Banholzer_Researched_Essay

Cadet Michael A. Banholzer

Mrs. Smith

ERH-102-08

11 April 2016

The Root of Trepidations in The United States

As technology advances in all aspects of life, one of the most influential aspects to our younger generation is video games. Video games have become more and more in depth using different tools to create realistic situations and experiences. With this, video games have also become one of the most controversial topics of the twenty-first century. Specifically, violent video games have come under fire due to accusations of aggressive behavior stemming from the violent content in some of today’s video games. With the introduction of video games such as Call of Duty and Battlefield, the question continues to circulate as to what the effects of these games are on children and young adults. This is a sensitive topic that many are willing to take a side against violent video games without incorporating key results to prove their accusations. This is problematic for two reasons. First of all, many people continue to take sides on the topic of violent video games and their effects without backing up their allegations. They refuse to “switch sides” even if information is presented that proves their belief wrong. This is why no true information can be presented proving one side or the other. Peoples’ continued stubbornness causes research to get absolutely no where. Lastly and most important, this subject is truly challenging because of its issues concerning the first amendment of the Bill of Rights, the freedom of speech. This contributes to the attitude of our country presently. Instead of blaming violent tendencies in children on true causes of nurture of home life, people want to blame it on violent video games and the manufacturers of the game. The cause of this blame directly stems from the decline of two-parent households in our society. Kirsten Anderson writes that a study in 2011 by the University of Melbourne found that “absent fathers were linked with higher rates of juvenile delinquency.” (1) Also, a Canadian study stated “kids whose fathers were active parents in early and middle childhood had fewer behavior problems and higher intellectual abilities as they grew older, even among socio-economically at-risk families.” (1) Individuals will listen to biased experiments on video games just to provide an easy explanation as to why a child has aggressive tendencies rather than looking within at the surroundings in which the child has grown up in. Rather than says playing violent video games increases isolation and negative thoughts, realize that the isolation and aggressive tendencies experienced by that child stem from within and cause them to play violent video games rather than vice versa. The ideas presented in this paper show what’s at stake with our younger generations. If we continue to blame our children’s problems on things like video games instead of recognizing that the parents and home life experience are at fault, then our youth will learn, more than they already have, to never take responsibility for their actions. This topic is more serious than people take it for. Video games are an essential part of the younger generations childhood. It allows them to try out their value system in a safe environment with no real consequences other than maybe losing a life in a video game. However, if that value system they put into the video game is turned into where we blame the child’s behavior on the video game’s content, severe consequences will ensue with the next generation of technologically enhanced youth. They will not learn taking responsibility for their actions and will continue to head down a slippery slope.

The first causal that must be defined is what truly causes violence. Is it more nature or more nurture? I argue that it is both. After interviewing, Cadet vanLeer, about topics concerning video games, he being an avid video gamer himself, he brought up a couple key points that I would like to touch base with providing evidence to support my claim. First of all, what is truly the purpose of violent video games? Cadet vanLeer claims it is entertainment just like something such as movies or television shows. The entertainment opportunities that video games provide also help children express their values in a fictional setting with no real world consequences. The common belief that violent video games teach violence and enlightens children to using violence to solve their problems is absurd. Cadet vanLeer made a really good point in our interview where he makes a comparison from violent video games to violent movie selections. Violent movies have not been under fire for causing violent tendencies even though it is the same principle of playing a violent video games minus the joysticks. In an article online by Greg Toppo, a reference is made to the unfortunate actions of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shootings (1). One of the big rumors surrounding the media throughout the investigation into the shooter was that violent video games contributed to him becoming aggressive and hostile. However, later research found that his most commonly played game was Dance Dance Revolution (1). This shocked the public because it had become common belief that video games had turned Lanza, the shooter, into a killer (1). Lanza also played Call of Duty and other violent games which is to be excepted. Any person who is hostile at their core will also tend to lead towards playing more violent video games rather than the video games causing that violence. This just shows, in it’s most extreme case, that truly violent tendencies and hostile actions stem from within, either through nature or nurture, and do not have any direct correlation to violent content in video games.

