Video Game Violence

描述（由申请人提供）：从过去的研究中可以相当清楚地看出，接触电视或电影中的媒体暴力既会在短期内刺激攻击行为，又会在长期内增加习惯性攻击行为的风险。涉及这些效应的心理过程似乎是攻击性行为脚本的观察性学习和支持行为的认知以及对暴力的情绪反应的长期习惯化以及短期的启动和唤醒过程。从理论上讲，我们有理由认为暴力电子游戏比暴力电视节目对攻击性的影响更大。一些已经被证明可以缓和电影和电视暴力影响的因素是对所描绘的角色的认同和积极参与，对场景的关注，对它们的真实感，从角色强化中获得的替代强化，以及在模仿剧本时获得的实际强化。看电视是一种相对被动的活动，而玩电子游戏则是一种高度主动的活动（例如，玩家开枪）。大多数暴力电子游戏要求玩家扮演暴力游戏角色的角色（例如，玩家从游戏角色的视觉角度看待事物）。大多数暴力电子游戏都会奖励那些表现出攻击性的玩家（游戏邦注：例如，玩家通过杀人获得积分）。与暴力电视节目和电影相比，暴力电子游戏中的暴力几乎是连续的。我们建议进行一系列的实验和纵向研究来测试玩暴力电子游戏对攻击性行为和认知发展的短期和长期影响的程度。因为该理论同样表明，亲社会游戏的体验应该增强亲社会行为，我们也计划调查亲社会游戏的影响。这些实验和纵向研究的目的不仅仅是展示一种效果，还旨在调查个人和环境因素对效果的调节作用，效果如何随玩家年龄的变化而变化，以及认知和情绪变化对行为的影响。所获得的结果是设计和测试干预措施的关键，以减少反复接触暴力电子游戏的短期和长期影响，也有助于设计能够增强亲社会行为和适当心理社会调整的游戏。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It is reasonably clear from past research that exposure to media violence on TV or in films both stimulates aggressive behavior in the short run and increases the risk for habitual aggressive behavior in the long run. The psychological processes involved in these effects seem to be observational learning of scripts for aggressive behavior and cognitions supporting behavior as well as habituation of emotional responses to violence in the long run and priming and arousal processes in the short run. There are theoretical reasons to expect violent video games to have an even stronger effect on aggression than violent TV programs. Some of the factors that have been shown to moderate the effects of film and TV violence are identification and active involvement with the characters portrayed, attention to the scenes, perception of them as realistic, vicarious reinforcement obtained from characters reinforcements, and actual reinforcements obtained when the scripts are imitated. Whereas TV viewing is a relatively passive activity, video game playing is highly active (e.g., the player shoots the gun). Most violent video games require the player to take on the identity of a violent game character (e.g., the player sees things from the game character's visual perspective). Most violent video games reward individuals for behaving aggressively (e.g., players get points for killing people). Compared to violent TV programs and films, the violence shown in violent video games is almost continuous. We propose to conduct a series of experiments and a longitudinal study to test the extent of the short term and long term effects of playing violent video games on the development of aggressive behavior and cognitions. Because the theory equally suggests that the experience of playing pro-social games should enhance pro-social behavior, we plan to investigate the effects of pro-social games as well. More than just demonstrating an effect, the experiments and longitudinal study are designed to investigate what personal and contextual factors moderate any effects, how the effects vary with age of the player, and what cognitive and emotional changes mediate any effects on behavior. The obtained results can be key to designing and testing interventions to reduce the short and long term impact of repeated exposure to violent video games and also to designing games that can enhance pro-social behavior and appropriate psychosocial adjustment.