Google Scholar Articles

Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life
Craig A. Anderson
Department of Psychology
University of Missouri–Columbia

Karen E. Dill
Department of Psychology
Lenoir-Rhyne College

http://web.clark.edu/mjackson/anderson.and.dill.html


"The positive association between violent video games and aggressive personality is consistent with a developmental model in which extensive exposure to violent video games (and other violent media) contributes to the creation of an aggressive personality. The cross-sectional nature of this study does not allow a strong test of this causal hypothesis, but a zero or negative correlation would have disconfirmed the hypothesis, so the test is a legitimate one. "


Cultural Framing of Computer/Video Games
Kurt Squire
Instructional Systems Technology
Indiana University

http://gamestudies.org/0102/squire/?ref=HadiZayifla.Com

"Few, if any researchers have studied how and why people play games, and what gaming environments are like. The few times researchers have asked these questions, they have found surprising results. In 1985, Mitchell gave Atari 2600 consoles to twenty families and found that most families used the game systems as a shared play activity. Instead of leading to poor school performance, increased family violence, or strained family interactions, video games were a positive force on family interactions, "reminiscent of days of Monopoly, checkers, card games, and jigsaw puzzles" (Mitchell, 1985, p.134). This study suggests that investigators might benefit by acknowledging the cultural contexts of gaming, and studying game-playing as a cultural practice. If nothing else, it highlights the importance of putting aside preconceptions and examining gamers on their own terms."


Content and Ratings of Teen-Rated Video Games
Kevin Haninger; Kimberly M. Thompson, ScD

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/291/7/856

"Children's exposure to violence, blood, sexual themes, profanity, substances, and gambling in the media remains a source of public health concern. However, content in video games played by older children and adolescents has not been quantified or compared with the rating information provided to consumers by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB)."


Effects of Violent Versus Nonviolent Video Games on Children's Arousal, Aggressive Mood, and Positive Mood
Michele J. Fleming,
Debra J. Rick Wood

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2001.tb00163.x/abstract

"This study investigated the relationship between violent video games and children's mood. A total of 71 children aged 8 to 12 years played a paper-and-pencil game, a nonviolent video game, and a violent video game. Results indicate that arousal, as measured by heart rate and self-reported arousal, increased significantly after playing the violent video game, as compared with the other two game conditions, with girls reporting more arousal than did boys. There was no significant increase in aggressive mood scores for either boys or girls after playing the violent game. Positive mood, as measured by positive affect, showed no significant increases or decreases after playing either video game. However, positive mood, as measured by general mood, showed a significant increase after playing the violent game for both boys and girls, but only as compared with the paper-and-pencil game. Results are interpreted in terms of social learning and cognitive information processing theories of aggression."


The Emotional Appeal of Violent Video Games for Adolescent Males
Jeroen Jansz

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2005.tb00334.x/abstract

"It is argued that violent video games provide a gratifying context for the experience of emotions. The fact that gamers are largely in control of the game implies that they can voluntarily select the emotional situations they confront. This freedom is attractive for adolescents who are in the midst of constructing an identity. For them, the violent game is a safe, private laboratory where they can experience different emotions, including those that are controversial in ordinary life. Gamers may deliberately select emotions that sustain dominant masculine identity (e.g., anger), as well as emotions that are at odds with dominant masculinity (e.g., fear)."


Violent Virtual Video Games and Hostile Thoughts
Tamborini, Ron; Eastin, Matthew S.; Skalski, Paul; Lachlan, Kenneth

http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/jbem48&div=28&id=&page=

"The enormous controversy surrounding violent video games has been fueled by conflicting claims about the nature of their content and the relationship between game use and hostility."


Affect of the Game Player: Short-Term Effects of Highly and Mildly Aggressive Video Games
Craig A. Anderson
Catherine M. Ford
Rice University

http://psp.sagepub.com/content/12/4/390.short

"The high-aggression game led to higher hostility than the mild-aggression game, but the difference was not significant. However, those who had played the high-aggression game were significantly more anxious than either those who played the mild-aggression game or those who played no game (control). As expected, the experimental manipulation of game playing did not yield a main effect on depressive affect. Finally, there was a marginally significant sex by game interaction effect on the depression scores."


Video and Computer Games: Effect on Children and Implications for Health Education
Steve M. Dorman

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1746-1561.1997.tb03432.x/abstract

"Video and computer-based games have assumed a prominent role in the culture of American children and adolescents. Given the pervasiveness of their influence, it is likely that these games may affect the health and well-being of children."


Media Violence Research and Youth Violence Data: Why Do They Conflict?
Cheryl K. Olson, M.P.H., S.D.

http://www.ap.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/28/2/144

"Contrary to media headlines and public perceptions, there is little evidence of a substantial link between exposure to violent interactive games and serious real-life violence or crime. Conclusion: Further research is needed on whether violent games may affect less dramatic but real concerns such as bullying, fighting, or attitudes and beliefs that support aggression, as well as how effects may vary by child characteristics and types of games. There is also a need for research on the potential benefits of violent games for some children and adults."


Psychological Processes Promoting the Relation Between Exposure to Media Violence and Aggressive Behavior by the Viewer
L. Rowell Huesmann

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1986.tb00246.x/abstract

"A developmental theory is presented to account for the relation between increased exposure to media violence and increased aggressive behavior. It is argued that the effect of media violence on individual differences in aggression is primarily the result of a cumulative learning process during childhood. Aggressive scripts for behavior are acquired from observation of media violence and aggressive behavior itself stimulates the observation of media violence. In both childhood and adulthood, certain cues in the media may trigger the activation of aggressive scripts acquired in any manner and thus stimulate aggressive behavior. A number of intervening variables may either mitigate or exacerbate these reciprocal effects. If undampened, this cumulative learning process can build enduring schemas for aggressive behavior that persist into adulthood. Thus, early childhood television habits are correlated with adult criminality independently of other likely causal factors. It is concluded that interventions directed at mitigating the effects of media violence on delinquency and criminality should focus on the preadolescent years."