Violence in video games is an ever controversial topic that no one really knows how to test. In a peer reviewed article by Jack Hollingdale, levels of aggression from violent video games are attempted to be explained although end up having no backbone to hold up an argument (1). In this journal article half of the test subjects are instructed to play the violent video games, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, while the other half plays the non-violent game, Little Big Planet 2. The test subjects’ hostility was then tested using hot chili. The experimenters were required to make a sample of hot chili for their opponents to taste. They were also informed that the test subjects did not like hot food. The idea behind the experiment is obvious, the violent game will cause you to punish your partner more with hot chili. However, this experiment failed miserably for two reasons. First off is there is no background information of the test subjects, therefore making the experiment biased in of itself. Without prior knowledge of practical jokes, you would not know that, myself included, no matter what video game they played they would still have loaded up the hot chili just to see the reaction from their fellow experimenters. Lastly, the experiment has a key flaw. The control group is invalid. The control group in this experiment needs to be a group of people sitting in a comfortable room with couches and chairs either talking or sleeping and not playing video games. Using Little Big Planet 2 as the control makes the results invalid because you are then also testing the effects of relaxing games on your personal mellow state of mind. Using this experiment to decipher whether or not your aggression stems from violent content in a video game is asinine and does not apply whatsoever. In a peer reviewed journal article by Tobias Greitemeyer, he enlightens a perspective that is ever present throughout all aspects of America, however not currently a view in violent video games (3). Most people choose one side or the other as to whether or not violent video games actually produce aggressive actions and Greitemeyer believes that will never change (1). I believe, however, that like the rest of the ideals in America, there will eventually be a common ground that most people are a part of.

The last element of my research on the topic of violence in video games is that of the Constitution of the United States of America, or more specifically the Bill of Rights. An essential point brought up in a peer reviewed journal article by Christopher Ferguson, is that because of the bias that exists within all experiments conducted on this topic there is truly no way to correctly test what violent content in video games actually affects (1). The only way that would be possible is if each persons’ genetic makeup was the same which is just implausible for an experiment (1). This brings us to the most controversial part of the topic, whether or not it is possible to prohibit a company from producing a violent video game because of beliefs that it affects children’s’ hostile ideals. The answer is no. According to an article on “procon.org”, there was a Supreme Court case that attempted to ban the sale of these violent games to minors (1). In Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (2011) the Supreme Court ruled significantly that California could not ban the sale of violent video games to children and youth. This shows how the 1^st amendment is even being tested today and we cannot wavier our rights just because some people believe that violent video games cause their children to misbehave. The overall idea of violent video games affecting our children goes along with the liberal notions that have consumed our country. Rather than blame themselves for lack of parenting, because each parent is at work 24/7 and their children bounce from daycare to daycare instead of spending time with their mother, which is essential, they find it easy to blame video games. Even though video games are the only way that the children are learning to express themselves because of the lack of parental input into their learning curve. From 1960 to present, the amount of children living in two-parent households has decreased from just under 90% to under 70% (US Census 1).

This ongoing debate of violence in video games seems to have no end in sight. With new technologies coming out every day it seems there is no middle ground and no one will agree one way or the other. The facts remain, however, that there is no true correlation between violent video games and aggressive behavior. Multiple studies have proved that and multiple studies have failed attempting to disprove it. The true causes of violent tendencies lie with the nature and nurture of a child’s developmental stages. Without being raised properly, video games or not, you have the likelihood to experience violent tendencies that would in turn make you want to play violent video games rather than vice versa. This correlation of thought contributes to a bigger meaning across our country. Our country is headed down a dangerous path and ideals such as this that put the blame on other people or entities, only amplify the issues at hand. The Washington Times reflected on 2010 census data and showed the number of children living in single parent households has doubled since 1960 (Anderson 1). One-third, close to 15 million, of children in America are being raised without a father (Anderson 1). The ideas of taking responsibility for your actions and owning up to your mistakes are slowly slipping away in our country and in order to get back the true values that our country was founded on, there must be a nationwide change of attitude, beginning with small elements of responsible actions like this as well as a rebirth of the standard household that our country was founded upon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Cadet Nik vanLeer

Ferguson, Christopher J., Benjamin Trigani, Steven Pilato, Stephanie Miller, Kimberly Foley,

and Hayley Barr. “Violent Video Games Don’t Increase Hostility in Teens, but They Do Stress Girls Out.” Psychiatr Q Psychiatric Quarterly 87.1 (2015): 49-56. Web.

Greitemeyer, Tobias. “I Am Right, You Are Wrong: How Biased Assimilation Increases the

Perceived Gap between Believers and Skeptics of Violent Video Game Effects.” PLoS ONE 9.4 (2014): n. pag. Web.

Hollingdale, Jack, and Tobias Greitemeyer. “The Effect of Online Violent Video Games on

Levels of Aggression.” PLoS ONE 9.11 (2014): n. pag. Web.

Toppo, Greg. “Do Video Games Inspire Violent Behavior?” Scientific American. N.p., 01 July

2015. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.

“Violent Video Games – ProCon.org.” ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.

Anderson, Kirsten. “The Number of US Children Living in Single-parent Homes Has Nearly

Doubled in 50 Years: Census Data.”LifeSiteNews. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

“Living Arrangements of Low-Income Children May Not Play a Key Role in Their Well

Being.” PsycEXTRA Dataset (n.d.): n. pag. Census.gov. United States Census Bureau. Web.

