بازی های ویدئویی خشن و خشم بعنوان پیش بینی کننده پرخاشگری

Considerable research has demonstrated that playing violent video games can increase aggression. The theoretical framework upon which a good deal of this research has rested is known as the General Aggression Model (GAM; [Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2002). Human aggression. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 27–51]). The current study tested an assumption of the GAM by examining if the dispositional trait of anger moderated the relation between violent video games and aggression. A total of 167 undergraduate students (79 females, 88 males) first completed a measure of anger and were then randomly assigned to play either a non-violent or violent video game. After the video game play period, participants completed ambiguous story stems in order to assess aggression. Consistent with predictions of the GAM, anger significantly moderated the effect of video game violence on aggression. Specifically, participants who were angry were more affected by violent video games than participants who were not angry.

Following the 1999 Columbine High School shootings, lawmakers, researchers, activists, and laypersons became increasingly concerned with the potentially dangerous effects of violent video games. Jack Thompson (2000), a lawyer who has argued for the acquittal of defendants in violent video game cases, notes, “In every school shooting, we find that kids who pull the trigger are video gamers.” Of course, given the popularity of video games, it is clear that most children who play these games are not so affected by this violent medium that they actually commit murder. In fact, although many of the children who have engaged in violent school rampages are video game players (Anderson, 2004), these children are also commonly described by themselves and others as being extremely angry (Gibbs and Roche, 1999 and Sandler and Alpert, 2000). Such anecdotal observations suggest that individuals who are generally angry may be more adversely affected by violent video games than individuals who are not. To this end, the current research examines if the trait of anger moderates the effect that violent video games have on aggression. Video games have become one of the major entertainment media for children growing up today (Gentile & Anderson, 2003). The popularity of video games combined with the fact that over 50% of the games available on the market contain some form of violence (Gentile & Anderson, 2003), has caused some concern among parents, researchers, and policy makers. Over a decade of correlational and experimental research has suggested that violent video games are linked to various negative behaviors and cognitions, such as hostility, physical altercations, poor school performance, decreases in pro-social behavior, and aggression (e.g., Anderson et al., 2004, Bushman and Anderson, 2002, Gentile et al., 2003, Gentile et al., 2004 and Sheese and Graziano, 2005). Much of the experimental research that has been conducted on violent video games and aggression suggests that there is some type of causal relationship between the two; namely that violent video games increase aggression. A number of theories about how and why violent video games affect aggression have been posited, but one in particular has garnered much attention—the General Aggression Model (GAM; Bushman and Anderson, 2002, Gentile et al., 2004 and Uhlmann and Swanson, 2004). The GAM suggests that the link between exposure to a situational variable (e.g., violent media) and the output variable of aggression is mediated by one’s cognition, affect, and arousal (Anderson and Bushman, 2001, Anderson and Ford, 1986 and Bushman and Anderson, 2002). The GAM is unique as a model of aggression because it does not assume that people are “blank slates” before they are exposed to violent media. Instead, it suggests that not all people will interpret and be affected by violent media in a similar manner. According to the GAM, aggressive behavior is best predicted by considering the person within a situation. In other words, stable dispositions might alter how one interprets or responds to violent or hostile stimuli. For example, in a recent extension of the GAM, Anderson and Bushman (2002) specifically note several reasons why the dispositional characteristic of anger might play a causal role in aggression. First, anger reduces one’s inhibition against aggressive acts. Second, anger primes aggressive thoughts, making one more likely to interpret ambiguous situations as hostile. Third, anger “energizes behavior” by increasing one’s arousal levels, which in turn can lead to aggression if there is significant provocation shortly after the activity. Finally, anger makes one more likely to attend to hostile or violent information. These assumptions of the GAM imply that anger will have both a main effect on aggressive behavior and will also moderate the effect of violent stimuli. Studies examining the effects of violent media have found consistent evidence demonstrating the notion that some dispositions may interact with violent or hostile situations to increase aggression. For example, Bushman (1995) examined whether or not trait aggressive individuals displayed higher levels of aggression following exposure to violent movies. The results indicated that trait aggressiveness moderated the effect of violent movies; that is, viewing movie violence brought about more aggression in individuals who were high in trait aggressiveness than in individuals who were low in trait aggressiveness (Bushman, 1995). In a similar manner, Malamuth, Addison, and Koss (2000) found that aggressive men tended to react to and interpret pornography in a more sexually aggressive manner than nonaggressive men. Also, consistent with the notion that dispositional tendencies might moderate the effect of violent or hostile situations, Cohen, Eckhardt, and Schagat (1998) found that the trait of anger moderated the cognitive effects of interpersonal insults. These results suggest that angry individuals may be more affected by hostile or violent situations than other individuals. In an attempt to explain why stable dispositions moderate the impact of violent or hostile situations, Bushman (1996) recently extended Berkowitz’s (1990) cognitive-neoassociation model of aggression. Berkowitz’s model proposes that exposure to situational cues (e.g., a gun) activates ideas with similar meanings to the cue (e.g., shooting, bullets, etc.), which, in turn, activates other semantically associated ideas (e.g., murder, kill, etc.). According to this model, when an individual is exposed to a violent video game his or her network of aggressive thoughts, feelings, and beliefs will become primed, making him or her more prone to hostile behavior. Bushman, 1995 and Bushman, 1996 extends this model by arguing that individuals with certain personality characteristics possess more extensive cognitive-associative networks related to these characteristics than individuals who do not possess such characteristics. That is, a person who possesses a specific personality characteristic is more likely to be primed by situational cues related to this particular characteristic than a person who does not possess such a characteristic. For example, a person who is dispositionally angry might possess a more developed cognitive-associative network related to ideas about anger (e.g., hate, rage, mad, fight, fury, clash, destroy, etc.) than individuals who are not angry. When this angry person is exposed to violent media that contains simulated hostile and violent acts (e.g., fighting, killing, destroying, etc.) his or her network of angry thoughts, feelings, and beliefs will become primed and he or she will be more likely to behave in an aggressive manner than a person who is not angry. The current study utilizes a methodology similar Bushman and Anderson’s (2002) study, which found that exposure to violent video games caused participants to respond to ambiguous story stems in an aggressive manner. However, these findings will be expanded in order to determine if the main effect of playing violent video games is moderated by the personality trait of anger. Consistent with the predictions of the GAM, it is predicted that both situational (e.g., violent video game) and personality (e.g., anger) characteristics will be related to aggression. First, it is hypothesized that participants who play violent video games will be more likely to respond to ambiguous story stems in an aggressive manner. Second, it is hypothesized that participants who are angry will respond to the story stems in a more aggressive manner than individuals who are not angry. Finally, it is hypothesized that anger will moderate the effect of violent video games. Consistent with Bushman’s (1996) notion of cognitive-associative networks, it is predicted that this moderation will occur because violent video games will affect angry individuals more than individuals who are less angry.