Luke Voigt

My literacy narrative:

Click here to view my narrative

Argumentative essay:

Introduction:

Various arguments surround the topic of media violence and the way it affects the behaviour of those who are exposed to it on a regular basis. As adults are more equipped to deal with violence from a psychological perspective, questions are mostly raised as to the way children cope with consumption of media violence, especially violent video games. My argument is that children are affected by playing violent video games in different ways (Anderson, 2004. pp. 113-122), and therefore that there is no clear link between video game violence itself and aggressive behaviour in children. I intend to argue this by first discussing the positive effects video games have on children. I will then consider the possibility of other factors influencing children who display aggressive behaviour. Lastly, I will discuss the validity of a counter argument which suggests a direct link between violent video games and aggressive behaviour due to the ability to personalise your character in games.

Topic Sentences:

1.) Playing video games as a child is not necessarily a dangerous habit as it can help to develop a number of positive skills and characteristics.

2.) Children who display aggressive behaviour after playing violent video games may be exhibiting these tendencies due to other influencing factors and not video games.

3.) Critics argue that video games are becoming increasingly more personalised, and therefore children relate to their characters more easily, and pick up aggressive tendencies that their characters may have.

4.) No absolute correlation has yet been found between exposure to violent video games and aggressive behaviour.

Sources:











References:

Anderson, C. 2004. An update on the effects of playing violent video games. Journal of adolescence, 27 (1), pp. 113--122.

(Anderson, 2004, pp. 113--122)

Ferguson, C. and Olson, C. 2013. Video Game Violence Use Among “Vulnerable” Populations: The Impact of Violent Games on Delinquency and Bullying Among Children with Clinically Elevated Depression or Attention Deficit Symptoms. Journal of youth and adolescence, pp. 1--10.

(Ferguson and Olson, 2013, pp. 1--10)

Ferguson, C., Garza, A., Jerabeck, J., Ramos, R. and Galindo, M. 2013. Not worth the fuss after all? Cross-sectional and prospective data on violent video game influences on aggression, visuospatial cognition and mathematics ability in a sample of youth. Journal of youth and adolescence, 42 (1), pp. 109--122.

(Ferguson and Garza et al., 2013, pp. 109--122)

Fischer, P., Kastenmuller, A. and Greitemeyer, T. 2010. Media violence and the self: The impact of personalized gaming characters in aggressive video games on aggressive behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46 (1), pp. 192--195.

  (Fischer and Kastenmuller et al., 2010, pp. 192--195)

Fleming, N. 2013. Why video games may be good for you. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130826-can-video-games-be-good-for-you/1 [Accessed: 2 Nov 2013].

(Fleming, 2013)

<span style="color:rgb(116,119,132);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px;line-height:15.390625px;">Greitemeyer, T. and Osswald, S. 2009. Prosocial video games reduce aggressive cognitions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology<span style="color:rgb(116,119,132);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px;line-height:15.390625px;">, 45 (4), pp. 896--900.

<span style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(116,119,132);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px;line-height:15.390625px;font-weight:bold;">  <span style="color:rgb(116,119,132);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px;line-height:15.390625px;">(Greitemeyer and Osswald, 2009, pp. 896--900)