Positive Effects of computers and video games on behaviour

Question 1

possible positive effects of video games

Answer 1

relaxing and prosaically games may cause pro social behaviour
active games like wii sports may encourage physical activity

Question 2

whitaker and bushman

Answer 2

116 college students played either a violent, neutral or relaxing video game for 20 mins then completed questionnaires about mood.
After the study they were asked if they could sharpen some pencils- the number of pencils was used to measure the pro-social behaviour.
puts how played the relaxing video game sharpened more pencils and the other conditions and rated themselves as being happier.

control:
the relaxing video games were rated by external students as being just as exciting and entertaining as the violent and neutral games. ensuring the IV is valid and can be sure about cause and effect, but this could still be subjective.

although number of pencils sharpened is an objective measure, it can’t necessarily indicate someone’s helpfulness as helpful people could be in a rush or refuse for other valid reasons. Personality factors can also account for these differences shown- some people are more helpful anyway- cannot determine whether it was due to exposure to relaxing video games.

have to be careful when trusting these findings because there has been notified publication bias (significant fingers are more likely to be published than non-signicant findings- Ferguson analysed 17 studies between 1995 and 2007 and found no evidence for the link once the publication bias had been corrected for.

further issues lie in the methodology- using questionnaires often relies on subjectivity which can result in biased outcomes- students could be subject to demand characteristics also- they may work out the hypothesis and not answer truthfully.

Question 3

ferguson

Answer 3

analysed 17 studies from 1995 and 2007 and found there were no links between the two variables being test after the publication bias had been corrected for

showing that significant findings are more likely to be published than non-significant findings which exaggerates effects.

Question 4

Gentile et al

Answer 4

2000 japanese children (10-17 years)
2 questionnaires each done twice with 3-4 month apart
rated how often in the past month they played video gomes with two types of prosocial scenes (someone helping someone troubled or scenes showing affection between parents and children)

using the same 5 point rating scale they rated how often in the past month they had done helpful behaviours e.g i helped a person who was in trouble.

Amount of pro social gaming at time one had a causal effect on the amount of pro social behaviour at time 2
AND the amount of pro-social behaviours at time one had a causal effect on amount of pro-social gaming at time 2 so there’s a bidirectional relationship between the variables.

Question 5

evaluation of Gentile et al

Answer 5

weakness of the study is that the DV is reliant on self-report which is subjective the interpretation of helpful is unreliable, as the claim ‘helping someone out’ could mean different things to different people. Someone who is generally more helpful may not think so much of it/be aware of it thus doesn’t report as much because they forget as it’s instinctive to them, so the number recalled may be inaccurate and therefore give invalid scores.

Question 6

MEllecker et al- effect on physical activity

Answer 6

compared heart rate and calorie expenditure in childrne while playing different types of games and at rest
30(% more calories burned during seated bowling
98% more calories during an active bowling game
451% more during active running game
(compared to rest)

Question 7

Mellecker evaluation

Answer 7

implication of such games have potential importance in combating obesity

however difficult to come to a definitive conclusion because of individual differences- keen sports players are more likely to want to play the game in real life and therefore burn 4x more calories
but an advantage could be developing confidence in those who are less keen and they could try the sport for real by improving coordination skills and rule knowledge.
being able to do sport in the comfort of one’s own home can motivate one to continue it outside
games that are particularly good are ones that mimic the action of the real life version e.g running as the number of calories burnt will be more similar.