CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE/STUDIES AND FRAMEWORK OF THE

STUDY

This part of the study discusses the relevant literature and studies
with regards to the understanding of the relation between video games and
aggression experienced by gamers. It covers the literacy works and studies from
other researchers and the theoretical and the conceptual framework that would
be beneficial to the readers/layman in ensuring a greater understanding of the
study.

The purpose of this chapter placed the current study into the
context of previous and related research. As such, the review system
emphasizes the relatedness between the current system and the work of other.
Readers should be familiarized with the points of agreement and disagreement
among the previous studies, as well as the theoretical and empirical relevance of
each to the present to the present research.

Review of Related Literature

Video games are popular among children and adolescents

nowadays. They might encounter different forms of violence found in some video
games and other kinds of media. That violence might affect gamer’s lives in
many ways. One of the factors that may be considered in the aggression that
video game players experience is their habit of playing video games that is
considered to have a violent content and may cause a player a big impact to their
behavior.
 In 1982, the US Surgeon General called for research on whether
video game violence desensitizes individuals to real violence (Carnagey, 2007).
The reason that they called for violent video games instead of violent movies or
TV shows is because video game players actually partake in and to some extent
create the video game actions that they participate in, rather than simply being a
content watcher and recipient (Funk, p24). It is for this same reason that they
were chosen as the medium used in this study. Furthermore, it is due to the
overwhelming popularity of violent video games that the public has become
increasingly concerned that these games may have lasting negative effects on
players (Bowen, 2007).

The active nature of video games makes them unique among

screen-based media (Funk, 2004). For video games make their own choices and
pick with strategies work best for them while playing the violent video games;
rather than just watching a pre-laid out plot or plan of action like those in in
movies and TV shows. Therefore it is important to study their effects on emotions
and behaviors of the players for it appears that individuals who expose
themselves and play violent video games may habituate or get used to all the
violence and eventually become physiologically numb to it (Carnagey, 2007).

Modernization really had taken its toll in countries especially in a

growing country like the Philippines therefore compromising the trend in playing
traditional games. An article written by ABS-CBN news features Kabataan Party
List representative Rep. Raymond Palatino being convinced that the Filipino
youth are being urged by the commercial market to pursue western products and
cultural practices. “This inevitably affects the existence of our very own Philippine
games and sports, now considered by many as dying cultural legacies. It will be
an utter loss if these pinoy games will be completely gone in the future” (ABS-
CBN News, 2001).

In the literature presented by Carnagey (2007), it experimentally

examined violent video game effects on physiological arousal to violence in the
real world after exposure to video game violence in the virtual world. Participants
who previously played a violent video game had lower heart rate (HR) and
galvanic skin response (GSR) while viewing filmed real violence, demonstrating a
physiological desensitization to violence.

Review of Related Study

Despite of the benefits gamers gained from playing video games,

some people tend to disregard these benefits and would always keep an eye on
the negative effects of video gaming. Media can strongly influence our way of
thought and feelings that might lead to the emergence of new behaviors
(Anderson, Gentile & Buckley, 2004). “A longitudinal study of elementary school
children are said to be more exposed in gaming and predicts poorer grades in
their school”. In 2009, Gentile (2004) stated that children, who finds trouble in
school spend more time playing video games to gain attention from their parents,
will lead to poor school performance. The same goes for Chan and Rabinowitz
(2004) who stated that lower academic performance and the amount of game
played are associated with each other. The poor grades of the students in many
schools may result to their failure in class understanding. The student might
become the lowest in their class ranking or worse, a dropout from school. Now, in
terms of student’s productivity, the result is really negative. Students, who tuned
into video gaming, would already have the mindset of skipping classes,
homework and household chores just to play online (Wohlman, 2012). The
productivity is already deteriorated since video gaming get involved from the
things that are more important. Just by sitting on a chair and facing the screens
of their PC’s, gaming consoles and the like, they are already wasting a large
amount of the time (Anastasia & Chaplin, 2005). Another negative effect of video
gaming is found in the health of the gamer. If gaming is overused, this may lead
to dry eyes and sleep disturbances (Wohlman, 2012). It is due to the radiation
emitted by their PC’s and gaming consoles and long hours of exposure to it, the
gamers’ eye are the ones to suffer the most. And while the gamer spend a lot of
time gaming, it would be hard for him to stop what he has started, so he will
sacrifice his sleeping hours just to seek self-enjoyment and contentment. The
age variable may have been part of Anderson, Gentile & Buckley’s (2014) study
but their participants were younger than the ages of the participants of this
present study.

