Bastian 2011 Study 2 Flashcards
Aim
To investigate if playing violent video games with a co player had an effect on self and others perception of humanity.
Procedure
• Using 38 undergraduates (28 women, 10 men with an average age of 20),
• participants were randomly assigned to the Cal of Duty 2 condition or the Top Spin Tennis condition.
• Participants played for a period of 20 minutes as co-players.
• After playing they were then asked as before how frustrating, enjoyable and exciting the game was.
• They then had to rate themselves and the other person on the same measure of humanness inStudy 1, specifically focusing on their own experience of the video game, and then the view of the other person.
• Four items were positive ‘I felt like I was emotional, like I was warm and responsive’
• Four items were reversed ‘I felt like I lacked self restraint, like an animal’
Results
Violent score for self humanity 3.82, non violent 4.48
For others, 4.89, 4.86
Reduced persons own self reported perception of their humanness
However how you see others is only affected when they are an opponent not a team mate
Conclusion
Only affects if other person is a opponent not co player
Still affected self view
Generalisability
• 38 female, 10 male males the study estrocentric so isn’t generalisable
• Small sample cannot be generalised to wider population
• All undergraduates so all of a high level of education can’t be generalise to the wider public
• Average age of 20 so can’t be generalised to people that are older or younger
Reliability
• There were two types of study carried out which presented similar findings giving reliability as results can be reproduced
• The researches checked to see if participants had suspected a link between dehumanisation and violent video games so that it avoided any demanded characteristics affecting results
• Participants had to rate their levels of frustration which made sure that the test wasn’t measuring levels of frustration and still measuring dehumanisation
Application
• Contributes to further previous research in the area on dehumanisation and as people spend longer playing games online increases the likelihood and possibility of such experiences dehumanising a player
• Could suggest repeated exposure to such dehumanising experiences might results in radical changes in self perception and perception of others and so there should be limited use of violent video games
Validity
• Pps were also victims of game violence which could have caused them to decrease in self humanity
• Self rating scales could have caused a lack in validity as pps may have been inclined to rate themselves less human or more human given context being studied.
• It lacked ecological validity as it was done in artificial setting which may have effected responses and lead to demand characteristics
• Questioned participants to check if they had suspected a link between dehumanisation and playing violent video games
• The researchers tested for the effects of gender, mood, level of self-esteem, amount of enjoyment in the games, amount of frustration in the games and the excitement of playing the games. They found that none of these variables explained the differences in the means between the important variables - the main one being whether someone played a violent video game or a non-violent one.
By looking for effects from other variables, the researchers helped to make the link between their independent variable (the two types of video game) and the dependent variable (their own measure of their humanity).
Ethics
No ethical issues
