing the way children interpret visual stimuli and learn culture that violent video-games would have an effect on their perception of appropriate behaviour; it is however, questionable to what degree. The natural hypothesis arises: with increased exposure to violent video-games, children are more prone to aggressive and/or violent behaviour. A possible experiment could consist of taking three groups of children: 1) a control group, where children are not exposed to violent video-games, 2) an experimental group where children are exposed to 5 hours per week to violent video-games and 3) an experimental group where children are exposed to 10 hours per week to violent video-games. After a trial session, children could be queried as to how much punishment a hypothetical bad child should receive via an electronic questionnaire with increasing levels of punishment and the children would also be asked to give a reward to a hypothetical good child in the same manner. At the end of this questionnaire, results could be statistically analyzed to see if there is an association of the number of hours spent playing violent video-games to the level of punishment or reward given to the hypothetical children. The expected results would be that children who played more video-games would give harsher punishments and less reward due to desensitization to the use of aggression as this would provide support for the initial hypothesis. If there was a significant difference between the two experimental groups, it could be concluded that the amount of exposure plays a role. It is acknowledged that there are several nonsense variables in such an experiment, such as the childs previous life history, however it could provide support towards understanding the influence of violent video-games on children.

By dissecting memory, attention and the resulting perception of the real-world it can be understood that all influences, especially during childhood, play a critical role in defining social behavior. From contact with aggressive experiences or material, such as violent video-games, children can internalize the promoted violent responses and as a result translate those behaviors into their everyday life. Through studies such as the one proposed, it is possible to determine whether or not the amount of exposure can increase these effects of negative social responses. As such, children are affected by violent video-games on the bases of the fundamental constructs of learning, memory and perception.

References Dill, K.E., & Dill, J. (1998). Video game violence: A review of the empirical literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 3(4), 407-428. Dixon, M.L., Zelazo, P.D., & Rosa, E.D. (2010). Evidence for intact memory-guided attention in school-aged children. Developmental Science, 13(1), 161-169 Gill, S., Niedenthal, P.M., & Droit-Volet, S. (2007). Anger and time perception in children. American Psychological Association, 7(1), 1528-3542. Whitaker, J.L, & Bushman, B.J. (2012). Boom, headshot!: Effect of video game play and controller type of firing aim and accuracy. Communication Research, 1-13. doi: 10.1177/0093650212446622 Weithen, W. & McCann, D. (2013). Psychology: Themes and Variations. Third Canadian Edition. Toronto, Canada; Nelson Education Ltd.

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