Violent Video Games: Bad? Or Really Bad?

Abstract

The main focus of this paper is to talk about violent video games and how they cause bad behavioral effects and aggression in children and teens. There will be a brief but fairly descriptive view on the history of video games from when the first known video game came out. The way video games have advanced greatly since the first game will also be talked about and what other games came out that affected the gaming industry in a positive way. Since the main focus is on violent video games it will be argued throughout the essay how violent video games are to blame for many things such as the tragedies that happened in the 90’s involving school shootings. Reviews from other people will also be included when talking about the controversial discussion that the first violent video game caused and how the public highly disliked it. The psychological role in this topic will be briefly explained as well. A big part of this essay will include the statistics taken in 2015 on how many people played video games and the studies that were done to prove that violent video games do result in bad behavior and aggression. This essay will conclude with how parents and others can help to reduce the amount of children and teens that play violent video games and how we need to make a better world for the future generation.

CCBY Jared Lindsay https://flic.kr/p/6HYM7u

Video games have been around for many years. People around the world have engaged with them since the time they came out and are still even playing them today. Out of the many different genres of video games, the one that brings up the most discussion are the violent ones. There has been an ongoing debate for years about whether or not violent video games cause bad behavioral effects and aggression. There is no number on how many different games include shooting, killing, and/or fighting. As a very popular game genre, it is very normal to think that it is a bad influence on innocent viewers and players. With the addictiveness that it brings and the amount of hours put into some violent graphics it isn’t hard to think that manipulative people, mostly children and teens, mimic these type of actions and aggressive behaviors. People who are around this fighting and violence are a lot more susceptive to act like that in the real world, away from the video game world where it would be acceptable to act in such a way. Bad behavior and aggression in children and teens is common to acquire when they play violent video games. There must be something done before it starts to affect the future generation for our world.

The world of video games include many different genres. Adventure games are one kind of genre that is out there (GamePeople, 2006). This type of game involves tactics and strategy skills to conquer the levels (GamePeople, 2006). Fighting games are another genre that requires a lot of physical combat and for the person playing to have a lot of control over the virtual character they are playing as (GamePeople, 2006). Racing is a driving style game where players race in either a fantastical arcade game or a very realistic aspect of driving (GamePeople, 2006). The rhythm and action category includes a lot of movement with either dancing, playing an instrument, or even singing (GamePeople, 2006). Another type of game genre that involves violence and combat is the shooter category. The players are expected to conquer each level by shooting their way out and defeating their opponent with fighting based tactics (GamePeople, 2006).

Out of the many different genres of video games there are in this world the ones that should be mostly focused on and paid attention to are the violent games. The reason that it is the violent video games instead of any other ones is because they involve a lot of virtual action with use of illegal weapons, killing, combat and it even makes the player feel like they are in control of everything (Gimpel, 2013). When you compare this to the other genres you see a very drastic change in the way they are played and how they make the player feel. For example, if you win at a racing game you feel joy and excitement for beating your opponents in the race but if you win in a fighting game by killing off your opponents you would feel a sense of empowerment because you won by killing.

CCBY Aslm Saeed https://flic.kr/p/eagi6f

The topic of concern here is how violent video games affect children and teens’ behavior by playing them. This topic is important to me for various reasons. The major one is because psychology plays a huge role in this which would be interesting to know for my major in psychology. Another reason is for me to know the effects of violent video games so that I am well aware of what can happen if I play them or even when my friends, family members or when my future kids want to engage with it. Lots of research has been done to prove that children and teens’ behavior change when they play these violent games but knowing other information like the history of video games and the ratings of them are important too.

Video games go back quite some time. The first video game was invented in 1958 at the Brookhaven National Laboratory located in Upton, New York (Kudler, 2000-2016). This video game was invented by physicist Willy Higinbotham (Kudler, 2000-2016). He created a table tennis game which involved two players who would turn a knob to adjust the ball’s angle and push a button to hit the ball towards the other player (APS News, 2016). As more and more people played this game it got so popular that there would be long lines of people waiting their turn to play (APS News, 2016). This game later became known as Tennis for Two and is thought to be the first video game invention ever (APS News, 2016). Video games have come a long way since then.

From the time when the Tennis for Two game came out, video games have greatly advanced. The first arcade game Computer Space came out in 1971 which the public said “it was too difficult to play.” Tetris was a very famous game that we still sometimes hear of today. It first came out in 1985 by Alex Pajitnov a Russian programmer. This game got a rating of 4.5/5 stars and some people said they “have been playing Tetris for over 20 years without regrets of buying it.” Pac Man, a favored video game by the public back then, sold over 300,000 units worldwide by Namco in 1980. The reviews this game got were unbelievable. Most said that this game was highly addictive and “it is certainly in the top 5.” Others even said “the graphics and gameplay were simply excellent.” The more video games advanced each year around the world the more people bought them. By looking at the reviews from these games, it seems that most, if not all, people enjoyed them. Not only did the gaming industry advance by coming out with new games every couple of years, but they also started came out with gaming consoles that made the gaming industry even more money.

