Running Head: VIDEO GAMES AND VIOLENCE 1

Video Games and Violent Behavior

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Video Games and Violent Behavior

Introduction

The long-term effect of video games on the individuals who frequently play them has

generated immense debate over whether or not they are negative and, if so, the extent of that

negativity. Considering that a majority of video gamers in America age between nine and fifteen

years, the impact of video gaming if any on their behavioral disposition would be significant and

as such, the buzz around the influence of gaming on behavioral development in children

especially in regards to violence and aggressive social behavior. As a result of the increased

interest in this topic, there has been growing research on the same with conflicting reports and

conclusions emerging on whether or not video games promote a violent and aggressive culture

among children and adolescents.

Despite the split opinion on the matter, an emerging trend of citing observational and

experience impact on behavioral development has resulted in a skewed approach on the matter.

Since most parties agree that observation of actions defines the development of personality traits

in growing teenagers, research on gaming, which has established that violence is a popular

component, concludes that its players are bound to imitate such acts. However, such opinions

undermine the basis of research as they produce inferences based on relational assumptions and

theories while limiting the exploration of alternative research outcomes.   

Literature Review

The effects of video gaming on violent behavior, as expressed in teenagers is a

controversial issue that has various proponents and opponents that have failed to agree on a

common grounds since research on gaming and violence was first published in 1983. Through

various articles and publications, authors have voiced their opinions on games, their ability, and
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the tendency to cause addition and what they en for long-term players regarding issues like

obsessive-compulsive disorder and internet gaming disorders. An article authored and published

in the Youth and Adolescents Magazine issue of September 2016 captures the confusion around

gaming and its violent impact on behavioral tendencies among developing adolescents. The

authors attribute aggression in teen behavior to a host of factors including background,

personality, family setups, and the school environment as plausible reasons alongside video

gaming, implying that there is more than a single reason for the violence. In addition to that, it

accurately asserts the absence of consensus over the role of gaming as a violence-inducing

activity despite years of studies on the same in attempts to link it to violence (DeCamp, &

Ferguson, 2017).

Apart from the Youth and Adolescent publication, assertions in other articles of esteemed

and authenticated authorship have also pointed to the existing confusion over the same, casting

doubt over the notion that gaming plays a major role in youth violence. Na author suggests that

Internet Gaming Addiction, a concept that has long been associated with youth violence by a

section of researchers, is comprised of glaring inconsistencies in conceptualization owing to

deficiencies in knowledge of prevalence, causes, and treatments of the disorder hence debunking

the whole condition as purely game-induced. It pokes holes on the ability of IGA (internet

gaming addiction) to have effects that go beyond addiction, which can translate into violence. In

addition to questioning the scope of gaming addiction and the repercussions of its occurrence,

other authors have researched on the relationships between Internet Gaming Disorder and

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and the manner in which each of the two affects personality

traits and individual behavior (Starcevic, & Aboujaoude, 2017).

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Research Methodology

Researching on video games and their roles in the development of aggressive and violent

behavior among teenagers and children is surprisingly easy considering that the scope of the

research is limited to a particular section of the populace; individuals between the ages nine and

fifteen. Consequently, the recommended research methodologies, as used in this study,

guaranteed anonymity to minimize respondent-tampering, focused on child-friendly places, and

involved post-research follow-ups. For the research, the scope included a selection of 20 schools

within the state of Nevada in which students from the third grade through to junior high were

targeted for the study. However, the number of students who actually participated was 5, 185,

representing a 25.295% participation rate among the students. Though the data used in preparing

the respondents of the research were obtained from schools with the permission of parents and

legal guardians, the venues for the data-gathering process were transferred to neutral grounds.

Also, the actual meetings with a section of the respondents took place in neutral venues

as opposed to schools or homes where there was undue pressure to respond according to

classmates’, teachers’ or parents’ wishes. For the most part, these neutral venues for the selective

meetings with respondents occurred in restaurants and parks as well as various recreational sites

that children frequent that made them feel safe and protected without the prodding eyes of their

everyday authority figures in their lives. The teenagers who underwent these meetings were

randomly chosen among the participants who actually responded to the other forms of

information gathering the researcher availed for application in this research process. The large

number of targeted respondents and the participants in the process required the use of various

research methods suitable for mass utilization hence the popular use of questionnaires to gauge

the opinions and take of respondents regarding the issue of gaming and the impact it had on their
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lives. Even with the popularity of its application, questionnaires were hardly adequate in terms of

research accuracy and information viability hence the need for a complementary research

method, interviews which were conducted in the smaller scope, and as a means of follow-up to

the questionnaires. The interviews merely provided clarity of ambiguous entries and reinforced

the information contained in the questionnaires.

