RESEARCH PROPOSAL

EFFECTS OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES ON KIDS

Supervisor: Miss Seemab

Submitted By: AyshaNasir
B.A (Hons)-Media Studies
Session 2009-2013

Department of Mass Communication

Kinnaird College for Women, Lahore

Introduction

Technology has increased significantly over the years and is affecting the lives of youngsters
across the world .According to the oxford Dictionary, Technology is defined as: Application of
scientific knowledge for practical purposes. As a part of this research computers and gaming
shall be discussed in particular.
Video games are defined as: Any electronic game that involves human interaction with a user
interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. Video games one of the favorite part
times with children of all ages and even some adults. In addition to this lack of quality studies
has to be blamed for childrens exposure to video and computer games.
Children are prone to being inquisitive and are vulnerable to the adverse effects of violent video
games. Children are our further students and youth and need attention and consideration. Since
ata very early age children become a target to the violence of video games so children are going
to be my target audience for this research.

Rationale
The study aims at analyzing the adverse effects of violent video games on children. The
increasing technology has caused children to be less creative. Video game requires players to pay
constant attention and more aggressiveness.
Children may engage in fights with their peers due to aggression generated from violent video
games. Playing video games may increase aggressive behavior because violent acts are
continuously repeated throughout the video games. The method of repetition has long been
considered and affected teaching method in reinforcing learning patterns.
When a child play video games, it gives his brain a real workout. In many video games, the
skills required to win involve abstract and high level thinking. These skills are not even taught at
school. One of the mental skills trained by video games include Resource management and
logistics. The study intends to address the target audience by thorough research; as the incidents
caused by video game violence are getting closer to home.

Literature review
Walsh. D
The researcher wants to explore that is the concern that video games are too violent for children
justified, a review of The Federal Trade Commission report on the marketing of "M" rated games
to children and legislative responses and First Amendment issues. A meta-analysis was
conducted in which the results of other studies were analyzed to determine whether similar
patterns exist in all of them. The results generated were remarkable it cements that exposure to
violent games increased physiological arousal, increased aggressive thoughts, increased

aggressive emotions and increased aggressive actions and decreased positive pro social (i.e.,
helping) activities.
Willenz. P (23 April 2000)
The researcher finds that playing violent video games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D or Mortal
Kombat can increase a person's aggressive thoughts, feelings and behavior both in laboratory
settings and in actual life, according to two studies appearing in the April issue of the American
Psychological Association's (APA) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Furthermore,
violent video games may be more harmful than violent television and movies because they are
interactive, very engrossing and require the player to identify with the aggressor, say the
researchers.
"One study reveals that young men who are consistently aggressive may be especially open to
the aggression-enhancing effects of repeated exposure to violent games. The other study reveals
that even a brief exposure to violent video games can temporarily increase aggressive behavior in
all types of participants. The first study involved 227 college students who completed a measure
of trait aggressiveness and reported their actual aggressive behaviors in the recent past. They also
reported their video game playing habits. The researcher found that students who reported
playing more violent video games in junior and high school engaged in more aggressive
behavior, the researcher also found that amount of time spent playing video games in the past
was associated with lower academic grades in college. In the second study, 210 college students
played either a violent (Wolfenstein 3D) or nonviolent video game (Myst). A short time later, the
students who played the violent video game punished an opponent for a longer period of time
than did students who had played the nonviolent video game.
(N.A)
The researcher finds that the first kind of correlation study can never prove that video-game
playing causes physical aggression. Maybe aggressive people are simply more apt to play violent
games in the first place. The randomized trials, which do imply causation, necessarily depend on
lab-based measures of aggression, such as whether subjects blast each other with noise. This is a
respected measure, but obviously not the same as seeing whether real people hit or shoot each
other. The longitudinal work, like this year's elementary-school study, is a useful middle ground:
It shows that across the board, playing more-violent video games predicts higher levels of verbal
and physical aggression later on.
The connection between violent games and real violence is also fairly intuitive. In playing the
games, kids are likely to become desensitized to gory images, which could make them less
disturbing and perhaps easier to deal with in real life. The games may also encourage kids and
adults to rehearse aggressive solutions to conflict, meaning that these thought processes may
become more available to them when real-life conflicts arise, Anderson says. It doesn't matter
why the kids started playing violent games or whether they were already more aggressive than
their peers; the point is that a year of game-playing likely contributes to making them more
aggressive than they were when they started. If it had only one of the three kinds of studies, the
findings wouldn't mean much. But taken together, the body of research suggests a real
connection. Video games also offer immediate feedback and constant small rewardsin the form
of points, or access to new levels or weapons. And they tend to tailor tasks to a player's skill
level, starting easy and getting harder. That makes them "phenomenal teachers," though "what
they teach very much depends on content."

Goldstein. J. (27 October 2001).