CCBY Ama In Washington https://flic.kr/p/5bqJT7

Odyssey was the first home video game system that came out in 1972. This gaming console was a huge invention because it was the first home video game system that allowed people to play video games from the comfort of their own homes rather than going to an arcade. After this invention many other gaming consoles and devices originated and caught the public’s attention fast. A very popular console that we all know called the Play Station became a huge hit in 1995 where every console was sold for $299 each. It became known that the “play station is considered by many in the industry as most popular game console as the 20 millionth unit is sold.” This showed how much attention the gaming industry got and how popular it became since the Tennis for Two game came out. The invention of the multiple gaming consoles that have originated are a big reason for how many more people were getting into video games because they had the option of owning their own console and playing right from their homes. This was a good thing for the gaming industry because of how much money it made them but it also encountered some problems.

It wasn’t until the first violent video game outbreak that people started getting concerned. In 1976 a game that caused a lot of controversial discussion was Death Race. The way to win at this game is by running over as many gremlins as you can while having a limited time to do so. This game was not like the other games because this contained violent action and minor killing when the player had to run over the gremlins. The reason people got so upset over this game is because every time someone got hit they would hear an ‘ahhhk’ sound and a gravestone would pop up. This was one of the least favored games by the public and caused it to be taken off the market eventually. Another game that caused some controversy was Night Trap which was banned in 1993. The public spoke of this game as “shameful”, “ultra-violent”, “sick”, and “disgusting” because the main goal of this game was to save the women from harm but it caused the players to trap and kill them. Comparing the reviews from these violent video games to the non-violent ones there is clearly a huge difference. The comparison shows how badly the public reacted to the violent action in the games and how much attention should be paid to do something about it.

The major reason for people being so into video games is because of how addicting it is. There are five main factors that make a video game addicting. The first one is high score. When a game has a high score it is easy to get hooked on it because you will want to keep playing until you beat your high score. Some may even decide to keep going from there which can result in the player playing the game for hours in one day. Beating the game is the second factor. A game that has a certain amount of levels or tasks for you to complete until the final one is a great example. This will make the player potentially want to keep playing until they have gotten through every level possible and finally beat the game. The third factor is role-playing where the person plays as a character in their game and eventually forms some type of emotional attachment to them which makes it harder to stop playing. The discovery factor can be very compelling to a player when they discover a new world like in World of Warcraft. The final factor that makes a video game so addicting are the relationships they form when playing with other players online. Video games are a big hit because of the way it engages the people playing them and how it makes them feel. Anyone, even myself, can truthfully say that winning, whether it’d be in a sport, contest or in this case a video game, is always a rewarding feeling. It makes the winner feel like they have accomplished a goal and leaves them with feeling very satisfied about themselves.

CCBY KROCKY MESHKIN https://flic.kr/p/kHmtZ3

There are a lot of people in this world that play video games a lot. To be more specific roughly 155 million Americans played video games in 2015 (ESA, 2015). Statistics taken in 2015 show that out of the 155 million Americans, 56% are male and 44% are female players (ESA, 2015). Apart from the gender statistics there are also the age differential statistics. With the ages of 18 and under, there are 26% that play video games (ESA, 2015). The percentage of ages 18-35 years old is 30%, 38-49 years old is 17% and ages 50 and over is 27% (ESA, 2015). Knowing the statistics of how much people play video games is important because it allows us to see who is playing them more. The highest percentage in the age groups are ages 18-35. The ages of 18 and under and 50 and over are in the next top two percentages of people playing video games. This means that people in these age groups are engaging in video games more than the other age groups and therefore that would show where the focus age of the problem is in. Age is very important to know because when a game rating is questioned, only certain games are appropriate for certain ages which some people do not take into consideration.

In order to decide which ages can play which games there must be a rating system. In 1994 the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) was created. The Entertainment Software Association established this rating system to assign age and content rating to any games. This system is voluntary for games to approve of getting rated but most of them do rate their games because retail stores did not approve of selling games without a rating. The ratings by the ESRB are E, E10+, T and M (ESA, 2015). The E rating stands for everyone which means that anyone can play it (ESA, 2015). The rating E10+ stands for everyone 10 years of age and older that can play that game (ESA, 2015). The T rating stands for teens which are ages 13 and up (ESA, 2015). The M rating stands for mature which means only adults can play which are the ages of 17 and older (ESA, 2015). The ratings are important to know about when deciding who can play certain video games based on their age. Having the ESRB ratings helped a lot because it was able to inform the public of which games were appropriate for children and teens to play. However, there were even bigger problems that struck in America and violent video games were to blame for it.

The violent video game industry got off to a pretty bad start when there was controversial discussions on it and when some of the games had to be banned because of the public complaining about them. Since then, video games continued to advance and be played by the public because there were a lot of people that still enjoyed them while others did not. No attention was being paid about the bad behavior that gamers were acquiring, especially teens and early adolescents, until a terrible tragedy outbreak. In Paducah, Kentucky at Heath High School in December of 1997, Michael Carneal, fourteen years of age, killed three students at his school and harmed five (Gimpel, 2013). On March 14, 1998 at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas Mitchell Johnson, age 13, and his cousin Andrew Golden, age 11, killed five people and injured ten (Gimpel, 2013). In the same year on May 20 and 21 Kipland Kinkel, age 15, killed both of his parents in Springfield, Oregon (Gimpel, 2013). He then went to Thurston High School where he killed two people and harmed 22 (Gimpel, 2013). The common characteristics that all of these tragedies share are the games that each child engaged with.

