Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Cottrell, Catherine

Keywords

Videogames, Violence in Videogames, Human Behavior, Aggression

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

Videogames have become a major part of the average person’s life. As such, a lot of psychological research has been conducted on the effects of videogames, particularly violent videogames. The vast majority of this research agrees that playing violent videogames tends to make a person more aggressive. When explaining these consequences, the research tends to focus on one of two ideas. Either researchers think that the violence itself causes higher aggression, or researchers believe that violent games are more competitive than non-violent games, and that competition causes higher aggression. However, other possible explanations should be considered. This study proposes that violent videogames are more frustrating, and that frustration causes aggression. To test this, participants played one of four videogames that varied in violence (low or high) and frustration (low or high). After playing the games for 15 minutes, participants completed the Competitive Reaction Time Task, a measure of aggression in which participants send an unpleasant sound at a supposed opponent. Participants control the intensity and duration of the sound; louder and longer sounds are considered more aggressive. The results failed to show the expected link between violent games and aggression entirely. There was no main effect of either violence or frustration, nor was there an interaction between the two variables. The most likely reason for this is that the implementation of the aggression measure was flawed in the current study, although other possibilities exist and will be discussed.

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