Argument Research Essay Proposal
Narrowed Topic
Influence of violent video games on the aggressiveness of adolescents and young adults.
Research Question
If there is a long-term effect of violent games on aggression in adolescents and young adults.
Tentative Claim/Thesis (Situated in a Valid Debate)
Many studies confirm that violent video games increase aggression in adolescents and young adults, but they indicate short-term effects; however, these findings do not reflect the entire situation and distort the truth.
Rationale and Research Plan – Background, Overview, Approach, Research Plan, and Possible Complications (at least two full paragraphs)
The impact of violent games on young people is an issue of concern to many parents, psychiatrists, and governments, since allowing such games to be released may increase the level of aggression in society. However, the literature on this topic has significant differences due to the research methods and approaches. Thus, the question of the real impact of violent games on adolescents’ and young adults’ aggressiveness remains unanswered. Perhaps cruel games make people more aggressive, but at the same time, they can, on the contrary, reduce the level of negative emotions by freeing them within the framework of the game. In addition, increased aggressiveness can be short-term due to the feeling of competition or failure of the game participants.
Consequently, the myths around the negative impact of video games are likely false, but they still often provoke conflicts between young people playing these games and their parents or loved ones, provoking real aggression. In addition, such facts create obstacles for game developers and force governments to pay significant attention to the issue. Therefore, to understand the impact of video games on young people’s aggressiveness in society, this issue needs to be studied in the long term.
The primary research approach is to conduct a long-term observation of young people who play violent video games daily. The short-term effect of the game must also be recorded to understand the full picture and eliminate inaccuracies. This approach will allow me to determine the existing impact of video games on aggression in young people and its dynamics over time. Changes in behavior also must be analyzed by both the participants and objective observers to exclude bias. Possible complications and limitations can be insufficient experiment duration or sampling due to limited resources. In addition, if friends or relatives assess behavior changes of the participants, their data may also be biased, since they could try to protect them, which requires the use of special expert tests.
Initial Source Collection Table: Supporting and Opposing.
References
Kühn, S., Kugler, D. T., Schmalen, K., Weichenberger, M., Witt, C., & Gallinat, J. (2018). Does playing violent video games cause aggression? A longitudinal intervention study.Molecular Psychiatry, 24(2019), 1220–1234. Web.
Przybylski, A. K., & Weinstein, N. (2019). Violent video game engagement is not associated with adolescents’ aggressive behaviour: Evidence from a registered report. Royal Society Open Science, 6(2), 1–16.
Schareer, E., Kamau, G., Warren, S., & Zhang, C. (2018). Violent video games do contribute to aggression. In C. J. Ferguson (Ed.), Video game influences on aggression, cognition, and attention (pp. 5-21). Springer.