Violent Video Games and Emotional Well-Being
Newcomb, J. (Worcester State University), Flynn, B. (Worcester State University), & Camacho, K. A. (Worcester State University)
Newcomb, J. (Worcester State University), Flynn, B. (Worcester State University), & Camacho, K. A. (Worcester State University)
My students in social psychology are always interested in this topic! I wonder if your results would have been different if you compared violent vs. non-violent video games? I also wonder what role, if any, individual differences may play in both the decision to play violent video games and their impact. My understanding of past research is that violent media makes aggressive people more aggressive.
The debate around this topic has been popular in recent years, with studies showing varying results. The frequency in which violent vs non-violent games are played is an important factor to consider. We found that violent video games alone do not affect emotional well-being, but it may impact other behavioral variables, like anger and aggressiveness specifically.
Really well-organized and clear presentation! Nice work! While overall there may not have been clear effects, I wonder about separating out the groups who are less frequent versus more intense game users, predispositions, diverse game use versus majority violent content, etc.
Thank you! Those are great areas for future research- we believe that intense video gamers would show somewhat different outcomes that the occasionally user.
Very nice way to present your work – the slides worked well and were easy to follow. Good job. This is a very relevant topic, though my students generally deny any effect of video games on aggression when the topic comes up in class. Some research seems to show that long-term effects may be fewer than immediate effects during and right after playing. There may be nuances to the impacts of violent video games, and observing gamers may give different results that self reports. Good luck if you pursue this further.
Thank you! You make a really great point concerning the self-reports. A longitudinal study of aggressive behavior may yield different results, especially if observational data is included.
I just talked about this with my social psychology students this week. They didn’t think playing violent video games would have an impact on aggression. Maybe the Bobo doll research doesn’t quite work in the same way any more given the prevalence and types of popular video games.