Organisational Behaviour Assignment: Hypothetical Study On Playing Violent Video Games
Question
Task:
Organisational Behaviour Assignment
Consider the hypothesis that playing violent video games causes people to be more aggressive compared to watching passive violence on television.
Questions:
- How might you test this hypothesis? That is, what might you do to compare the two different experiences of exposure to violence?
- How would you determine whether people acted in an aggressive manner after exposure to violence?
- What additional factors would you have to consider to make sure that "exposure to violence" was the important factor and not some other factor?
Answer
Introduction
The main concern of this organisational behaviour assignment is “Video Games” that are the most engaging form of entertainment. But it has resulted in affecting human behaviour in several ways, it tends to increase aggression and kids tend to learn violence from video games. It has been a matter of great concern that violent video games leads to promotion of aggression in the human behaviour and tends to reduce the pro-social behaviour. Playing video games has proven to be disadvantageous. On the other hand it has been argued that watching passive violence on television causes less aggression in behaviour than playing video games (Yao et. al. 2019) This study presents an hypothesis of the two topics where the behaviour of the people are analyzed by testing the hypothesis.
1. How the Hypothesis will be tested?
The hypothesis will be tested with the evidences collected from secondary data. A newspaper article at Washington stated that video games like Mortal Kombat or Doom, Wolfenstein 3D have proven to have caused aggression in the thoughts of the people, behaviour and feelings both in the setting of laboratory or in the actual life according to the two studies that appeared in the issue of April of the American Psychology Association (APA) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. A study has revealed that young men who are aggressive habitually might be vulnerable to the effects that are aggressive due constant exposure to video games that are violent in nature this is exclaimed by the psychologists Craig A. Anderson, Ph.D., and Karen E. Dill, Ph.D. Another study by them revealed that a brief exposure to video games that are violent can increase the amount of aggressiveness in the people.
A second study that was made with 210 students who belong to college were made to play a violent video game named, Wolfenstein 3D and a non-violent video game, Myst. After sometime it was found that the students who were playing the violent video game punished the opponent for long period than the ones who were playing non-violent game. It has been stated by Dr. Anderson that the video games that are violent is provision for practicing and learning solutions that are aggressive for conflicting situations. The active nature of the environment for learning is the major concern. Therefore, the violent video games are considered to be more dangerous than a exposure to violent television show (Violent video games can increase aggression, 2021).
2. How would you determine whether people acted in an aggressive manner after exposure to violence?
I will conduct an experimental study will be conducted for analyzing the behaviour of the students who are playing violent video games or passively watching a violent scene in the television. The experiment indicated that the students who were playing violent video games are more aggressive by nature. It was also seen in the experimental study that students who were passively watching a violent scene in the television were not as aggressive as the students who were playing violent video games this is so because the parents of the children are in control of the television and it is their choice if they want their children to be exposed to violent content or not. Additionally I also noticed the children who face disturbance at home tend to behave aggressively.
The second experiment that I have thought of conducting on the students to analyse their aggressive behaviour is the Bobo doll experiment (Hollis, 2019). This experiment was conducted by me on 12 students. The students were divided between two groups, 6 in each group, the where some of them were given to play violent video games and some of them were watching a violent television programme. After that when the Bobo Doll experiment was conducted on both the categories of student then it was seen that the students who played the violent video game were behaving very aggressively with the Bobo Doll and they were punching the Bobo Doll with full strength and in comparison to that the students who watched a violent video in the television were much more calm and controlled.
3. What additional factors would you have to consider to make sure that "exposure to violence" was the important factor and not some other factor?
The additional factors that I will consider are that I will try to investigate the family conditions of the students. It is usually seen that students who belong from a normal happy family are very mild and well behaved whereas the student who belong from a disturbed family are aggressive by nature (Perry, 2017). Therefore these are some of the additional factors which I will be considering for finding out a reason behind the aggression of the student.
There are several factors that affect the behaviour of a child. A child who gets bullied in the class is found to be scared of everything or less confident about a lot of things. In case of adults, it was seen that adults who are dissatisfied due to some reason in the workplace or at home are of aggressive nature. Therefore, it can be said that the aggression the behaviour does not only come through exposure to violence like violent video games but it come through some underlying problems which an individual faces. The aggression develops due to the disturbance that is going on in their life. This gets reflected in the behaviour when the individual is playing a violent video game or watching a violent television programme. The aggression caused due to playing video games is found to be more as people are more engrossed in it.
Conclusion
In this hypothetical study secondary data was analysed through which it was found out that playing violent video games are one of the main causes of aggression than watching any violent television show. Also, an experimental study was conducted by which it was found out that students who play violent video games are more aggressive in nature in comparison to the one who play violent media. In this study the additional factors have also been identified which have helped in understanding the reason behind aggression in the children students and the adults.
Reference
https://www.apa.org. 2021. Violent video games can increase aggression. [online] Available at:
Hollis, L.P., 2019. Lessons from Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiments: Leadership’s deliberate indifference exacerbates workplace bullying in higher education. Organisational behaviour assignment Journal for the Study of Postsecondary and Tertiary Education, 4, pp.085-102.
Yao, M., Zhou, Y., Li, J. and Gao, X., 2019. Violent video games exposure and aggression: The role of moral disengagement, anger, hostility, and disinhibition. Aggressive behavior, 45(6), pp.662-670.
Perry, K.J. and Price, J.M., 2017. The role of placement history and current family environment in children’s aggression in foster care. Journal of child and family studies, 26(4), pp.1135-1150.
