The Impact Of Violent Movies And Video Games On Psychology

Effect of Violence on Television and Video Games

Effect of violence on television

Find something in a movie, television show, book, video game, current event, personal experience, etc., and write about how it relates to psychology.

Virtually since the time of dawn of television, its impact has been a major concern for parents, teachers and legislators. One of the most special concerns has been the use of violence in the media as well as the video games. As per Bryant & Vorderer (2013), media violence can desensitize people to violence in the real world and that, for some people, watching violence in the media becomes enjoyable and does not result in the anxious arousal that is generally expected after watching it. This study discusses the impact of violent movies and video games on the psychology.

In a violent television program viewers may or may not get into the identification with a violent character. People are more likely to behave aggressively themselves when they get to identify themselves in context to a violent character. In case of children whatever they hear or see in the media tends to have an effect on them in some or the other way. Learning of aggressive attitude and behaviour, desensitization or the increase in the callousness for the victims of violence, inclination or exaggeration of fear of becoming a victim by some means of violence are some of the consequences which have a psychological decline among the viewers (Möller et al.2012). While all of these effects reflect adverse outcomes, it is the first – an increased propensity for violent behaviour – that is at the core of public health concern about televised violence. The statistical relationship between children’s exposure to violent portrayals and their subsequent aggressive behaviour has been shown to be stronger than the relationship between asbestos exposure and the risk of laryngeal cancer; there is no controversy in the medical, public health, and social science communities about the risk of harmful effects from children’s exposure to media violence. Rather, there is strong consensus that exposure to media violence is a significant public health concern as well.

In view of Ramos et al. (2013), most violence on television are either glamorized or sanitized. Glamorized refers to the fact that most of the violence in the television is performed by the most glamorous character in the show, and they do not suffer remorse, criticism, or penalty for the violent behaviour. More than a third of the violence is performed by attractive characters, and more than two thirds of the violence being committed get away with no punishment at all. Sanitized refers to the failure of the portrayals in showing realistic harms to the respective victims. Pain and suffering which are immediate is included in less than half of the violent scenes in the show. More than one third of the violent interactions depict unrealistic and mild negative consequences to the victims, which considerably understates the severity of the injury caused by certain actions in the actual practical world (Gunter & Harrison, 2013). Hence most of the violent shows tend to be sanitized which shows minimum harm to the victims visually but it has psychological effects in other ways.

Effect of violent video games

Chronic exposure to violent depictions can cause desensitization to violence which means that the viewers may more willingly accept violence from other people and perpetrate violent activities by themselves also. The over exposure of an individual to violence, and especially the one which is portrayed in a realistic manner, may lead viewers, more likely children to believe that it is unsafe to live on earth because it is probably not a secure place to be in (Gentile & Bushman, 2012). Overestimation of the possibility that ultimately there are chances of them to become victims of violent activities is highly expected and leads to the increased undue stress, tension and anxiety. Shows like “CSI: Crime Scene Investigations”, “House M.D” are shows which have been considered to have effects on viewers. However, the effects can include learning and enjoying the show but not get negatively affected or may result in psychological effects which include violent streaks, tension of being a victim.

The advent of video games like the “Call of Duty” and “Grand Theft Auto” are very much violent, but as the concept of video gaming violence is new, it is slowly gaining pace as compared to the media violence effects. Although the entire concept raises many questions as the video game user is not only viewing it but is also directly involved by playing it. Around 90-95% of adolescents are video game players, and use various sources for it. Most of the video games have component of violence in it. This has given rise to meta-analytic reviews that show the negative effects of video games. According to Shaffer & Kipp (2013), expose to violent video games is an important risk factor which leads to the increase in aggression, rude behaviour, aggressive cognition, decreased empathy and pro social behaviour.