 

 

Writing_Reflection_Essay

Writing has always been a required part of my education but not necessarily a part I was interested in. Before coming to college at the Virginia Military Institute my writing skills were sub-par. Coming to college I have learned to correct mistakes in my writing, such as repetition and poor word choice, and I have learned better pre-writing and organizational skills along with improving my sentence structure. Entering into my next semester of writing I hope to be able to be clear and concise in my writing and take my vocabulary to another level. Though my failures heavily outweighed my success in high school writing, I continue to improve everyday to change the odds in my favor.

First of, reflecting on my high school writing experiences, I believe many of the experiences I had in AP English, senior year, paved the way for the writer that I am today. My teacher, Mr. Meister, made it one of the hardest classes I have taken thus far, however, both good and bad, it taught me what I need do and need not do in college writing. Many mistakes I experienced in high school occurred often to include: off topic ideals, paragraph organization, and unclear thoughts. These mistakes were not skipped over when he graded papers so therefore, a lot of the time, I didn’t get the best grades on his essays. Throughout the year, however, I learned what he was looking for and I improved on each essay until, I would say, I was finally successful. My last paper of senior year earned me an eight out of nine on the AP grading scale. The problems and successes of that last paper carried me into my first semester of college writing.

My first semester of college was essential to setting a baseline GPA for the rest of my cadetship. Using the lessons I learned in high school, I laid it all out on the table for my English teacher to discern and correct. Based on the fact that I held nothing back she was able to tighten my structure, repetition, and conciseness without taking out my personality from my writing. Throughout the entire semester I recognized three main things that I could fix going into my Spring Semester of 2016. My pre-writing and the order in which I did things needed to be worked on, I had to decrease and be able to recognize my own repetitiveness throughout my paper, and fix the organization issues throughout my entire paper, specifically which groups of sentences go together in which paragraph. Just like high school I improved drastically on these issues by improving one paper after another, and learning to recognize my mistakes more clearly. My last paper became probably the best paper I have ever written. It was based on a theory about Writing itself and I used all the skills I had gained my first semester of writing in order to project one of the most complex ideals I had come up with to date. It was based on the theory of Advancement Destruction, a term I coined myself, in which I analyzed technological advances in writing, making it more and more computer oriented. I came to the conclusion that instead of these advances actually being advances, it rather increases procrastination and will ultimately lead to the destruction of the importance of literacy in the United States.

Based on these experiences I have few reservations in my confidence going into my Spring Semester of 2016 English. With the confidence and skills, I gained Fall Semester, I believe I can carry the ideals into my writing throughout this semester no matter the topic. The only thing I will have to be concerned about is following my teacher’s guidelines on papers and not going off on a tangent. With the skills I learned this past semester and the things I will begin to learn about my writing this semester, I should have no problem being successful using the same writing style I’ve become accustomed to.

Overall, I believe high school writing set my baseline of essential grammar and ideals that have stuck with me since, even subconsciously. It also set a baseline of mistakes that I have learned to avoid. My Fall Semester of English has introduced me to the high level of writing that is expected at the college level. Reflecting on the last semester of writing I have learned specific skills of organization, pre-writing, and recognizing my own mistakes rather than having someone else edit my paper. My Fall Semester class had specific ideals of writing about writing rather than writing about a topic throughout the world. I believe this is what took my writing to another level and will make me prepared for the upcoming semester of writing. Lastly, I believe that the type of writing I do this semester will come easy for me by using the baseline of skills I acquired Fall Semester and my ability to talk which is exactly what this semester is about, arguing in writing.

Annotated_Bibliography

Cadet Michael A. Banholzer          Help Received:

Mrs. Smith                     Everyday Writer, Purdue

ERH-102-08                     Owl, & Easybib.com

24 February 2016

Annotated Bibliography

Ferguson, Christopher J., Benjamin Trigani, Steven Pilato,

Stephanie Miller, Kimberly Foley, and Hayley Barr. “Violent Video Games Don’t Increase Hostility in Teens, but They Do Stress Girls Out.” Psychiatr Q Psychiatric Quarterly 87.1 (2015): 49-56. Web.

 

This study analyzes an experiment that depicts the effects of violent video game content on adolescents. It was conducted by having a mix of boys and girls be given either a violent or non-violent video game to play at random. Before the test was taken, the test subjects reported their levels of stress for a baseline. The results concluded that violent video games had a minimal impact on hostility. However, it was concluded that it caused increase stress in young girls. This is to be expected, because girls are more sensitive to violence and gore.

 

The study was conducted in a proper manner based on the procedure and the design, however, there are a couple variables that should have been taken into account. In order for the experiment to be truly unbiased, they should not have been given the background story on violent video games. Lastly, to truly perfect the experiment you would have to find test subjects of all the same genetic makeup to be entirely sure you had 100% accurate results.

