Media - effects of computers and video games on behaviour

Question 1

Anderson and Dill - negative effects

Answer 1

• lab experiment
• compared effects of violent and non-violent game
• 210 psychology undergraduates
• played games twice in first session and once a week later
• played a game where they could blast opponents with white noise
• those who played violent game gave longer blast of white noise
• also scored higher on aggression accessibility index
• suggests playing violent video games increases aggressive behaviour in the short term
• lab experiment; controlled extraneous variables, lacks ecological validity
• well controlled; suggests causal link
• matched pairs

Question 2

Second Anderson and Dill - negative effects

Answer 2

• 227 psychology undergrads completed questionnaires measuring trait aggression and delinquency
• also completed questionnaires about 5 favourite video games and how often they played them and how violent they were
• multiplied 2 scores to create exposure to video violence score
• scores for exposure to video violence correlated positively with trait aggression and delinquency scores
• suggests long last effects happen because violent video games teach aggressive attitudes

Question 3

Weber - negative effects

Answer 3

• males placed in fMRI scan
• part of brain used to generate empathy was less active during violent game play
• shows that playing violent video games leads to desensitiation

Question 4

Walker - negative effects

Answer 4

• survey of 813 university students
• found that as time playing video games went up the quality of relationships went down
• only an association
• outdated due to recent internet usage growth

Question 5

Whitaker and Bushman - positive effects

Answer 5

• 116 college students
• played either a violent, neutral or relaxing video game
• completed mood questionnaire
• said it was over, needed help sharpening pencils
• number of pencils they chose to sharpen measured their pro-social behaviour
• those who played relaxing video game chose to sharpen more pencils
• those who reported more positive emotions also sharpened more pencils
• relaxing video games put people in a better mood, leads them to helping people
• lab experiment
• mood before experiment may have had an effect

Question 6

Gentile - positive effects

Answer 6

• 2000 japanese children
• completed 2 questionnaires; rated how often they played video games in last month with pro-social scenes and how often they had done helpful behaviours - each questionnaired done with 3-4 month time span inbetween
• correlation between 2 variables
• natural experiment
• population validity
• based on memory
• demand characteristics

Question 7

Mellecker - positive effects

Answer 7

• compared heart rate and calorie expenditure whilst playing various games
• 39% calories burnt during seated bowling game, 98% in active bowling game, 451% during active running game
• practical application
• lab experiment; empirical method
  only children