CCBY Merrlll College of Journalism’s Press Releases https://flic.kr/p/8BdEgr

It was found that each of these three cases were connected with the teens and children all being violent video game fanatics. Michael Carneal enjoyed playing Quake, Doom and Redneck Rampage which involves the player to shoot and kill (Gimpel, 2013). Mitchell Johnson was a fan of the game Mortal Kombat where the goal of the game is for players’ virtual characters to “fight to the death.” Kipland Kinkel liked to play Doom where the player must shoot a gun at the monsters and villains (Gimpel, 2013). The outbreak of these tragedies raised major awareness and concern because of how violent these actions were and how young the children were that committed these crimes.  This alerted not only the children and teens’ families but it also alerted the media, the newspapers and President Bill Clinton.

After the various and consecutive killings and harmful events, the concern for whether violent video games were to blame caused a huge debate. The Rocky Mountain News published an online story stating that the killers in the school shootings always engaged in violent games (Gimpel, 2013). United States President Bill Clinton at the time spoke to the media about the link between violent behavior and violent video games (Gimpel, 2013). He also mentioned a psychologist named David Grossman who stated that “video games teach children to kill like military training programs do” (Gimpel, 2013). Bill Clinton also advised parents in America to refrain from buying their children violent games and asked if the media could decrease the amount of violence action in movies, TV and even video games (Gimpel, 2013). This was one way of making everyone realize what the violent media is causing and is giving them an option to do something to stop the violent crimes happening in the world due to video games. However, there were still other problems to handle. Not only did the outbreak of killings and school shootings occur but there were also problems that other people were still encountering like bad behavioral effects and aggression.

A study done at Iowa State University involved researchers to pay attention to the way children acted after playing violent video games. They found that children who play video games at a young age are learning thought patterns that will continue to stick with them as they get older. According to the researchers “over time children start to think more aggressively.” Children also will react the way that they do in a video game when they are in a situation of being provoked. This means that if the child hits something in a video game when they get mad, chances are that they will make that same action in a real-life situation. Knowing this information, the researchers then did a study involving different age groups that played video games and recorded their behaviors.

The study used over 3,000 children to gather information which took over the course of three years. The children were between the grades of third, fourth, seventh and eighth. During the time of this study researchers recorded the amount of time the children would play the video games, the violent content in the game they were playing and how the child’s behavior would change. The results were that the boys’ ended up being more physically aggressive and spent more time playing the violent games than girls did but both genders showed the same behaviors. The researchers stated “gender and age really don’t affect this relationship between video game play, aggressive thinking and aggressive behavior.”

CCBY Jon Worth https://flic.kr/p/jNZNp

Another study used 161 participants between the ages of 9-12 and also used 354 college students (Anderson, Gentile, Buckely, 2007). Each participant in this study was either assigned to play a violent or nonviolent game (Anderson, et al., 2007). There was also information gathered about the participants themselves like what their game, television and movie habits were and also their recent history of violent behavior (Anderson, et al., 2007). The results from this study were just about what the researchers expected. They found that “the participants who played a violent game punished their opponents with significantly more high-noise blasts than those who played the nonviolent video games” (Anderson, et al., 2007).

A third study was done to focus on the General Aggression Model. The researchers gave out surveys to 189 high school students and the surveys included “measures of (1) violent TV, movie and video game exposure, (2) attitudes towards violence, (3) personality trait hostility, (4) personality trait forgiveness, (5)beliefs about how normal violence is, and (6) their frequency of various verbally and physically aggressive behaviors” (Anderson, et al., 2007). The researchers found that adolescents who engage more into violent games do show “more pro-violent attitudes, have more hostile personalities, are less forgiving, believe violence to be more typical, and behave more aggressively in their everyday lives” (Anderson, et al., 2007). They also found that violent video games were somewhat a cause of physical aggressive behavior and also violent behavior (Anderson, et al., 2007).

Lots of research has been done to determine whether or not violent video games are the cause of bad behavior and aggression. Looking back at the results from all three of the studies done they were all pretty similar. The study done in Iowa state concluded that although the boys did show more physical aggression and played violent video games more than the girls did the gender did not matter because both behaviors were the same from playing the games. The second study concluded that the participants who played the violent games punished their opponents in a cruel way compared to the other participants who played the nonviolent games. The third study concluded that the participants who also played the violent games showed behaviors of being less forgiving, hostility, violent acts, and were more aggressive in their everyday lives. These results prove how serious these effects are and they can just become even worse if the affected people don’t seek some sort of help.

Luckily there is a lot of help options out there for people to get when they are experiencing these behaviors. That is where psychology comes into the picture. As a psychology major I know that the job of the psychologist is to analyze and record the behavior of a patient they are treating. The psychologist would see what behaviors the person shows, write them down on a piece of paper and then at the end of the session they would analyze it and get the result. The result would be what disorder the person is experiencing and then the psychologist would give the patient treatment options such as behavioral therapies, psychoanalytical and psychodynamic therapies, humanistic therapies and arts therapies. In the case of violent video games causing bad behavior and aggression the person would most likely get the behavioral therapy because it focuses on cognitions and behaviors. The psychologist plays a huge role in this topic of violent video game effects because they are the people who can help prevent further problems down the road and help treat the problems that children and teens are facing now. Not only can the psychologists do something to help this problem but the parents can too.