Research Findings

The study was conducted in a bid to establish the role of video games on enforcing

violent behavior in developing adults, particularly children, and teenagers. Therefore, the

research sought to define the pre-existing behavioral tendencies of the participants, the

prevalence of video games among the targeted scope, and the content of violence contained in

the video games they frequently played. Also, the study intended to look into their aggression

and violent tendencies after playing the game, the intensity of the violence, and the presence of

other factors in the students’ lives that may have facilitated negative aggression other than the

video games they played. The findings of the research are therefore tailored in the context of

these six prompts, which were meant to analytically inform the discussion around gaming and

violence among young adults in the contemporary world. Interestingly though, the research

provided insight into some previously held myths and inaccurate notions about gaming and

upheld some of the more popular notions on the activity as well.

According to the research report, the element of violence in video games for young adults

was consistently high, with more than 4000 of the participating students or 77.15% agreeing as

much. Regarding aggression, 1812 students who participated in the research confessed to being

prone to aggressive behavior and explosive reactions before their dogged involvement in some

popular video games and considered the aggression as part of their personality traits. Basically,
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34.95% of the participating students in their response, ruled out the possibility of having the

cause of their aggression problems as the video games they play. As for the other prompts of the

research, 63% of the respondents of the interview thought that there were more violent changes

in their personality and behavioral tendencies after playing any violent game for more than eight

months while 32% claim to have zero changes in aggression or violence to their personalities

after exposure to violent games for a similar period of time. 6% of the respondent population;

however, they have no clue whether or not their behavior has changed from playing video games

with violent content and are unable to make a decision either way.  

Discussion and Analysis

There are various factors that define the development of behavioral tendencies among

young adults with the environment in which an individual grows being the most significant of

those factors. By environment, growth experts refer to the objects, people, and ideas with which

individuals normally interact during the daily course of their lives. Electronically, video games

constitute a vital part of the environment of any young American growing up since more than

80% of the children and teenagers between the ages of nine and fifteen play various video games

(Subramaniam, 2017). On the grounds of environmental influence over character development,

gaming influences the lives and behavioral tendencies of those who interact with them regularly,

especially in their young and formative years. However, enthusiasts of studying human

development have to acknowledge that there are many aspects of video gaming, including ones

specifically designed to induce addiction, their impact on the overall behavior of an individual is

limited. Instead, various factors play the role of character development, and behavioral

tendencies formulation and the violence or aggression in an individual’s personality traits have

very little to do with the video games they play.

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The research above suggests that gaming is predominantly characterized by violence, and

there are certain chronic conditions and disorders for which video games are responsible for

people. Such disorders like Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Internet Gaming Disorder are

long-term effects of exposure to gaming, and although related, there is little evidence to suggest

individual disposition to violence based on their occurrence. Comprehensive research on the

matter of violence and gaming concurs that games are violent characterizations that are

significantly addictive. However, they dispute the notion that this addiction could be practical

and call into question such suggestion from practical and literary sources as well. In addition to

questioning the sources of such notion, the research has proven that there are underlying factors

for youth violence, and while gaming could be a factor, it isn’t the only one (Markey, et al.,

2015).

Conclusion

           Video games could cause a behavioral change in young adolescents and teenagers to

reflect violent and aggressive characteristics. However, the opposite could also be true. Saying

that adolescents playing video games are at risk of developing violent behavior, therefore, is an

inaccurate statement since there are literary research pieces questioning the facts behind the

concept. Also, the research paper bears data that point to other factors like family, background,

school environment, friends, and movies as possible causes of violent behavior in gaming

teenagers hence undermining the argument that teenage violence is pegged on playing video

games. The research has also shown that there is a big difference between playing video games

and actually carrying out the deeds in the game as elaborated with the IGD and OCD case

illustrations. 
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References

DeCamp, W., & Ferguson, C. J. (2017). The impact of degree of exposure to violent video

games, family background, and other factors on youth violence. Journal of youth and

adolescence, 46(2), 388-400.

Markey, P. M., Markey, C. N., & French, J. E. (2015). Violent video games and real-world

violence: Rhetoric versus data. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 4(4), 277.

Starcevic, V., & Aboujaoude, E. (2017). Internet gaming disorder, obsessive-compulsive

disorder, and addiction. Current Addiction Reports, 4(3), 317-322.

Subramaniam, M. (2017). Re-thinking internet gaming: from recreation to addiction.