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Abstract

I wish to show how positive, relaxing video games can communicate messages that create a positive mood state in children. I wish to study this because only one other study was ever conducted on the effects of relaxing, positive video games on participants, and the study was on college students (Whitaker & Bushman, 2012). That study showed that the effects of relaxing, positive video games created not just a positive mood state, but also increased prosocial behavior (Whitaker & Bushman, 2012). Due to these results, I expect to see the same kinds of positive outcomes in children.

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Introduction

Video games are an incredibly powerful communication medium for many reasons. One is due to them being an active as opposed to a passive activity (Sweetser, Johnson, Ozdowska & Wyeth, 2012). The other is because of how many hours a day many children and adolescents play for. A survey conducted in America by Gentile in 2009 on 8-18 year olds showed that 88% played video games and the average time for playing them was 13.2 hours a week (Adachi & Willoughby, 2013). Its common knowledge that video games can promote negative messages, but less people are aware of there being games that promote positive messages. My study aims to prove that positive, relaxing video games communicate messages that can create a positive mood state in children. I wish to show this by conducting an experiment on fifty 8-12 year olds from local elementary and middle schools. Each child will be assigned either a positive/relaxing, neutral, or violent video game to play for 20 minutes. The violent game will be used as a comparison and the neutral game will be used as a control. Before playing the game they will be given a mood evaluation and an aggression assessment. After playing one of the three video games the child will be asked to evaluate their mood again as well as be given three story stems to respond to. At the end the responses to the story stems will be compared to the childs mood evaluation to examine validity.

Literature Review Video Games and Aggression In a study researching why video games caused people to be more aggressive, the hypothesis set forth by the scientists was that this happened due to video games causing a person

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to experience stress (Hasan, Begue & Bushman, 2013). In the study cardiac coherence was used to determine how much stress a person was in. The lower the cardiac coherence, the more aggression one would feel. It was found that the people that played a violent video game had less cardiac coherence as well as increased aggression (Hasan, Begue & Bushman, 2013). A study conducted on how playing violent video games affected people long-term aimed to see whether increased aggression from violent video games was only short-term or whether the aggression lasted longer (Hasan, Begue, Scharkow & Bushman, 2013) This replicated video game effects with more accuracy as most of the time someone plays a video game for days, months or years at a time, not just a few hours. It was discovered over days that behavior that was aggressive as well as antagonistic expectations only got higher in players of the violent games (Hasan, Begue, Scharkow & Bushman, 2013). Another study that looked at effects of video games on young people was also a longterm study. This surveyed teenagers from 9th grade to 12th grade on their video game habits and how aggressive they were, and showed that teens that played violent video games for many years had an increase in behavior that was aggressive (Willoughby, Adachi & Good, 2012). One study, like the prior study, linked hostile expectations to long-term playing of violent video games (Nasby, Hayden & DePaulo, 1980). Another study found people that played violent video games had more acts of aggression, both through words and actions, and decreased prosocial behavior (Anderson 2007). Effects of Violent, Prosocial, and Neutral Video Games A study that was the first to use only E rated games to assess the effects of video games on children was done to see how prosocial, violent, and neutral video games affected childrens behavior (Saleem, Anderson & Gentile, 2012). The study found that when children played a

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prosocial video game, they were much more helpful than when a child played a violent video game (Saleem, Anderson & Gentile, 2012). Also, less harmful behavior was displayed by children who played a prosocial video game (Saleem, Anderson & Gentile, 2012). Video games that were violent had the opposite effects (Saleem, Anderson & Gentile, 2012). Another study done by the same researchers as the last study, wanted to find how video games that were violent, neutral, and prosocial affected feelings of malevolence as well as a positive mood state (Saleem, Anderson & Gentile, 2012). These were studied by analyzing particpants inherent aggression or inherent altruism, and how these variables affected the people playing the game. The study found that games that were prosocial lessened antagonistic feelings, anger, and irritation, and increased ones positive mood state (Saleem, Anderson & Gentile, 2012). Games that were violent were found to increase short-term antagonistic feelings as well as lessen a positive mood state (Saleem, Anderson & Gentile, 2012). This study also found that despite the previous idea that violence in the media effects most the people inherently aggressive, that the opposite was true, with those not prone to aggression being the most negatively affected by violent video games (Saleem, Anderson & Gentile, 2012). Also, the study found that people most prone to aggression were found to report less levels of irritation after playing prosocial games (Saleem, Anderson & Gentile, 2012). This lead the researchers to believe that media could help by increasing prosocial shows, movies, and video games, as they believe prosocial media has the potential to positively impact people long-term (Saleem, Anderson & Gentile, 2012). Effects of Violent and Nonviolent Video Games A study whose goal was to see if aggressive behaviors, mindsets, and mood would result as an effect of playing violent video games found players of violent video games had more