CCBY Ian Turk https://flic.kr/p/CyCKpq

Believe it or not, parents are a huge factor when it comes to children and teens playing a certain video game because the parent always must approve of it first. Some parents will allow their child to play any game without knowing the content of the game and other parents will not allow their kid to play any games they do not approve of because of how inappropriate it is. In an article by Dr. Phill called Parenting he gives some great tips and advice on what parents should do when allowing their children to play a certain game they’re unsure of. The first tip he gives is that parents should always first check the rating of the game to make sure it is in their child’s age range. They should also monitor the way their child acts after playing a game that may be too violent or inappropriate for them so they can decide whether or not to let them keep playing it. Communicating with other parents is also is a good idea so they can give you their own feedback. Having the parents play the game with their child is another great tip because it will allow them to see how the game is played and also see how their child acts when playing it. If these precautions are taken before allowing children and teens to engage with certain video games it can be sure to decrease the amount of aggressive and violent behaviors they acquire when they do play violent video games.

The reason others should be interested in this topic of concern is because this is something to be worried about for the future of our kids. If more people have knowledge about how they can affect your behavior then they will be sure to do something to avoid that. They can also advise people who do play violent video games about the bad side effects that comes with playing it so they can tell them to stop before it gets worse. The more people that are aware of this important topic the more that can be done to prevent problems further down the road that some people are already facing today. Violent video games are a problem and will only get worse if it is not brought up in a concerning topic of discussion.

While video games keep advancing, children and teens will continue to play the new games that come out each year. Although there are ratings to help with allowing certain children and teens to play certain games, that is still not enough to prevent the behavioral effects and aggression that they keep acquiring. Parents need to step up and control exactly what they are letting their child watch and play. Others must be informed of this topic so they can also be aware of how harming these violent video games are. With the proof of the many studies done in the past there is no doubt that violent video games are to blame for the tragedies that have happened and for the effects children and teens are acquiring from playing these games. Informing others about this topic can do more good than bad. The next step to solving this problem is to decrease the amount of harm that violent video games are causing and to increase a better future for the next generation.

CCBY JackBrookes https://flic.kr/p/rvB5e8

References

Anderson, C. A., Gentile, D. A., & Buckley, K. E. (2007). Violent video game effects on children and adolescents: Theory, research, and public policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

APS News. (2016). This Month in Physics History. Retrieved May 2, 2016, from https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200810/physicshistory.cfm

A Timeline of Video Game Controversies. (2010, October 31). Retrieved May 2, 2016, from http://ncac.org/resource/a-timeline-of-video-game-controversies

Dr. Phil. (2015). Parenting. Children and Violent Video Games. Retrieved May 3, 2016, from http://www.drphil.com/articles/article/297/

ESA. (2015). 2015. 2015 Sales, Demographic and Usage Data, 5(1), 12-13. Retrieved May 5, 2016, from http://www.theesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ESA-Essential-Facts-2015.pdf

GamePeople. (2006). Video Game Genres. Retrieved May 2, 2016, from http://www.gamepeople.co.uk/genres.htm

Gimpel, D. M. (2013). Violence in video games. Minneapolis, MN: ABDO Publishing Company.

Iartronic, & Gangstahippie. (2006). Pac-Man. Retrieved May 2, 2016, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0260264/reviews

Iowa State Researchers. (2014). Life lessons: Children learn aggressive ways of thinking and behaving from violent video games. Retrieved May 2, 2016, from http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2014/03/24/violentgamesbehavior

Kickinthehead. (2011). Tetris. Retrieved May 2, 2016, from http://www.giantbomb.com/tetris/3030-1896/user-reviews/

Kudler, A. (2000-2016). Timeline: Video Games. Retrieved May 2, 2016, from http://www.infoplease.com/spot/gamestimeline1.html

Memiah Limited. (2016). Types of Therapy. Retrieved May 2, 2016, from http://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/counselling.html

Video Game Addiction. (n.d.). Retrieved May 2, 2016, from http://www.video-game-addiction.org/what-makes-games-addictive.html

Technology and Teaching

Technology is advancing more and more everyday in today’s world. There has been a lot of discussion on whether or not it should be used more in the classrooms and if teachers are even useful anymore because of technology taking over. The way that children interact with video games is being used to show how video games are not only useful for the fun of it. They are also useful in classrooms. The film Future Learning is a great example of showing how technology plays its role in the 21st century compared to teaching in the classrooms.

Growing up as a kid video games were not looked upon as a helpful learning tool. Since they have advanced greatly they have had a positive impact in today’s technological world. Not only has technology impacted the virtual world but it has also helped out a lot in schools and classrooms. Sugata Mitra said “If a child plays a video game they will keep trying to succeed even if it takes them 100 times to do so.” This goes to show that when children first encounter a video game their main goal is to win no matter how many tries it takes them. If teachers got a sense of how to make students turn their video game attempts into math problems attempts, for example, until they got it right then chances are children would enjoy learning it more.

Teaching has become more of struggle for students especially children. Their ability to be engaged and interested in a certain topic has become more difficult for them because they are not able to care enough to make it important enough for them to learn it. One of the main points from this video is whether or not technology is helping children in school. When children find out that they are going to play a game in class their reaction is full of excitement because they are looking forward to it. When the teacher announces that the class lesson for the day will be about the American Revolution for example, children most of the time groan at that because of how boring it sounds. It sounds boring to them because it means they are going to have to learn it. The excitement they feel about playing  game in class is because they are too focused on the game aspect and not the learning aspect. If teachers made it so that their lessons would involve some type of game oriented teaching then children would most likely be more focused on it.

