Critical Review: Video Games, Aggression, and Psychological Effects

This essay provides a critical review of the existing literature on the relationship between violent video games and aggression. It begins by acknowledging the ongoing debate surrounding the impact of video game violence, highlighting the limitations of correlational studies and the complexities of establishing a causal link. The essay then delves into the discussion of the potential signs of addiction and the psychological effects of exposure to violent content, and the impact on youth. The essay also evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of research methodologies in this field, examining the influence of parental and peer relationships, and considers the role of other factors, such as personality traits, that may contribute to aggressive behavior. The analysis includes discussion on the violent content in video games and its impact on the youth. The conclusion of the essay summarizes the key findings and emphasizes the need for further research to fully understand the impact of video games on aggression. The essay also includes a detailed list of references for all the sources used.

Running Head: VIDEO GAME: VIOLENCE AND AGGRESSION
Video game: Violence and Aggression
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:
Table of Contents

1VIDEO GAME: VIOLENCE AND AGGRESSION
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Signs of Addiction..................................................................................................................3
The Strength and the Weakness of the Research Sample......................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7
Introduction
The steady rise in the popularity and acceptance of video game and the increasing
trend of the process shows how it has sparked various issues around the subject specifically

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because it is centred on the youth. The association of youth and video games has been
deemed as a harmful combination because the youth is the most impressionable group of
individual who are volatile and are in their experimental age. Most of the objection which
arises in the field is since there has been a growing trend that is noticed in the gaming world.
It depicts the increase in violent and aggressive landscape and requires aggression in the
approach. However, the results have been inconsistent in establishing the relationship
between video games and the changing behaviour among the youth. It is also because there
has been no analytical data which proves that the causal link between growths of any
inconsistent attitude in the users is sole because of their indulgence. The paper will deal with
the different medium and studies that have been able to show the link and has also been the
foundation which shows the working of other factors such as parental and family influence
among one of them. The thesis statement stands for the worsening condition in which video
games promotes violence and aggression as the new normal, which facilitates the degrading
condition of the society.
Discussion
Video game violence is related to the understanding of the landscape, and the
narrative which is prevalent in the field and the exemplary version of it presented itself to the
world in the year 2008 with the launch of Grand Theft Auto (Anderson, et al., 2010).
Nevertheless, the acceptance and the prevalence among the youth was not surprising. The
violence was not at least portrayed in the way that it would depict the effect on the user
directly. However, the fact that it glorified the win of theft in the game challenged the ethical
and moral structure of the society on which youth perception was based. Within two years the
addition of violent and aggressive explosives and weapons in the game raised the stake of the
game which appealed to the user on a better level and in no time it took the shape of
addictions. These were the direct impact of the games that were visible in the society

3VIDEO GAME: VIOLENCE AND AGGRESSION
(Warburton, 2018). However, the psychological effects of these games were later observed,
and it became a representative sign among the youth who were indulging in games with their
growing sense of living life resembling the behaviour of the game. It was associated with
children and their tendency to observe and learn in the process as it started to reflect in the
way they started fashioning their life (Ferguson, et al., 2014). The aggressive way in which
these games were programmed, which involved the use of heavy artillery exposed them to
use of weapons to reach the target of the game. It made them susceptible to the understanding
that to win at the game they would have to more gruesome and devoted to the aggressiveness
displayed by the player in front of them.
Signs of Addiction
The rise in the use of applications which involved aggressive programming in the
wake of the violence and portrayal of war machinery in them invokes the question of the
ethical perception being formed among the youth. The key concepts behind the research and
the studies behind the video game culture and the way it is used have been observed from and
completed in a specific method. These researches reveal that the acceptance and the
coherence among the users were seen as a capitalistic opportunity that resulted in a
competition among the programmers to present their consumers with a better way to express
their ability to adapt themselves to their games. The logical step was another and yet more
intense mode of gaming, and it was enhanced with the introduction of 3D in the screening
(Kühn, et al., 2019). It opened up the avenue among the user as well as the developer to
appeal to youths towards them. Here, the epistemological study gives rise to the question of
ethics in the programmers and developers who exposed youth of the society towards artillery,
which was kept for the military.
Studies relating to violence shows the steps which can be deemed as responsible for
the sudden surge in the use of video games and shows the working of the society which

