Edited by Peter Gidley, Thursday, 17 Apr 2014, 13:23
Particularly relevant to DSE141ers.
We thought we had it sussed in terms of the link between screen violence and real violence:
Bandura provided us with experimental evidence that seeing modelled aggression increases aggressive behaviour (at least in the short term).
A plethora of studies show us a correlation between violent movies and violent video games and aggression (though note that correlation does not equal causation).
Then along comes a study like this to add another piece to the jigsaw. A recent study now shows that people playing video games can become more aggressive, not because of the nature of the game but because it's too hard and they get frustrated with it. This happens for both violent ant non violent games.
By: Przybylski, Andrew K.; Deci, Edward L.; Rigby, C. Scott; Ryan, Richard M. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology.Mar 2014, Vol. 106 Issue 3, p441-457. 17p. DOI: 10.1037/a0034820.
Now they're not saying - and I'm not saying that - there isn't a link between violent game play and aggression (I'm sure there is). This just reminds us that there's more to it than that, and that it's never simple.
Video Games and Aggression - another explanation
Particularly relevant to DSE141ers.
We thought we had it sussed in terms of the link between screen violence and real violence:
Bandura provided us with experimental evidence that seeing modelled aggression increases aggressive behaviour (at least in the short term).
A plethora of studies show us a correlation between violent movies and violent video games and aggression (though note that correlation does not equal causation).
Then along comes a study like this to add another piece to the jigsaw. A recent study now shows that people playing video games can become more aggressive, not because of the nature of the game but because it's too hard and they get frustrated with it. This happens for both violent ant non violent games.
A good news item on this is at this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26921743
You can get to the original paper in the OU Library. Just do a quick search on one of the authors Andrew Przybylski. The paper you are looking for is
Competence-Impeding Electronic Games and Players' Aggressive Feelings, Thoughts, and Behaviors.
By: Przybylski, Andrew K.; Deci, Edward L.; Rigby, C. Scott; Ryan, Richard M. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology.Mar 2014, Vol. 106 Issue 3, p441-457. 17p. DOI: 10.1037/a0034820.
Now they're not saying - and I'm not saying that - there isn't a link between violent game play and aggression (I'm sure there is). This just reminds us that there's more to it than that, and that it's never simple.
(Incidentally this finding links us to a venerable theory from the first half of the last century - the "frustration Aggression hypothesis of Dollard et. al. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frustration%E2%80%93aggression_hypothesis