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Yesika Zelaya
Ms. Jennings
English 111 Section I
14 May 2014
Who is Accountable for a Childs Aggressive Behavior: Violent Video Games or Wrong
Parenting?
There is evidence that violent imagery has an effect on thoughts and emotions,
increasing the likelihood of aggressive or fearful behavior (Browne & Hamilton-Giachritsis,
2005). Many people say that children are like a sponge, this is because they absorb quickly from
their environment. That is why violent video games have influence on them later in life. It is
really violent video games fault that children are violent. Psychologist like Albert Bandura would
agree, but others, such as Lev Vygotsky would disagree and there are also psychologists like B F
Skinner that believe video games have a partial influence on children. According to these
psychologists violent behavior is not only the influence by video games, but also by the parent.
First, look at Lev Vygotskys, a Russian psychologist, point of view in the zone of
proximal development. In order for someone to learn a behavior, such as violent behavior, they
must have been trained by a more skill partner (Hakkarainen & Bredikyte, 2008). There is the B.
F. Skinner, probably the most famous American psychologist, had a long, distinguished career at
Harvard University and a huge impact on approaches to behavior change. He believes in Operant
Conditioning, in which the childs behavior becomes either more or less depending on the
consequences that produce (Galassi & Perot, 1992). On the other hand, Stanford psychologist
Albert Bandura states that behavior is learned from the environment through the process of
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behavioral learning. In other words the child learns by observing the behavior of other people,
called modes (Bandura, 2002).
Furthermore, are video games responsible for the childs violent behavior? Vygotsky says
no, the parent would have to teach, or give the child instructions, how to become violent or
aggressive (Hakkarainen & Bredikyte, 2008). According to him, the parent would have to take
time to enforce the behavior in order for the child to be violent. Also, he believes in the tools of
thought, in which the parents give the child the right tools to learn something. This can be
applied to violent behavior because a child does not bear with them have to learn it from their
environment.
To some degree Vygotsky agrees that video games have a minimum influence on the
child behavior because the parents are the ones who buy the video game that are violent. He says
that the parents are the responsible ones for their childs behavior. Likewise, Skinner would
agree to this. Skinner says that if the child starts to become aggressive the behavior has to have a
consequence in order to stop the behavior. A consequence is referring to a punishment for the
child. He explains that the operant conditioning works best when the punishment comes right
after the offense.
Despites of Vygotsky perspective, there is Bandura who strongly agrees that violent
video games can affect greatly on a childs behavior. Bandura states that by imitating other
people, children can learn how to use the computer, tackle math problem, as well as how to
swear, being aggressive, and smoke (Bandura, 2002). Skinner approves with bandura that
children learn from their environment, in this case video games. In Banduras point of view
parents are not held responsible for the childs behavior. Video games on the other hand, are
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because they are violent. Most of the children that play video games spend more than five hours
a day, so video games have a great influence on their behavior.
In a classical experiment, conducted by Bandura, he had a nursery school children watch
as a short video. The video was about an adult (the model) attack an inflatable Bobo doll.
The adult was kicking it, throwing rubber balls at it, and getting on top of the Bobo doll and
punching it while shouting Bang, bang, bang. After the video ended, the children were
observed in a room with the Bobo doll and they imitated the aggressive acts of their model
(Bandura, 2002). This proves that the children learned their violent behavior from the video
games because they copy what they see in the video games.
Moreover, B. F. Skinner operant conditioning theory gives priority to the role of
environment in controlling the behavior (Galassi & Perot, 1992). In other word the parents are
accountable for the behavior. On the contrary, Bandura agrees that the violent video games
influence more the childs behavior. Skinners idea is that if the child does anything that is
aggressive or violent, the parents have to enforce a consequence. So the child can stop the
behavior with the punishment. For better results, the parent would have to punish immediately
after the incident and they would have to be constant. He believes that children cut down
behaviors that have undesirable consequences.
Three great scientists, Vygotsky Bandura and Skinner, made learning theories for
everyone to understand violent behavior in children. Vygotsky is certain that the parent have to
teach the child the behavior. Skinner thinks that that parent has to punish the child so they would
stop the behavior. However, Bandura proposes that children imitate, or learn a behavior, through
what they see in violent video games. First, parent should not buy violent video games and make
sure that are age appropriate. Second, if the child is showing behavior of violence or
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aggressiveness they should be punished immediately. Finally, parents should teach children how
to behave. With that said, changing, preventing or stopping a childs behavior it is easy, by
uniting the three theories.
















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Works Cited
Bandura, Albert. "Social Cognitive Theory In Cultural Context." Applied Psychology: An
International Review 51.2 (2002): 269. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 May 2014.

In this article, Bandura describes his theory in social cognitive. His objective is to explain
the observational in which the individual learns through observing other. It is how
children learn their behaviors by observing their environment. Also, it is about an
experiment were children who watch a video of an adult that was attacking a Bobo doll.
The children when left alone with the Bobo doll and they imitated what they saw. Albert
bandura created the social cognitive theory. Also, he is on the faculty at Stanford
University. His two most famous works are: the Bobo doll experiment and he received a
Career Achievement award at the University of Michigan. I will use this to show how
video games can have bad effects on childrens behavior.

Browne, Kevin D., and Catherine Hamilton-Giachritsis. "The Influence Of Violent Media On
Children And Adolescents: A Public-Health Approach." Lancet 365.9460 (2005): 702-
710. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 May 2014.
Galassi, J.P., and A.R. Perot. "What You Should Know About Behavioral Assessment." Journal
Of Counseling & Development 70.5 (1992): 624. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12
May 2014.
This is about operant condition. Operant conditioning consists of how the environment,
the parents, can control their childs behavior. The author explores how B. F. Skinner
explains that in order for the child to stop a behavior the parent would have to punish
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them. In other word, if the child behaves badly he/she would have to receive a negative
consequence for their actions. This is a creditable source because he includes the list of
the references. He was fifty plus references. He has written many other articles, listed in
the references. I will use this article to agree with Vygotskys theory. They agree that the
parent have more influence on the childs violent behavior than video games.

Hakkarainen, Pentti, and Milda Bredikyte. "The Zone Of Proximal Development In Play And
Learning. (English)." Cultural-Historical Psychology 4 (2008): 2-11. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 12 May 2014.
This article is about Vygotskys zone of proximal development. The zone of proximal
development involves of the parent teaching the child. It is when the learner
accomplishes tasks with the instructions of a more skill model. Children learn when the
model, parents, gives structured help to the child until the child can do it by his/her own.
The article was written by Pentti Hakkarainen, Ph. D. in Educational Sciences, professor
at Kajaani University Consortium, vice dean at University of Oulu. Also, by Mlda
Bredikyte, Ph. D. in Educology, assistant at Kajaani University Consortium, University
of Oulu. I am using this source to disagree with Bandura because Vygotsky believes the
parents would have to teach children violent behavior in order for them to act that way.

Violent video games and young people. Harvard Mental Health Letter [serial online]. October
2010;27(4):1-3. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed
May 12, 2014.