Synthesis of the State-of-the-Art

The reviewed literature and studies provided and valuable insight to

the researcher. However they are not totally the same with the present study. But
there are aspects in study in the previous literature and studies that provided
information and justification to conduct this research.

Funk (2004), video games make their own choices and pick which
strategies work best for them while playing the violent video games, rather than
just watching a pre-laid out plot or plan of action like those in movies and TV
shows.

Likewise, the documented studies made by Anderson, Gentile &

Buckley (2004) video games are increasingly popular with children, creating
concern about potential negative effects. The book concludes with a plea for
public policy debates to begin with acknowledgement of the basic scientific fact
that exposure to violent video games (and other forms of media violence)
constitute a significant risk factor for later aggressive and violent behavior, and to
move into a more productive debate about whether modern society should take
action to reduce high rates of exposure of children and youth to media violence,
and if so, what public policies would likely be the most effective.

After several scanning and reading different papers and articles,

the researcher could now point what specific reason that lead to the widespread
influence of video gaming from children to adults all over the world. This is
because of inciting nature of game design of every game. It is also because of
the role playing theme of the game that develops their sense of empathy on
understanding the viewpoints of people just by acting their chosen character of
the game, and the simulated environment that gives them the opportunity to try
different roles and commit mistakes without thinking dire consequences (Kato,
2010).

With this much information about the world of video games, it is of

greatest help to the researcher in finding a solution or an alternative that could
diminish the widespread use of video games especially the young. This research
study would be one of the many solutions to lessen the burden of the parents
and guardians of the children, especially the students who were strayed from
their studies.

Gap-Bridge of the Study

Some of the studies previously conducted were about the negative

effects of video games (Bowen, 2007), health problems (Wohlman, 2012),
academic performance (Chan & Rabinowitz, 2014), and time management
(Anastasia & Chaplin, 2005).

Other research conducted was about the violent content of video

games and the comparative study on different screen-based media (e.g., movies
and TV shows (Funk, 2004). All reviewed literature presented certain degree of
relatedness to the researchers study. Likewise, from the different studies
reviewed, there were also identified similarities to the meaning, relation with the
aggression and the impact of modernization.

On the other hand, after a close scrutiny of the previous studies on

the violence found in video games, meaning and experiences of video game
players. It was observed that though the cause and effects of video game
players. It was observed that though the cause and effects of video gaming are
stated in these studies, there are no such explanations about the possible
treatment and proper counseling for those video game players that got influenced
by the adverse effects of the video gaming (Wohlman, 2012). Also it is mentioned
in the related study the relativity of game play and lower academic performance
(Chan and Rabinowitz, 2014). Moreover, this study had been made about the
understanding of the different effects of video games in the gamers behavior and
cognitive development.

This study is intended to know the different possible effects of video

gaming to the gamers, at the same time it intend to find out if understanding the
child aggression would make a difference in the social perspectives of video
game players and non-video game players in the target school. Moreover, it was
observed that while studies on video games had been conducted in some parts
of the world and in some schools in other parts of the country, this research is a
new study in this school, which the proponent intended to address making a
head start for other researchers.

Theoretical Framework

The General Aggression Model (GAM; Anderson and Bushman,

2002) is based on a combination of social learning theory, arousal theory,
cognitive processing theory, excitation transfer theory, and the frustration
aggression theory. This model was designed to explain how violent video games
increase aggressive thoughts, and behaviors. This model predicts short-and long
term effects that likelihood of an individual engaging in aggressive behavior as a
result of exposure to video games (Swing, Gentile & Anderson, 2008). The model
argues that in any given social experience, there are proximal and distal features.
Proximal features can be described as the social situation the person comes to,
and the distal properties relate to the biological and environmental modifiers that
influence aspects of people’s personality (Gentile, 2005). The theory argues that
are three aspects of internal state of affected. Violent video games may affect the
individual over time in three ways by influencing their aggressive beliefs,
schemata and schemata and scripts, and by desensitizing them to violence. As
people begin to see the world and their encounters in aggressive terms, people
will begin to act in more aggressive and hostile (Carnegey & Anderson, 2005). In
terms of long-term exposure to violence, the model emphasizes aggression
related priming (Barlett, Harris & Bruey, 2008) with constant exposure to violence
believed to lead to activation of more aggressive thoughts in memory (and so on
until an entire network of aggression thoughts produced).