This is due to increase in the negative thoughts with the person who is playing such video games more frequently. One of the biggest problems with violent video games is that they discourage players from exercising self control within them. For example in Grand theft Auto video games the players can steal cars, kill other characters in the game including police officials, in such situations players are often rewarded instead of being punished (Greitemeyer, Traut-Mattausch & Osswald, 2012). Very few psychological traits seem to remain stable from early childhood into adulthood, and fewer yet have been shown to carry out the prediction of success or failure in one’s life.

Another problem that affects the psychology of the young people is that the players are more likely to identify with a violent character (Mentzoni et al.2011). If the game is first person shooter then the player have the same visualization perspective as the killer. And if the game is a third person, the player tends to involve in the controlling the actions of the violent character from a more distant visual perspective. Violent games directly reward violent behaviour, by including rewarding points to the player for getting into next level. In some games, players receive verbal praising for the way the play. These effects tend to go unnoticed as people do not understand the psychological effect of the video game violence, as they understand only the biological process (Montag et al.2012). There are good theoretical reasons to believe that violent video games are even more harmful than violent television programs or movies.

Conclusion

Aggressive behaviour is multi determined with exposure of violent video games, on the other hand, even small effects and the effect of the violent video games is small to medium in its effect size can have a very bad consequences on the societal level when many people are exposed. However, children are more likely to imitate the actions of the characters with whom they are able to identify easily. In violent video games players being the characters get to choose the weapons as well, and the process requires active participation instead of just passive observation. The repetition of the process increases the learning among the players, which tend to give a behavioural rehearsal to the players (Greenfield, 2014).

Conclusion

The study involves the effects of violent games and television shows on players and viewers respectively. Viewing violent television shows results in the storing of a perceptual and cognitive representation of the event with in the memory. It is drawn into the individual’s thought. The discussion also mentions that among the population, children are more likely to get effected psychologically when they play violent games or watch violent television shows. It is also revealed that all these factors tend to get into mind which might also come out in the form of violent streaks or also in the form stress and tensions of getting victimized. For better understanding famous video games like “Call of Duty” and “Grand Theft Auto” and television shows “CSI: Crime Scene Investigations”, “House M.D” are taken as case study.

References

Greenfield, P. M. (2014). Mind and media: The effects of television, video games, and computers. Psychology Press.

Montag, C., Weber, B., Trautner, P., Newport, B., Markett, S., Walter, N. T., … & Reuter, M. (2012). Does excessive play of violent first-person-shooter-video-games dampen brain activity in response to emotional stimuli?. Biological psychology, 89(1), 107-111.

Mentzoni, R. A., Brunborg, G. S., Molde, H., Myrseth, H., Skouverøe, K. J. M., Hetland, J., & Pallesen, S. (2011). Problematic video game use: estimated prevalence and associations with mental and physical health.Cyberpsychology, behavior, and social networking, 14(10), 591-596.

Greitemeyer, T., Traut-Mattausch, E., & Osswald, S. (2012). How to ameliorate negative effects of violent video games on cooperation: Play it cooperatively in a team. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(4), 1465-1470.

Shaffer, D., & Kipp, K. (2013). Developmental psychology: Childhood and adolescence. Cengage Learning.

Gentile, D. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2012). Reassessing media violence effects using a risk and resilience approach to understanding aggression. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 1(3), 138.

Gunter, B., & Harrison, J. (2013). Violence on television: An analysis of amount, nature, location and origin of violence. Routledge.

Ramos, R. A., Ferguson, C. J., Frailing, K., & Romero-Ramirez, M. (2013). Comfortably numb or just yet another movie? Media violence exposure does not reduce viewer empathy for victims of real violence among primarily Hispanic viewers. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 2(1), 2.

Möller, I., Krahé, B., Busching, R., & Krause, C. (2012). Efficacy of an intervention to reduce the use of media violence and aggression: An experimental evaluation with adolescents in Germany. Journal of youth and adolescence, 41(2), 105-120.

Bryant, J., & Vorderer, P. (Eds.). (2013). Psychology of entertainment. Routledge.