Stress plays a big role in blocking your learning skills. “Learning happens when the mind is relaxed.” This quote means that learning is best when you are feeling at ease rather than stressed. When children find out that they will learn a new topic in school they become stressed because they being to think about having more material to focus on, having more homework build up, having more quizzes to take and with all of that they easily become less interested. Video games can be beneficial in this case because it helps the children be self motivated to solve a problem. They would play it over and over again until they got it right and this would benefit them by engaging them more into the material educationally.

This new era of virtual technology has brought up major concern about teaching in the classroom with the use of video games. The film Future Learning has inspired a new way to think about using technology in classrooms and how it could help children learn better and easier. How can children learn with stress and something they show absolutely no interest in when technology is a great way to help that situation? We need to change and adapt with technology to benefit the future of America.

The Must-Have Phone: The iPhone

Now-a-days phones are more of a necessity than just something that you want to have. Everywhere and anywhere you look almost everyone has a device. Cell phones have improved greatly since the time they were invented. Before even having touch screen phones, there used to be the old ordinary flip phones that everyone used to have. Once the first touch screen phone came out, more specifically the iPhone, it was a game changer for everyone.

I remember all of the different types of phones I used to have before I got my first iPhone. I had a flip phone, a slide up phone, a keyboard phone, you name it. But once I got my first iPhone, which was the iPhone 4, I was so amazed. It took me quite some time to get used to it because everything was so different on it from the way that my cell phones used to be. After spending a couple of days playing on my new iPhone I got the hang of how it worked and how to use it.

The first thing that caught my attention about this phone was its appearance. It was all glass and very shiny. I liked that because it made the phone look so much nicer and it caught my attention. The sleekness of the iPhone made it very attractive to me and the public. Not only did it look nice it also had the fastest and most productive system than the androids so almost everyone I knew was either buying the iPhone or already had it. This made it easier for me to get one because since a lot of others already it then it must be a good phone right?

Ever since I got the iPhone I have been hooked on it. The whole system is completely new and updated that it was amazing what it could do. The talking woman on the phone named Siri is was sold me to but it. I have Bought every iPhone that has come out because Apple has outdone themselves with every single one, from the  iPhone 4 , 5, and now the iPhone 6. Even now I know I will never buy another type of phone because I know they will always be my favorite and they will only advance and get better.

This phone has been such a great device for for the past 3 years that I have owned an iPhone. It works to maximum capacity, it does everything I need it to do like remind me of what I need to do like when to go to my doctors appointments and most importantly it has always woken me up on time after ringing on snooze every 10 minutes. If I didn’t have my iPhone my life would not be as easy as the phone makes it.

The iPhone is not just important to me but it is important to many others in the world. Everywhere I look almost all of the time I see people with an iPhone, even if it’s an outdated one. This tells me that not only do I think it’s a great device but so many others do too. It helps a lot with work, businesses, school or also just works as a regular phone without the specific reason for using it. Apple has greatly improved their cell phones and the rate of people buying an Apple phone has increased tremendously.

I will always recommend the iPhone to anyone who asks me and I know they will be beyond satisfied by the convenience and ease of these devices. What I will always tell people about Apple is that it is constantly coming up with new amazing ideas for the future and there will never be a dull moment in the up and coming of the iPhone world. Technology is advancing and iPhone’s are advancing. This is only the beginning of their work.

CCBY  Gonzalo Baeza   https://flic.kr/p/dCPzuE

 

My Research Topic

The topic of my research paper that I chose to do was how violent video games affect the behavior of children and teens. I am exploring the behavior that is brought upon children and teens who play violent video games and how their behavior changes compared to children and teens who do not play violent games. I chose to do this topic because if it is becoming a problem of behavior then this should really be discussed and brought up in conversation. Mostly parent should not allow their children at a young age to play these violent games if it is affecting their behavior badly because it might cause them to act very aggressive and violent. This is an important matter that should really be brought up because it can help with analyzing how children who play violent video games have different behaviors than those that don’t play them. The effects of violent video games are a lot more serious than you think.

https://flic.kr/p/57BqU9  CCBY  jpmatth

 

2 articles from library databases:

Sherry, John L. “The Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggression: A Meta-Analysis.” ERIC. U.S. Department of Education, 2001. Web.

Eastin, Matthew S. “- Video Game Violence and the Female Game Player: Self- and Opponent Gender Effects on Presence and Aggressive Thoughts.” ERIC. U.S. Department of Education, 2006. Web.

2 books ordered from interlibrary loan:

Gimpel, Diane Marczely. Violence in Video Games. N.p.: n.p., 2013. Print.

Kutner, Lawrence, and Cheryl K. Olson. Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth about Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008. Print.

1 article ordered from interlibrary loan:

Dr. Phil. “Dr. Phil: Children and Violent Video Games.” N.p., 2015. Web.

2 books to checkout from Lamson:

Anderson, Craig Alan, Douglas A. Gentile, and Katherine E. Buckley. Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.

Espejo, Roman. Video Games. San Diego: Greenhaven, 2003. Print.

2 websites:

“Violent Video Games – ProCon.org.” ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.

“Life Lessons: Children Learn Aggressive Ways of Thinking and Behaving from Violent Video Games.” RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.

2 relevant personal accounts on Twitter:

Video Game Violence @collegebound20

Video Games @violentgamers

2 relevant organizational accounts on Twitter:

Video Games/ News @VideoGameNews

Video Games @videogames

People I may interview on this topic:

-someone who works at a game store and knows about most of the games

-a hard core everyday gamer

 

What is a “Good” Research Paper Anyway?

