I have decided for my game research topic to study the behavioral and psychological affects that game (video, or non-video) have on people. This includes all different types of game and whether it negatively or positively affects them. Today, I have decided to zero in on violence in video games and whether or not it can cause people to become or act more violent by playing them. So far I have seen some research on games where it is not so much that violence is the "problem" that is happening, but it "where hunting down and killing people is the goal." A research on Japanese and American children were down to see how more or less exposure to playing these types of games caused aggression.
It concluded that those, both Japanese and American, had become more aggressive such as: "hitting, kicking or getting into fights with other kids." More importantly "this was true even after the researchers took into account how aggressive the children were at the beginning of the study -- a strong predictor of future bad behavior." I believe that the most important part about this was the background analysis that they had done PRIOR to them studying how the children acted. If the children were concluded to just be aggressive, and they were always aggressive, then what does that prove?
While reading this article the main points that stuck out to me that affected these children the most or were the main reasons that caused this were because of imitation, becoming desensitized to violence, and playing video games rated "M" (mature), which obviously most of them who are playing these games, are not (and won't be until the age of 40;)).
First let's talk about imitation. Children imitate-- it's how they learn! In fact, it's how we're designed to learn for a very long time until we get older. Consider how we even learned LETTERS-- through a song-- and repetition of the song. This is simple common sense of putting the two together. If a child hears his or her parent say something, they will think it is okay and repeat it until reprimanded. If a child sees something that he or she is playing, they are going to imitate it, simple as that.
Desensitization to violence. If a child sees something over and over sooner or later it is not going to seem like a big deal after a while. Huesmann said, from the CNN article, "once you're emotionally numb to violence, it's much easier to engage in violence." Basically, if a person sees violence in a video game, they are going to applying that virtual world to real life and simply will not care just like it's unreal.
Finally, READ THE AGE LABEL! If one if rated "mature," it was named that for a reason! Mature meaning, NOT your 12 year old kid. Just like certain movies are rated to give an idea of what may or may not be appropriate, so have video games. When kids who have not fully matured see this type of behavior on these games, they begin to think that this is "normative behavior" and that's is simply the way things are.
Now, while all of these things above do not necessarily mean that your child will grow up being a serial killer, there is clear evidence that proves otherwise. As Walsh said, "the real impact is in shaping norms, shaping attitude." If norms are not shaped properly, the virtual world will do it for them.
source: http://articles.cnn.com/2008-11-03/health/healthmag.violent.video.kids_1_violent-video-video-games-game-genres/2?_s=PM:HEALTH
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