Internet Resources

 By Sarah Moore 

Part 1:

Impression of the Site:

I searched ‘violence and videogames’ on google scholar, and came up with the site The Effect of Online Violent Video Games on Levels of Aggression. The information given on this site are a variety of things, but it all draws back to one topic: the effect of violent video games on levels of aggression. For information the site uses several graphs, includes background information on the video game industry and its impact, and has tabs on the left side listing all of the content in the article. Based on the URL, links, and the website’s look overall, it seems mostly very credible. There is definitely not a lack of information on violence and video games, the author is not brief in his writing, and he explores all the different aspect of this argument, such as results from different studies, supporting research, and the significance of the topic.

General Criteria Guidelines:

The authors are clearly named at the top of the site, underneath the articles’ title. It is written by Jack Hollingdale and Tobias Greitemeyer. The authors, when clicking on their underlined names, has a brief sentence on who they are: Jack Hollingdale attended University of Sussex in Brighton, a school of Psychology, and Tobias Greitemeyer also attended a school of psychology, the University of Innsbruck. Just by this brief information, the authors appear to be well-trained in discussing violence in video games and its correlation to aggression, as it closely relates to psychology (which they majored in). The website is funded by government organizations.

The information of the site isn’t so much to persuade as it is to inform the reader of the likelihood of violent video games increasing aggression level. They show their argument through a variety of credible models and studies, and explain in full detail the results those organizations found. References are included in helpful number links that take you to the citations. The website has a full list of citations, and are all sighted properly.

The correlation between violent video games and aggression is something that has been a concern for many years now. Ever since the video game industry skyrocketed with desirable new animations, story lines, and interactiveness, researchers began to wonder if the violence displayed is somehow harmful to the people who play them, especially for hours at a time. Does the aggression of playing a first person shooter (FPS) influence how people act in real life? “Previous research, utilising the General Aggression Model (GAM), has identified that violent video games increase levels of aggression.” (Hollingdale, Greitemeyer).

Part 2:

Evaluation: On the online database, EBSCO, I found this article that closely related to the topic of the above website: Virtually Justifiable Homicide: The Effects of Prosocial Contexts on the Link Between Violent Video Games, Aggression, and Prosocial and Hostile Cognition

When I first skimmed the content of this site, my first impression was actually a little unimpressed, because particularly in the first two pages, it only talks about the numerous studies that were taken on violence and videogames, but rarely connects them to what the topic is about. The article explains how the study was conducted in great detail, but not what the findings or results were. Those are only explained in about one or two sentences, when I feel like the results are the most important part to supporting an argument. Nonetheless, looking past all the introductory paragraphs, it is still a professional article, and the author proves he is knowledgeable in this topic by thoughtfully writing about three rather impactful studies and their findings, and a conclusion in which he answers the big question: violent video games can increase aggressive behavior.

The author referenced a GAM test that studied thoughts and behavior and the influence violent video games has on them by Greitemeyer and Osswald, 2010.

Comparison:

The information in the article was very similar to the information on the website, however it was far more technical and included studies which I sometimes couldn’t connect to the subject. The website, in my personal opinion, was easier to follow and just as intelligent as the database article. I felt the website carried its argument well without needing an abundance of studies. However, the author of the article appeared to have a little more expertise, his writing style and presentation were scholarly, and he included more research in his article compared to the authors of the website. In conclusion, I feel that both authors were well versed in the topic of violence and videogames, but expressed them in fairly different manners.

WORKS CITED:

Jack Hollingdale, Tobias Greitemeyer. Plos One. 8 Oct. 2015. Web. 07 Oct, 2015.

Seth A. Gitter, Patrick J. Ewell, Rosanna E. Guadagno, Tyler F. Stillman, Roy F. Baumeister.

“Virtually Justifiable Homicide: The Effects of Prosocial Contexts on the Link Between Violent Video Games, Aggression, and Prosocial and Hostile Cognition.” 1 Sept. 2013. EBSCO. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.