Product Description: Violent video games are successfully marketed to and easily obtained by children and adolescents. Even the U.S. government distributes one such game, America's Army, through both the internet and its recruiting offices. Is there any scientific evidence to support the claims that violent games contribute to aggressive and violent behavior? Anderson, Gentile, and Buckley first present an overview of empirical research on the effects of violent video games, and then add to this literature three new studies that fill the most important gaps. They update the traditional General Aggression Model to focus on both developmental processes and how media-violence exposure can increase the likelihood of aggressive and violent behavior in both short- and long-term contexts. Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents also reviews the history of these games' explosive growth, and explores the public policy options for controlling their distribution. Anderson et al. describe the reaction of the games industry to scientific findings that exposure to violent video games and other forms of media violence constitutes a significant risk factor for later aggressive and violent behavior. They argue that society should begin a more productive debate about whether to reduce the high rates of exposure to media violence, and delineate the public policy options that are likely be most effective. As the first book to unite empirical research on and public policy options for violent video games, Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents will be an invaluable resource for student and professional researchers in social and developmental psychology and media studies.
The debate is over? Really? I tend to suspect a bias when a researcher claims the debate is over. The authors of this book make this claim in their introduction: "Nevertheless, the scientific debate about whether exposure to media violence causes increases in aggressive behavior is over and should have been over 30 years ago."
After reading this book, one should also read "Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do" by Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson.
Opinion FTL It's interesting when reading about how video games influence violent behavior. It's like reading up on studies about ESP, they are interesting to read about but very clearly flawed in many ways. Putting aside the fact that many of the studies presented in this book lack the basic requirements of an acceptable study (Double-Blind Experiments with no room for observer bias) In the end this book presents generic ideas that can be changed slightly to apply to anything. Video games desensitize children to violence and promote aggressive behavior. Competitive sports desensitize children to having fun and increase likelihood of back-stabbing and double-crossing to get ahead and win.
Nonetheless this topic brings to mind the subject of angry, ignorant parents who will no doubt eat this up like another garbage-filled episode of Dr. Phil. To those parents I say this. Don't want your kids to play violent video games? Fine, don't buy it for them. There are ESRB ratings for a reason. Don't know what ESRB ratings are? Big surprise, hence making you an ignorant, angry parent. Let's forget the fact that all video game systems have parental controls on them and that each video game sold has a rating on it that states if there is any mature material on there, let's just focus on vague correlations that say that kids who play video games are more prone to aggressive behavior. Hey while we're lying to ourselves we might as well believe that we're actually in IRaq to spread democracy. Let the good times roll.
Great book....Good seller....Really fast delivery too!!! Great book for all of you who are interested in Video game violence. I am in Graduate School studying video game violence and am using this great book for my thesis. It is very up to date, and a lot more reliable, in a topic/genre with a lot of unrealiable sources.
I got the book faster than I thought I would, about a week early!!!
Everyone's An Expert It seems like everyone's an expert on this topic lately. And frankly, I, as both a gamer and a game developer, am sick of it. For every so-called study that concludes games and media are a direct influence on violent behavior, three more clinical studies conclude just the opposite. Read this book if you like, it's an interesting look at another person's view (I'm not using the word "opinion," since the authors try to remain fairly neutral while presenting as much material as possible). Quite a few studies are cited, although several of them were not in controlled environments. The fact of the matter is, it's very difficult to rule one way or another. Violent behavior is a result of many factors; often genetics, parental attention, environmental stimulus, internal psychology and sometimes pathology, and an infinite number of other variables. The authors present this idea as well, and they do it better than some other politically minded "ban violent videgames" type books. The truth is, as the authors have written, digital media is only one factor that needs to be monitored by parents, where the responsibility should ultimately lie. Certain age groups should not be exposed to certain stimulus, least of all without proper guidance, which many parents seem to ignore. All in all, this is a decent book. Much better than several others, and better than listening to Hillary Clinton's and Jack Thomson's accusations and generalizations. My personal feelings obviously color this review, but don't let it color your opinion of the book: it is actually pretty good for a topic where there is as much misinformation as information. Read it, do some of your own research, and form your own opinions. And most importantly, pay attention to ratings on all media. They exist for a purpose.
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Trevor
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