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aggressive responses than nonviolent game players as well as participants assigned to no game (Sestir & Bartholow, 2010). Nonviolent games produced more prosocial responses than players of violent games and no-game participants (Sestir & Bartholow, 2010). The researchers confirmed that nonviolent games including those that didnt have prosocial content, increased prosocial thoughts and decreased aggression (Sestir & Bartholow, 2010). Another study used virtual reality video games and normal platform video games to study the influence of nonviolent and violent video games (Persky & Blascovich, 2007). It was found that people who played a video game that was violent in a virtual reality game had more angry, antagonistic feelings than those that played a violent video game in a traditional monitor setting (Persky & Blascovich, 2007). This is most likely because people playing a violent video game in a virtual reality would feel a part of the game and identify strongly with the main character they would play as ( Persky & Blascovich, 2007). Positive Effects of Video Games An Australian study on the effects of passive and active screen time found that the way young children reacted physiologically to playing video games was different than how they reacted to television viewing (Sweetser, Johnson, Ozdowska, & Wyeth, 2012). Other studies found that video games that require some sort of physical activity improve a childs performance in school as well as cause the child to be less absent, less late for class, and less disruptive in class (Sweetser, Johnson, Ozdowska, & Wyeth, 2012). Also studies have found that playing video games that require physical activity can help with making friends, working with others, and helping the child to develop a positive self image (Lieberman, 2011). Video games that are active are used to help children that are autistic as well as help with many other problems from medical to psychological (Durkin, 2010 & Grif, 2003).

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In another study on the positive effects of video games, it was found that playing video games could help increase teenagers attention span, ambition, perseverance, and ability to solve problems as well as work better with others (Adachi &Willoughby, 2013). An interesting find was the researchers of this study in another study a few years before had found that the reason there was a link between violent video games and aggression was mainly due to the competition in violent games as opposed to the violent content (Adachi &Willoughby, 2011). Another study of American teenagers found that teens that played video games were more connected with their families, more interested in school, participated in more activities, and had a higher state of psychological well-being than peers that didnt play video games (Durkin & Barber, 2002). They also had a better self-image than teens that didnt play video games (Durkin & Barber, 2002). A study in Singapore found that playing prosocial video games was connected with altruism, working with others, and compassion (Adachi & Willoughby, 2013). The most relevant study to my research problem was about whether playing relaxing video games could decrease aggression and increase prosocial behavior (Whitaker & Bushman, 2012). This was the first study to use relaxing video games as opposed to violent or prosocial games (Whitaker & Bushman, 2012). The experiments conducted were used to assess the effect relaxing video games would have on social behavior and mood (Whitaker & Bushman, 2012). It was found that playing relaxing video games tended to put people in a better mood, which would cause them to act in more prosocial ways (Whitaker & Bushman, 2012). In conclusion, all of the studies reviewed found that video games that were violent with negative themes caused an increase in aggression as well as a decrease in prosocial behavior while the video games that were positive and prosocial caused a decrease in aggression and an increase in helpful behaviors. My research study will further the last study reviewed about the

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potential positive effects of relaxing video games by using children instead of college students as participants. Violent, negative video games will be used as my comparison group, and a pretest and post test on mood will be given to evaluate potential changes in mood caused by either the violent or relaxing video game.

Method Participants 50 male and female elementary and middle-school students aged 8-12 will participate in this study. The children picked for the study will be determined by their willingness to participate and by random sampling. They will be told that the study is examining the different effects playing hand-held or monitor console games has on thoughts people have. This will be to make sure the results of the study wont be skewed by the participants knowing what Im looking for. They will be given bonus points in their science class for participating in the experiment. Their rights will be protected by IRB by having their guardian as well as themselves sign a form that they wish to participate before the testing date. Procedure After the children are chosen by random sampling and arrive at the testing site they will be asked to rate their mood on the Larry Senn Mood Elevator (Senn, 2012). They will then be asked to take the Buss and Perry aggression questionnaire (Saleem, Anderson & Gentile, 2012). Then they will be randomly assigned to play either a positive/relaxing, neutral, or violent video game for 20 minutes. After they complete their game they will be asked to rate their mood once

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again on the Larry Senn Mood Elevator to see if their mood changed and if so in what way (Senn, 2012). After this they will be asked to complete three story stems: Your Classmate Destroys Your Project on Accident, You Spill Milk at the Dinner Table, and Your Parents Tell You They Have A Surprise For You When You Return From School (Bretherton, Cassidy & Ridgeway, 1990). They will be asked what happens next after reading each story stem (Hasan, Begue, Scharkow & Bushman, 2013). They will also be asked to list ten things the main character will do, think, say or feel as the story goes on (Hasan, Begue, Scharkow & Bushman, 2013).

Data Analysis The pretest will consist of two measurements. The mood on the mood elevator will be scored numerically with curious being scored 0 and above curious being scored in increments of positive one. Below curious will be scored in increments of negative one. The other pretest will be the aggression questionnaire. Each question will be scored on a scale from 1-5 where 5 is aggression and 1 is non-aggression. The scores will then be totaled. A score of 58 or less will be low aggression. A score of 116 or above will be high aggression. A score between 58 and 116 will be medium aggression. In the post-test the child will be given the mood elevator again which will be scored the same way as the pre-test. The score from the pre-test will be compared to the post-test to see if theres been a change. Each story stem response will be rated as either prosocial, neutral, or aggressive. The childs overall score for the story stems will be determined by the highest number of responses from the three categories of prosocial, neutral, or aggressive. In order to determine what kind of effect the video game had on the child, their responses from before the

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playing of the video game will be compared to their responses from after playing to see if their mood improved, decreased, or stayed the same. The category they fall under for the aggression questionnaire and story stem responses will then be compared to both their pre-test mood evaluation and their post-test mood evaluation to test for validity. To conclude, as this would only be the second study about how positive, relaxing video games affect people, many more future studies could be conducted on the topic. There are many avenues open to future researchers such as studying the purely psychological effects on people from playing such games. Another study could be done on the messages being conveyed through positive, relaxing video games. More studies could be done on children like this study or on adults and how such games affect them mentally and physically.

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