Violent Video Games: Factors That Lead to Violent Behaviour Paper Example

Following the increased violence in schools, it creates the need to identify the core factors that lead to violent behaviour. While gun control appears to be a significant strategy that can help to mitigate such cases, other causes such as video games also need to be assessed. For instance, the various scenarios of schools shootings including the incident of Columbine High School in 1999, Virginia Tech University in 2007 and Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 which saw up to 27 people dead of which 20 of them were children aged 6 to 7. While some scholars argue that there are no any direct links between video games and violence, I believe that there is a psychological effect that video games have on children. In this case, the paper aims at giving in-depth analysis on the argument that video games cause aggression and violence among children and hence is a significant contribution to the increased levels of violence in most of the schools in the United States.

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Various studies confirm that children and adolescents are more vulnerable to become violent after participating in video games as compared to adults. It thus explains the increased cases of shootings and violence in schools. For instance, the study by Greitemeyer, (2018), shows that upon participating in video games, most of the people become angry, aggressive, and they end up becoming violent in the real world. The findings show that participating in violent video games makes the participants less sensitive to actual violence making them engage in violent behaviour easily. Furthermore, if the children develop less fear of violence, they end up becoming highly violent as they become insensitive. More importantly, the video game often teaches the participants that violence is the only solution to any underlying problem.

In most of the cases, the game encompasses situations where the enemy always solves the problem through violence. In this case, the participants tend to capture and carry on this behaviour to the real world activities. Upon participating in these games regularly, the participant develops the lesson that violence is the only problem-solving mechanism and they hence develop the violent thoughts that would have been otherwise ignored if hey had not participated in these games.

Consequently, the study by Hollingdale & Greitemeyer, (2014), confirms that participating in video games often cause aggression among the participants and as a result, it increases the chances of engaging in violent behaviours. The study outlines that violent video games do not only alleviate aggression among the participants but also affects their social networks negatively. In this case, it means that the people that participate in violent video games usually develop aggression and later spread the behaviour to other people in their social networks. Therefore, in the case of children and adolescents, upon playing these violent video games, they develop aggression, and the spread it to other peers in their social networks. As the behaviour continues to spread out, it affects a significant proportion of the children within the circle increasing the chances of violent behaviours in schools. Moreover, as more and more students become violent, it increases the probability of causing chaos and violence within the school vicinity since they team up to fulfil their shared behaviours and attitudes. In the long-run, even the students that do not actively participate in the violent video games end up developing aggression and violent behaviour as well.

Additionally, other than spreading out the aggression to the special networks, the participants also can drive their friends towards participating in these videos. As the levels of aggression arise, then, playing the video games can become contagious. For this reason, there is an increased probability that the people who initially did not participate in the violent video games would begin participating if their social networks consist of people that participate regularly. As a result, the level of aggression continues to increase, and the risk of engaging in violent behaviour also increases. Consequently, people continue to spread the behaviour to other people in their social networks and so on. The study by Hasan, Begue & Bushman, (2012), further asserts that participating in violent video games increase stress that in turn increase aggression among the players. In most of the cases, the violent video games encompass stressful situations where the enemy is striving to kill the players. For this reason, the players hence develop aggression which aids in sparkling violent behaviour. Therefore, when the players are faced with a situation that increases stress in real life, they often respond through violence. In the school context, through the interactions among the students, they may experience scenarios that sparkle stress such as noisy environments, volumes of work, punishments, and peer arguments. When faced with such situations, the violent video players may respond through violence explaining the reason for the increased access of the mass shooting in schools.

Conclusion

In conclusion, participating in violent video games increases stress, aggression, and violent behaviours among the players. More often, video games create more harm to children and adolescents as compared to adults. Additionally, upon developing aggression, the participants spread this behaviour to other people in the social networks. For this reason, the violent behaviour continues to develop affecting a wide range of students in a given institution. As the level of aggression continues to rise, it accounts for the increased cases of violence in most of the schools. In this case, therefore, it is essential that the government ban the violent video games as they create a negative impact on education and social life of the children in the nation.

References

Greitemeyer, T. (2018). The spreading impact of playing violent video games on aggression. Computers In Human Behavior, 80, 216-219. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2017.11.022

Hasan, Y., Begue, L., & Bushman, B. (2012). Violent Video Games Stress People Out and Make Them More Aggressive. Aggressive Behavior, 39(1), 64-70. doi: 10.1002/ab.21454

Hollingdale, J., & Greitemeyer, T. (2014). The Effect of Online Violent Video Games on Levels of Aggression. Plos ONE, 9(11), e111790. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0111790