Course objectives addressed: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 15

Even just thinking of the words research paper makes me cringe. I always dread writing any research paper because it’s very time consuming, a long process and I never know where to start. I always get slumped starting it because I don’t know where to begin. But even though I don’t enjoy writing research papers, doesn’t mean I never have. I have written many papers in my past and each time, I have learned something new. I started off by not having a clue of what to do, to learning new tricks along the way that has helped turn me into a better writer. I want to share with you my suggestions and advice on what actually makes a “good” research paper a good research paper.

The best place to start when writing that “good” research paper that you probably don’t care enough about, is your own interest on it. Alright, maybe you can’t even pick a topic that interests you at all but if you find one that stands out to you the most, then that is a start. Finding a topic that interests you will help to motivate you more when it comes to actually writing the whole paper because you will have more interest on it than if you picked a topic that you completely hated. Motivation is a big key in writing because once you get started, the only way from there is to finish it. This is a great first start because once you have your topic picked out, then you are ready to move onto the next step.

Picking out your resources would be the next thing to do. Resources are any type of source that you get your evidence from to support your information in your research paper. They can be websites, books, magazines, articles, encyclopedias, etc. It is always good to have factual information to back up your writing because it will attract more attention to the reader. If the reader sees that what you say is actually true because it has been cited in a source, then they will be likely to show more interest in your paper. Another reason picking out your sources is important is to have many options of where to get your information from. Most of the time, you can’t always find exactly what you’re looking for on just one website or book. Being able to have multiple resources will allow you to get more information on your topic and expand your writing.

Once you have chosen which resources you will use, you are ready to start your official outline. Most people think that outlines are a waste of time and not necessary, but has writing an outline ever hurt your writing? For me, outlines always helped improve my writing and thought process. Writing an outline is helpful because it allows you to jot down ideas that come to mind, make a layout of how you want to break up your long research paper and it also helps to know exactly what to look for in your resources. Personally, I love outlines because they are my savior in writing. I can’t ever think of a time where making an outline didn’t help improve my writing. This is a plan of what your paper will look like so take a advantage of using it because it does make everything a lot easier when it comes down to starting your paper.

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The introduction is the opening sentence of any paper. This is where you open up to your reader by telling them what you will be talking about and what you will be arguing. The way to get your reader interested in your writing is by starting out with an engaging and powerful introduction to grasp their attention. Always remember that you must have a thesis statement, which is an argument that you will be talking about throughout your whole paper. Reading something with a boring opening paragraph doesn’t make anyone want to read it or make them interested in it at all. An article I read about on the meaning of dreams had a great first sentence that caught my attention very fast. “Dreams can be terrifying, erotic, bizarre or even banal. But what are dreams to the human mind?” Reading this made me want to read on because of how informative and descriptive it was. There were many verbs used such as terrifying, erotic, bizarre and banal which always will attract your reader in. Also the second sentence asking about what dreams are to the human mind will definitely attract attention because it engages the reader by asking them a question to make them really think about it. With a great thesis statement, a good use of verbs and well planned out introduction, you will be sure to have an outstanding introduction to your paper.

Now comes the big part. The big outlay of your paper where all of the information you have spent hours on researching and outlining, comes together. This is called the body of the paper. This is pretty much the whole paper, just without the introduction or conclusion part, which I will talk about later. All of the information you have broken up into paragraphs in your outline gets written in the body paragraph. All of your evidence and facts that you have taken notes on gets explained. This is where you inform your reader of what it is that you researched and what you have gathered while you researched it. Make sure you back up anything and everything that isn’t your own idea with a citation because you have to give credit where credit is needed. Also, make sure your body paragraphs flow nicely and are flowing together so that the reader doesn’t lose track of they are reading. Don’t be afraid of being too informative or sounding kind of boring in your body paragraphs because this is the most informative part of the paper. Backing up your facts with evidence from your sources and your own ideas on it will make your reader believe it more and show more interest in your information.

You have reached the easiest part of the paper by now. You got through the introduction and the long never-ending body portion of the paper. Can you guess what’s next? It’s the closing part of the whole paper also known as the conclusion. This is the final part of the research paper where you wrap it all up and restate your thesis. “While it’s now well established that dreams may be important for memory and learning, the way we learn during different phases of sleep is less clear.” The article shows a great example of a conclusion sentence with a twist that leaves the reader wondering and wanting to find out more. It draws back to the thesis statement by saying that dreams are important for memory and learning which shows your reader what you proved and argued in your paper. It also has a great ending saying that more experiments still must be done on the different phases of sleep. Doing this will assure your reader of what they read in your paper is factual, how you argued your thesis statement throughout and leave them wanting to find out more.

After finally finishing your paper, you can’t forget to include your works cited page that includes a list of all of your resources. It is always important to have this page because it shows exactly where you got your information from so that whoever is grading it knows where to look. This will help with not being accused of plagiarism, which is very important, and will also show that you are giving credit on information that is not your own. If you don’t know how to make a works cited page, I recommend a website that has always helped me with my citations. The Purdue Owl website has been my life saver for every paper I have written. It not only walks you through the steps of what to do when citing your paper, but it even helps with everything else such as writing your actual paper in any format style.

