Authors: Derrick Janushewski and Myna Truong

http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/soc/courses/stpp4C03/ClassEssay/videogames.htm

As Griffiths (1999) found in his research, although there are many studies examining the effects of video game and aggression, these studies seem to focus mainly on the possible short-term aggressive effects. However, we did find one study that looked at the long term affects of video game play on people, but it was not related to violence. Instead, it looked at the relation between video game playing when young and gambling when old (Griffiths, 1991). This shows a possible relationship between activities when young and their consequences on adult behavior. Further studies on the long-term effects of video game violence and its users are need.

The observational studies looking at children's free play tended to show that children do become more aggressive after either playing or observing a violent video game. At a theoretical level, these evidences suggest empirical data supporting the social learning theory. As others have cautioned, the validity and reliability of the procedures used to measure aggressions should be questioned (Griffiths, 1999; Cooper & Mackie, 1986).

The limiting conditions under which video games may have an affect that were considered were gender, age, and class/level of education. With regards to gender, although few studies looking at the differential effects were found, the study mentioned above suggests that females are more affected by video game violence than males. One hypothesis for this difference was suggested by Cooper and Mackie, that inexperience with video games led to greater arousal. Another possibility may be that since males have been found be have more experience with video games, they may have become more desensitized to the violence than females. Once again, more research is necessary to draw conclusions on the differential effects of video game violence on gender.

When age was look at it was discovered that age played no significant part in determining if a player was affected by the content of video games or not. The difference of age showed up in the manifestation of its affect. Herz (1997) introduces an interesting explanation of this increase in aggressive behavior of children. A large number of the studies involved adolescent children; these children are at an age when they are naturally violent, aggressive and moody. So when put in a situation with increased agitation like many of the studies involved, increases in aggressive behavior may be natural regardless of stimulation. While this particular situation is not true of older students the method of study does need to be questioned.

The effects of education levels and economic class have not yet been looked at, possibly due to a lack in conclusive evidence showing a overall relation.

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