An updated version of the General Aggression Model was designed

as way to address arguments that the theory was not explicitly developmental in
nature, and therefore did not enable a full understanding and prediction of
change across time (Anderson, Gentile & Buckley). The adapted model, named
the General Learning Model (Buckley & Anderson, 2006), attempted to
incorporate the key developmental concepts of risk and resilience. The
conclusion of these concepts was based on a recognition that recent
developmental perspectives consistently attempted to explain individual
development as a consequence of a combination of different vulnerability (risk)
and protective (resilience) factors within the child’s life. Anderson, Gentile &
Buckley (2007) have therefore argued against the idea of vulnerable people but
suggest that mixture of risk factors and/or a lack of protective factors in a child’s
life may result in a child being vulnerable. In this context, the impact, the impact
of violent video games on a child may be considered one risk factor for the
development of specific outcomes in relation to aggressive behavioral, cognitive
and/or affect. The model also differed from GAM in that the learning processes it
describes are not specific to aggression.

The revised model also included a consideration of the individual

developmental level that a child is at when exposed to video games. Similar to
stage theorists of development (Erickson, 1963; Piaget, 1951), the theory argues
that the age that the child is at, dictates the specific developmental task that a
child is required to achieve. Depending on the task that the child is facing, it is
argued that the effects of media will have a greater or lesser effect. The General
Learning Model (GLM) thus suggest that during adolescence, young people face
the task of developing a strong, coherent personal identity (Anderson, Gentile &
Buckley, 2007). In a similar way, Wood, et al, (2004) have also noted that
individual differences in attraction to games will vary according to individual
preferences or length of playing.

In similar fashion, the effects of violent video games can be

explained through an understanding of theoretical models of media as
socialization agents (Brown, 2006; Arnett, 1995). These theories argue that
people use media as form socialization. Brown’s media practice model (2006)
suggests that who we are affects what media we use, and how we incorporate
this knowledge into our lives. This media we choose will also then exert an
influence on our behavior and our view of the world. Arnett (1995) argues that
adolescents and emerging adults use the media as a form of socializing and as
this time is a key stage of identity development for young people the media can
have a significant effect on our personalities and behaviors. This developmental
perspective that explores the different effects of media at different developmental
stages can be seen to be similar to the age related tasks of children as
highlighted in the adapted of GAM. In further consideration of GLM (Anderson,
Gentile & Buckley, 2007; Arnett, 1995), the effects of media on children will vary
at different ages, and the effects of violent media can therefore be seen to be
affected by the stages that a child is facing. The research on video game usage
has provided consistent findings that young people during adolescence are using
communication media increasingly as a form of developing and particularly of
maintaining friendships (Valkenburg & Pee, 2007; Gross, 2007). As peers are of
significant importance to young people at this stage of development, it appears
that gaming within these media forms may also continue develop in the future, as
young people employ various gaming environments in order to maintain their
friendships (McLean & Griffiths, 2013) and extend the networks they are
developing through gaming (Reinecke, 2009).

Conceptual Framework

This study focused on the understanding childs behavior towards

the use of video games. It tackles about the forms of violence that can be found
in video games and the action taken by the parents, school authorities and
society to promote awareness about the video game culture.

These relationship are illustrated in Figure 1: Describe the

conceptual framework of the study wherein the input is consisting of the following
age, educational attainment, family status and the socio-economic status of the
child.

On the other side, the process being used is though questionnaire,

descriptive survey and statistical treatment such percentage, mean and tallied
datas to determine the forms of violence in a video game that may cause the
respondents to have an aggressive behavior.
 The output is the actions taken by the School Authorities toward the
issue and this is the researchers want to find.

Figure 1- CONCEPTUAL PARADIGM

SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC

PROFILE OF GAMERS

IN GUBAT SORSOGON

CHILD FORMS OF VIOLENCE IN

AGGRESSION VIDEO GAMES

ACTIONS TAKEN BY

PARENTS BY PARENTS

AND SCHOOL
AUTHORITIES
 DEMOGRAPHIC BACKGROUND &

ACTION TAKEN BY PARENTS AND SCHOOL

VIDEO GAMES

CHILD

AGGRESSION