Some extra advice I have is to always look over your work. Even though you are completely done with writing your paper, you never know what mistakes you have if you don’t check. My suggestion is to print out what you have, read it over a couple of times, and highlight your mistakes. This will help you catch any spelling errors, grammar errors, missed citations and reassures you that everything you wrote makes sense. Looking over my work in the past has always helped me because I ended up making more mistakes than I thought I had. Another helpful suggestion is to have someone peer edit your work. Asking a friend, relative or a teacher to read over your work for you always helps too because they may catch something you didn’t or they may suggest making a change you didn’t think of before. Once you have made all of the necessary corrections to your paper and are happy with what you have, you are ready to print out the final hard copy.

Congratulations! Now it is time to hand in your paper. You didn’t think you would ever get to this point did you? Well you did it! You are confident that you made sure everything made sense, everything was cited properly, you had it peer edited, and you are content with your final paper. Your long hard work has finally finished and now you can breathe because you finished that long, time consuming research paper that you’ve been dreading since day one.

I hope that my advice has given you some ways to help you while you write your research paper. From my own personal experience, I can truly say that using all of the steps and suggestions I made throughout this post has really helped me in the past. I know that no one likes research papers because they are extremely annoying to write, but hey there comes a time when we all have to write one. I remember when I had to write my first research paper and I was so scared because I had no idea what to do. As I wrote more and more papers, each time I acquired a new skill that I did to help me write it. I put all of my skills together and I was able to write an A+ material paper for many of my classes. I will continue to keep using these skills for my future papers that I will write and I hope that you too will use my guidelines when you write your next good research paper.

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The Big Debate About Marijuana

Everyone already knows that politics are the biggest debate out there today between the parties fighting about who should be elected for president and why. This is a topic that I would rather not get into mostly because I want to focus my attention on another matter. As most know, another big debate going on in today’s world is whether or not marijuana should be legalized in this country or not, and why. Both sides have good reasoning on why it should be legalized or why it shouldn’t but some don’t know what those reasons are. Personally, I am in favor of legalizing marijuana for various right reasons. The article Marijuana Legalization and Prohibition does a great job in explaining how our country would be affected if marijuana was legalized and how my views compare to the article.

The biggest reason I side for legalization of marijuana is for law enforcement officials to focus on bigger problems. The article states that almost half drug related arrests made each year are for marijuana based offenses. To me this shows that half of these offenses that could have been used to focus on bigger problems like stealing, vandalism, homicide murders, etc., were used for marijuana based problems. Marijuana is not nearly as harmful as other drugs like crack, cocaine, or heroine that have rates going up each year of overdoses and deaths. If you look to see marijuana rates of deaths and overdoses, it would be hard to find information of that because you hardly ever hear of it. My point here is, if marijuana were legalized, law enforcement officials wouldn’t focus on lurking the streets or being undercover to catch people using or distributing marijuana. Instead they would be able to focus on bigger problems such as heroin, cocaine, and other dangerous drugs that actually are known to have death and over dosage rates and are becoming a bigger problem each year.

The second reason is it will save money instead of wasting it. The more people get arrested for marijuana based offenses, the more court sessions there will have to be. This means that people will have to pay to get bailed at the law official’s expense, or to drop the charges. If marijuana were legal, then people wouldn’t get arrested and have to go to court to pay money for these reasons and can instead save it.

The article states different ways that legalization of marijuana will affect our country. The first one says it will create more jobs, which is true. Since marijuana is a crop, it can give job to people for the crop industry and it will also make money for the crop industry. I agree with this because instead of people illegally making money for distribution of marijuana and having to hide about selling it, it could be distributed legally through the crop industry and it can make this country a lot of money. Also, the money made won’t go to waste because the money that people make selling marijuana illegally now a days, are kept for themselves and they decide whatever they want to do with it. Legalizing marijuana will make an income for this country, and that income could be used for the right reasons instead of for the wrong.

The last but big reason the article focuses on is reducing harm for Latinos, Hispanics, and African Americans. The rate of use or distribution of marijuana between Latinos, Hispanics and African Americans are the same or very similar to Whites. There is a problem that needs to be focused about the racism law officials tend to have, although not all of them, on having higher rates of arresting Latinos, Hispanics and African Americans compared to how many white people are arrested. This is harmful to them because they are more vulnerable to be arrested than white people are which is wrong and most don’t even use or sell marijuana but they are still just as vulnerable as those who do. This means that the innocent people who are Latinos, Hispanics and African Americans and don’t use, sell or distribute marijuana are still more suspicious to law enforcement because of their race. It should be frowned upon because law officials should focus on white people selling and/or using marijuana just the same as anyone else of other races. Legalizing marijuana will be less harmful to those of other races because they wouldn’t have to worry about law officials being too hard on them and be able to go about their life feeling less intimidated.

I know there will always still continue to be controversy on the legalization of marijuana in this country, but after reading this article, it made me realize even more reasons why it should be legalized. It has so many positive effects and could bring good outcomes. Law officials would be able to focus more on bigger problems that this country has instead of spending half of their time arresting people for marijuana incidents rather than heroin or other drug related incidents. The bigger problems need to be looked into more instead of being so focused on marijuana all of the time. Marijuana isn’t the problem. But how many other problems are out there that are being avoided because of a marijuana arrest? Now that worries me. Which presidential candidate is in favor of legalizing marijuana and has a good outlook for it? Here is a great article that tells some of the candidates views on the legalization.

 

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College Stress and Psychology

Course objectives addressed: 5, 6, 7, 11

As if college weren’t already stressful enough, studies show that psychology plays a huge role in college stress levels in the article Stress in College Students. The article pointed out many obstacles of what usually all college students go through when they’re at school and how it affects them. I learned a lot more information that I didn’t know before. I agree on many points that were made in this article but I also think that further research and tests should be done about how to reduce or get of rid of the long term emotional stress problems.