The researcher states that Play is a voluntary, self-directed activity (Garvey, 1991), an experience
that probably cannot be captured in a laboratory experiment. Jib Fowles (1999), discussing
television violence, contrasts the experience of the experimental laboratory versus watching
television at home. Regarding video games, the duration of play is too short, typically 5-15
minutes, for anything like the play experience to be duplicated (Calvert & Tan, 1994; Silvern,
Lang & Williamson, 1987). The pleasant flow state described by Csikszentmihalyi(1990)
becomes unattainable.
In laboratory experiments, no one plays. Being required to play a violent video game on demand
is no ones idea of an entertainment experience. It is like being forced to listen to someone elses
favorite music; it sounds like noise.
Almost no studies of violent video games have considered how and why people play them, or
why people play at all. Experimental research does not be familiar with the fact that video game
players freely hold in play, and are always free to stop. They enter an imaginary world with a
playful frame of mind, something entirely missing from laboratory studies of violent video
games. One of the pleasures of play is this very deferment of reality. Laboratory experiments
cannot tell us what the effects of playing video games are, because there is no sense in which
participants in these studies "play."
Grohol. M John (May 17, 2008)
The researcher long has been skeptical of the direct causation link some professionals pronounce
exists between increased violence and playing violent video games or video games with violence
in them. If something smells like a scapegoat, it usually is.
So it wasnt surprising for me to read that more and more researchers are questioning these links,
and suggesting that while there may be a link, it is a complex and nuance one. Its not one that
easily fits into a 30-second sound bite.
What the research does show, in a nutshell, then is this:
Teens who are already angry or aggressive likely should be limited in their playing of violent
video games
Teens should not play M-rated games Girls especially should not play M-rated games
Video game is an important social development interaction for boys. Parents should keep this in
mind when taking such time away from them in punishment.
And of course, all things in moderation. Playing a video game for 6 or 8 hours straight is
unhealthy behavior at any age.

D`Silva. R (3/20/2007)
Video games have become much more violent than they were when they first came in. Some
video games are so realistic that the US Army has suggested soldiers to spend some time playing
them. Soldiers have said that playing games First Person Shooters (FPS) like Quake, Doom and
now Black result in a hand eye coordination. It's a pity that the media has never highlighted this
effect of violent video games.

The violence in video games may or may not have an effect on the person playing it. Any outside
factor can change anything in a person only if the psychology of the person wants it. A gun in the
hand of a policeman exudes security, while the same gun in the hand of a toddler means an
accident and in the hand of a robber would mean violence.

Theoretical Framework
Cultivation Theory
Cultivation refers to the long-term formation of perceptions and beliefs about the world as a
result of exposure to the media. It was introduced by George Gerbner in 1969 with the
publication of "Towards 'Cultural Indicators': The Analysis of Mass Mediated Public Message
Systems." The methods and assumptions behind cultivation analysis are different from those
traditionally employed in mass communication research. Research and debate on the impact of
video game has often focused on individual messages, programs, episodes, series, or genres and
their ability to produce immediate change in audience attitudes and behaviors. Cultivation
analysis is concerned with the more general and pervasive consequences of cumulative exposure
to cultural media. However, most cultivation analysis has focused on television because of the
medium's uniquely repetitive and pervasive message characteristics and its dominance over other
media in the United States. And it is in the United States that a popular form of media that is
video games shows its clear dominance relating to the cultivation theory. As it is arguably the
biggest form of media that influences young impressionable minds sometimes to ends that are
not subtle.
According to this theoretical perspective, playing violent video games can have a short-term
impact on aggression by increasing arousal as well as the availability of aggressive thoughts and
hostile feelings. Through repeated playing of video games, violent scripts for social problem
solving are reinforced, over-learned, and thus become automatized, resulting in biased
perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs about aggression. The theory also posits that the effects of
violent video games may be heightened for the characteristically aggressive.
In total, the public concern over violent video games may be warranted. Theory reveals that
playing such games can have a negative impact on aggressive behavior. As a result, it becomes
important to examine just how much violence is in video games popular with youth. Video
games are one of the most recent forms of mass media to come under attack. Critics have
charged that video games such as Mortal Kombat, Duke Nukem, and Doom are not only
inundated with violence, but that playing such games may be having a harmful effect on youth.
As U. S. Senator Joseph Lieberman (1998) stated recently, "these games ... are part of a toxic
culture of violence that is enveloping our children, that is helping to desensitize them and blur
the lines between right and wrong, and encouraging some of the most vulnerable of them to

commit violence.In fact, playing violent video games was implicated as a possible contributory
factor in the recent schoolyard massacres.
To date, violent video games have not been studied as extensively as violent television or
movies. The number of studies investigating the impact of such games on youth aggression is
small, there have been none on serious violence, and none has been longitudinal. A recent metaanalysis of these studies found that the exposure to violent video games has a relatively small
effect on physical aggression and a moderate effect on aggressive thinking. The impact of video
games on violent behavior remains to be determined.

Problem statement
Extensive exposure to video games is creating frustration among children which leads to disobedience towards parents and siblings.

Objectives
The study intends to:
1 Determine the functional interaction that can be used to predict Video game violence.
2 Analyze those topics that directly and indirectly impact violent behavior among children.
3 Identify effective strategies for addressing problems associated with individual and group
violence pertaining to violent video games and evaluate them.
4 Comprehend and implement a theoretical framework to figure out and prevent violent
incited by violent video games.
5 Explain functional definitions of terms associated with Video game violence.
6 Understand and explain the relationships among: (a) concept of the future and short-term
behavior; (b) cultural commonalties and social disintegration; (c) legitimate and nonlegitimate means; (d) victim and revenge; (e) participation and rejection; (f) aspirations
and blocks to achievement; and (g) means and opportunities.

Research Question
1. What are the operational definations of terms accosiated with Video game violence?
2. What is the significant association between exposure to media violence and aggressive
behavior?
3. How Video Games induce violent behavior in children?

4. What are the key strategies for addressing the problem associated with violence among
children spread by violent video games?
5. What are the key steps to prevent this violent behavior and aggression among children
due to violent video games?

Research Method
The proposed method for this study is Survey.

Research Tool
For this study Questionnaire will be used as Research Tool.

Population
The population of this study is comprised on all the school going children of Lahore.

Sample
The sample of this study will base upon 200 respondents. Convenient Sampling will be used.

Data Analysis
Minitab 6 Software will be used for Data Analysis