Ferguson, C. (2007). The Good, The Bad and the Ugly: A Meta-analytic Review of Positive and Negative Effects of Violent Video Games



Christopher John Ferguson analyzes several articles about violent video games for both negative and positive effects. Ferguson found that violent video games have no correlation with increased aggression but instead found that games do have a positive correlation with increased visuospatial cognition.

“Results from the current analysis supported the conclusion that violent video game exposure is associated with increased visuospatial cognition. However, results of the current meta-analysis did not support a relationship between violent video game exposure and aggressive behavior” (Conclusion).

The articles analyzed were gathered from PsycINFO and the articles were written from 1995 to april 2007. The articles were analyzed for both positive and negative results to the human psyche. Articles that discussed violent video games had to have discussed the difference between violent and non violent video games or else they were omitted from the meta analysis.

I would use this research to argue that games such as Doom and Mortal Kombat had more of a positive effect on society than a negative.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Connolly, Thomas. 2001 An alternate reality game or language learning: ARGuing for multilingual motivation

Connolly, Thomas. (2011). An alternate reality game or language learning: ARGuing for multilingual motivation. Computers Education, 57 (1) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131511000261 The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usage of ARG games in relation to learning a foreign language. The study that was created was implemented as a project within the European Commission Comenius project to be used in secondary schools across Europe. The purpose of the study was to implement cooperation and learning within the school environment as well as to support the use of ARGs in teaching and show different learning tactics. The general outcome of the “experiment” was calculated using pre- and post- questionnaires to gauge student feedback on the project. According to the article student feedback was fairly positive toward the use of the ARG and seemed to motivate the students in a way that had not been done before. Many students in the ending survey stated that the...
Read more

Barr, Matthew. Student Attitudes to Games-Based Skills Development: Learning from Video Games in Higher Education.

Barr, Matthew. "Student Attitudes to Games-Based Skills Development: Learning from Video Games in Higher Education." Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 80, 2018, pp. 283-294, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563217306684, doi:10.1016/j.chb.2017.11.030 The purpose of this study “was to document the attitudes of those students involved in the quantitative study and to explore how the game-based intervention was perceived.” (p. 283).  Researchers found a “broadly positive perception of the games' efficacy for skills development” (p. 283). Of the undergraduates that participated in the study, the in-game elements that participated felt contributed the most to skill development. “include the need to communicate with team mates in order to succeed, and the fluid, unpredictable nature of in-game challenges.” (p. 283). This study suggests, based on the factors that undergraduates think are the most important to developing useful skills (like communication, ...
Read more
Humphreys, L. (2016, December 9). Involvement shield or social catalyst: Thoughts on sociospatial practice of Pokémon GO. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2050157916677864  Humphreys acknowledges the rise of people leaving their couches to go outside and catch Pokémon with their friends. While she emphasizes that the game is not comparable to social networking applications, she does mention how it can contribute to increased social activity. They also mentions, however, that augmented reality games, such as Pokémon Go, can actually be a detriment to social situations. Instead of paying attention to the people around you, the pocket monsters popping up on your screen grasp your full attention. In this particular paper, Humphreys does not detail a research study on people, instead focusing on what the problem could be and how to fix it. Since we already established that Pokémon Go could lead to a lack of social interaction, regardless of the player’...
Read more