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influenced the use and the features present in these games. The most significant factors which
are common among studies is the francization of the games and the way society accepted
them. They were pushed to the social standing where playing these became the symbol of
social acceptance, and youth, especially those belonging to the adolescence category show
affinity towards being accepted and socially amicable. The consumption of these services and
indulgence in them showed that they are a part of something bigger than themselves, and they
started associating themselves to the group of people who called themselves gamers (Krahé
& Möller, 2010). They also formulate their own set of rules, signs and set of terms that were
seen as a language on its own. These languages and its meaning depended on thoroughness
towards the game which made them aware of the use of every kind of weapons present in the
game, and it made them aware of the weapons with precision and the violent scenes exposed
them to the aggressive nature which made them prone towards accepting them as a normal
phenomenon.
The normalcy of violence and aggressiveness with which explosives used shows the
observational capacity in some of them and researches and analytical data represents the
association of success within the gaming world to adherence of severe action in the part of
the player. It has been found in some cases that children who had been subjected to violence
and abuse in the past tend to be inclined towards displaying their anger and outburst in the
form of violence within the game. They associate the success within the gaming world as
their compensation and tend to lose their identity in their game. It further leads to adaptation
of the character’s traits that are witnessed to be more likely a violent and unhealthy one
(Greitemeyer, 2018). The primary aim of the research was finding the association due to
being exposed to violence in games. However, it revealed various other psychological
problems that were noticed in the sample group such as being unsocial, unrealistic and
irrational and losing the capability to have a conversation in daily life with people who are

5VIDEO GAME: VIOLENCE AND AGGRESSION
not well known with their field. It is found in almost all the research samples and irrespective
of their sizes that when they are confronted with the idea that they are still the same person
and not the person they have envisioned themselves to be within the realm of their game.
The Strength and the Weakness of the Research Sample
The researches involved in the field of video games and the relationship between their
growing aggression and the normalcy towards violence shows that their primary data was
collected with the help of specific laid down the condition that was viewed as biased due to
the fact sometimes they were observed to be restrictive in the sense that they were taken from
studies and articles which were peer-reviewed and other studies and data mostly online ones
which were based on huge data were excluded (Gentile, Bender & Anderson, 2017). It leads
to the formation of results which is objective and cannot be accepted as the true effect. Most
of the articles that were included from the peer-reviewed section belonged to the era when the
gaming trend has crossed the limitation and has already formed and crossed a level of
addictive and impactful quality. Also, the gaming addiction and studies that laid the
foundation and led the way towards forming a comprehensive perception to it were done in
the years the 1960s and 1970s and excluding articles from that period makes the research and
the result questionable in the authenticity (Ferguson & Wang, 2019). The influence of peer
and parental influence is also found to be scanty in the data included for the children adapts
the habits of their parents who have been a gaming addict and has neglected their duties
towards them. The exclusion of articles which focusses on factors of parental and peer
influence on them leaves the studies searching for grounding. Nevertheless, the decision of
adding data which has been published and peer-reviewed also guarantees that they have not
been tampered with and can be verified if the study is challenged.

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Conclusion
The researches and the studies establishing the relationship between growing
aggression in youth due to over indulgence in video games which glamourize the landscape
of death and violence has been around the literature for a long time. It shows that the
understanding regarding the growing change is subjected to change in the model of gaming
trend. However, the significant gap in the studies revealed in the data collection can no longer
be validated under the criteria of publication as in this age of technology, data which is
collected can also prove to be valuable as they provide unbiased projection of the user who
indulge in it. In conclusion. It can be established that though there is variation in the
researches regarding the impact and its intensity but all of them does show the presence of
influence of gaming on the user’s behaviour.

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References
Anderson, C. A., Shibuya, A., Ihori, N., Swing, E. L., Bushman, B. J., Sakamoto, A., &
Saleem, M. (2010). Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy, and prosocial
behavior in Eastern and Western countries: A meta-analytic review. Psychological
bulletin, 136(2), 151.
Ferguson, C. J., & Wang, J. C. (2019). Aggressive video games are not a risk factor for future
aggression in youth: A longitudinal study. Journal of youth and adolescence, 48(8),
1439-1451.
Ferguson, C. J., Olson, C. K., Kutner, L. A., & Warner, D. E. (2014). Violent video games,
catharsis seeking, bullying, and delinquency: A multivariate analysis of
effects. Crime & Delinquency, 60(5), 764-784.
Gentile, D. A., Bender, P. K., & Anderson, C. A. (2017). Violent video game effects on
salivary cortisol, arousal, and aggressive thoughts in children. Computers in Human
Behavior, 70, 39-43.
Greitemeyer, T. (2018). The spreading impact of playing violent video games on
aggression. Computers in human behavior, 80, 216-219.
Krahé, B., & Möller, I. (2010). Longitudinal effects of media violence on aggression and
empathy among German adolescents. Journal of Applied Developmental
Psychology, 31(5), 401-409.
Kühn, S., Kugler, D. T., Schmalen, K., Weichenberger, M., Witt, C., & Gallinat, J. (2019).
Does playing violent video games cause aggression? A longitudinal intervention
study. Molecular psychiatry, 24(8), 1220-1234.
Warburton, W. A. Y. N. E. (2018). Violent video games and their impact.