The Connection Between Violent Video Games and Violent Behavior
For years now there has been a swarm of controversy surrounding the issue of whether or not violent video games are able to produce violent behavior in people, and this is definitely an issue that is strictly divided from one side to the other.
Some people believe that violent video games can result in increasing a person’s aggressive thoughts, feelings and behavior both in laboratory settings and in actual life. These same people also believe that violent video games can actually be more harmful than violent television and movies because they are different in that they are interactive. They are very engrossing and they require the player to be able to identify with the aggressor.
Violent video games are thought by some to be able to produce a forum for learning and practicing aggressive solutions to conflict situations, and basically then in the short run, playing a violent video game is thought to be able to affect aggression by priming aggressive thoughts. The more long-term effects would be longer lasting as well, as the player grows to learn and practice new aggression-related scripts that can actually become more and more accessible for use in real-life situations.
The present research has demonstrated that in both a correlational investigation and an experimental investigation that violent video game was, in fact, positively related to increases in aggressive behavior.
The Other Side
Then there is the other side, which consists of those people who do not believe that violent video games have any reflection on players’ personalities. These people believe that the person playing the video game has enough control over their own mind that they will not have either short or long-term effects caused by the violence of the game that they are playing.
Solutions
There are still ongoing research and scientific studies that are being conducted in order to provide better proof as to whether or not the violence in video games can be held responsible for causing violent behavior in humans, however until then, as long as you make sure that if you have any children playing video games that you ensure they are only playing games that are suitable for them, as well as for yourself if you don’t think that you can handle extreme violence, then you should be fine.
It is really all a matter of personal opinion at this point, and so you need to take your own responsibility and your own point of view to determine what games you and your family should be playing.