College is a huge step that some people take in life, and it isn’t easy for everyone. Some learn to cope well with the big move better than others and some not so much. One of the big stressful parts is leaving your friends and family behind as you make your big move.  It does make it easier to have a friend from home or a family member close to you when you need them the most. From my own personal experience my first couple of weeks at school were the hardest ones yet. I had to get used to my surroundings, make new friends, and the homework load started right off the bat. I always wished to be able to just call one of my best friends to come over and vent to but I couldn’t because I was at school and so were they. This made things a little more difficult because I felt alone at times since I didn’t have someone to turn to while I was in school and still making friends, so it made me feel more homesick.

I was able to overcome missing my friends and family by communicating with them every once in a while and going home every couple of weeks to see them. It made me feel better and made the move into college easier because I knew they would still be there once I got back. This made me feel emotionally better and it compares to what the article says about how more stressful it is on a college student to be away from home because once I felt less stressed about it, I realized how stressed I was in the first place. This helped me cope with a lot of other stressful obstacles I faced as the semester went on, and overcome them.

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I agree on all of the points the article made about what stresses out a college students because I experienced every single one of those. It also talks about how in certain scenarios, the stress that students feel differ based on their race, surroundings, the season and whether their gay, bisexual, transgender or straight. This is a big point made in the article because it shows how some people get stressed out in a certain scenarios compared to others. My thoughts on this changed  lot because it showed me how some students really do struggle with something that I never imagined was stressful to someone. For some there is a way for them to overcome this emotional stress over time but for others, it is a long term feeling and causes problems for them down the road.

Most likely all universities have some form of therapy offices opened to student to use if they are in need of it. This helps with them over coming their stress because they get to talk about their problems with someone and can get help on it. Another way for students to seek help are counseling sessions within their community or school. A big way for students to get support from others is reaching out to their friends and family, which is someone they already trust and confide in. As stated in the article, these resources are known to make the emotional stress of the students slowly go away and become stress free which has been proven to be true. However, some still encounter problems down the road from stress and it is hard for them to overcome that, even with the help of these resources. I think that more research should be done to help the students who can’t overcome their stress for their own sanity because there has to be a way to help them. If more time was put into it, more tests and research were done, then it can be a possibility to find a way to treat long term stress for the students that need it. This way, it will be a positive outlook on life for the individual who is cured and no longer has to live a life with severe emotional problems.

 

My First College Experience

Learning outcomes: By doing this assignment I hope to catch any grammar mistakes and fix them on my own. Course objectives covered: 1, 2, 7

No one ever knows exactly how college is going to hit them. Sure, we all hear the rumors about how it’s different from high school, how it’s all on you, but that still doesn’t tell you how you’re going to feel once you’re there. Reading the article The First Year College Experience  made me relate to it as how my first year of being here at college is going. The article made some great points, expectations and told the truth about what most, if not all, people go through their first year as freshman in college.

College is definitely a big move for everyone. It’s a new place, new environment, and it’s almost like you have to start completely fresh again. You have to go out and make new friends, classes become a lot harder, and you have much more responsibilities. When people say “in college you’re on your own”, that couldn’t be more true. No one is here to hold your hand anymore. Everything you have to do is completely up to no one else but you.

The first point this article made was the amount of workload difference you have in college than in high school. The short deadlines that you have to meet for that eight page paper due in two weeks. The sleepless nights spent studying and cramming for that huge exam the next morning. The amount of times you have a mental breakdown and want to give up because you just can’t do it anymore. All of these I can say I have been guilty of. High school was a lot easier to get away with stuff. You could easily forget to do your homework for a night and not be too far behind in class, but if you miss one assignment in college you can fall very far behind.

Making friends is definitely the next big obstacle to overcome. Most people go to college not knowing a single person, and I happened to be one of those people. I thought to myself “Oh no I actually have to make friends? Again?” I had to start somewhere and luckily I’m not that shy of a person so making friends isn’t that hard for me. The article stated that acting like yourself is always the best way to make friends because they’ll accept you for who you are, and it turned out to be very true. It did take me some time to make friends here, but when I did, they were all so welcoming to me and so accepting of me. They turned out to have a lot of similarities as me and it made me feel so much better to be here at college and have been able to make a lot of friends.

Being responsible is a big trait that I have. I’ve always been the type of person to do my homework on time, even though I procrastinate sometimes, but hey who doesn’t? I still manage to work my hardest and meet every deadline. Being my “own boss” as the article puts it, wasn’t a challenge for me at all while being in college. I became very independent at home while I was in high school because I knew how to manage my own time. All of my responsibilities for school, and household chores as well, wasn’t a challenge for me like it is for others.

This article was great because it related most of my emotions I felt as I started my first semester here at Plymouth. Now that I realize all of the common struggles a first year college student faces, I’ve noticed that I easily overcame them within time. It was very hard at first because you are just let free into a new place that you’ve never been to before. But as my first semester came to an end, I looked back on it and told myself “Wow that wasn’t too bad” because all of the obstacles I thought I couldn’t overcome at the beginning of the semester, I did overcome all of them by the end of the semester. I felt really accomplished and ready to take on my second semester of college with positive eyes. As I continue to take it on I’m prepared for the long nights of studying, stressful weeks of homework loads, meeting more people and making new memories. That is what my first college experience will be told as one day.

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