 

I will be using this study to assist my research paper for two reasons. First of all is it supports my idea that violence in video games has no direct correlation to hostility. Lastly, it proves another key point to any study that has been done to oppose my view. No study can truly be conducted in the right manner to isolate violence in video games. There will always be outside influences that have an impact on the test subjects’ overall hostility.

 

Hollingdale, Jack, and Tobias Greitemeyer. “The Effect of Online

Violent Video Games on Levels of Aggression.” PLoS ONE 9.11 (2014): n. pag. Web.

 

This study utilizes available test subjects to compare the violent video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to the non-violent video game Little Big Planet 2. The study used both video games in comparison at random. The way to test whether a person’s hostility was increased was by using hot chili. All the test subjects were required to make a sample of hot chili for the other subjects to test. They were also informed that the test subjects did not like spicy food.

 

This study is invalid in two main ways. First of all, stating in the results that Modern Warfare 2 is a violent game is dumb. That is the purpose of the game, to entertain. Having that as one of the ideals they tried to prove makes the experiment pointless. Secondly, and most important, is the idea that the hotness of chili has any correlation to aggression. Most of the time, myself included, whether I played a violent video game or not, I would make the chili spicy just because it would be funny. Using that as the deciphering tool of aggression does not apply whatsoever.

 

I will be using this in my research paper as an example of a failed attempt to provide evidence of any correlation between hostility and violent video games. Using examples from this experiment will show how not only is there no true way to connect violent video games to aggression, but also how results vary even in experiments that are supposedly fool-proof.

Kneer, Julia, Daniel Munko, Sabine Glock, and Gary Bente.

“Defending the Doomed: Implicit Strategies Concerning Protection of First-Person Shooter Games.” Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 15.5 (2012): 251-56. Web.

 

This study has the same setup of most having to do with violence in video games. There were 80 participants, half of them with experience playing FPS games and the other half with no experience. The way this experiment was conducted, however, there was a newly found influence on aggression not directly correlating from video games. The study found that suppressing the violent thoughts of video games and having studies out blaming hostility on video games can actually cause you to be more aggressive than just playing them alone and not having adverse thoughts.

 

Based on the facts presented in the study I believe that the study is correct in saying that today’s society, referring to violent video game effects, adversely affects our perception of the root of our own aggression. By both adding and subtracting priming of the FPS, the experiment has enough variation to be valid. No experiment is perfect but this one provides the evidence to defend its ideals.

I will be using this source for two reasons in my paper. First of all, I will be able to show a clear example of how there is no correlation between the two ideals as well as show data of the same experiment that found different results. In other words, another example of how experiments are impossible to actually provide clear evidence of said correlation. Lastly, it provides another example of outside influences that are the true cause of hostility and anger.

 

Greitemeyer, Tobias. “I Am Right, You Are Wrong: How Biased

Assimilation Increases the Perceived Gap between Believers and Skeptics of Violent Video Game Effects.” PLoS ONE 9.4 (2014): n. pag. Web.

 

This study has to do with the overall belief of violent video games and their effect on hostility. By using test subjects with two different beliefs and having them read articles on two different beliefs, it provides an outstanding example of why you cannot ever convince people of the other ideal. In the study, all of the test subjects favored their original view.

 

This study provides a simple experiment that gives excellent information as to why and how people have their beliefs on violent video games. Using a simple method rather than some complex experiment gives us a clear idea of why the belief of violence in video games will never change.

 

I will be using this in my research paper in order to provide another example of how there is not a fool-proof experiment that can detect a correlation between violent video games and aggression. As research comes about that violent video games may or may not effect hostility, people will believe whatever they originally believe. No matter the proof that is presented, people will stick to their beliefs. This point will be key for my article.

 

Yang, Grace S., L. Rowell Huesmann, and Brad J. Bushman.

“Effects of Playing a Violent Video Game as Male versus Female Avatar on Subsequent Aggression in Male and Female Players.” Aggr. Behav. Aggressive Behavior 40.6 (2014): 537-41. Web.

 

In this study the participants played a series of two violent video games that involve one on one combat of the same sex in order to prevent any bias. The comparison was between a female avatar or a male avatar. The purpose of the experiment was to figure out whether one or the other would present more of an aggressive response from the test subjects. The next part involved using hot sauce amount for your testing partner compared to how aggressive that means you are.

 

This experiment was conducted in the right manner with a couple minor fixes. First of all, no matter how similar the games are, the games should be the same for the experiment in order to prevent any type of invalid testing in the experiment. The hot sauce part of the experiment is completely invalid. There is no direct correlation between putting hot sauce in your partners’ food and being hostile because of a video game.

 

I will not be using this in my experiment because it doesn’t apply to my whole idea. This experiment has to do with a specific aspect of video games, my research paper has to do with whether violent video games, as a whole, effects your aggression and hostility.