Prosocial and Antisocial Effects of Violent Video Games, 3 Abstract Psyychology Journal Reviews and 1 Conclusion

PSY101

Kimberly Best

Dr. Paula Frioli

Greitmeyer, T, & Osswald, S. (2010). Effects of prosocial video games on prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(2),

Introduction

While Correlations between aggressive media and aggressive behavior are well documented, few study's have been conducted on the specific psychological effects of video games. Even fewer study's have been conducted on the positive and prosocial effects of video games. A previous study (Chambers and Ascione, 1987)(pg213) sought to evaluate the effects of prosocial and aggressive video games on prosocial behavior. However, the experiment's methodology was suspect, as questions of whether the prosocial video game was actually prosocial or not arose. This study focuses on the effects of clearly prosocial video games on prosocial behavior.

Methods

Participants

221 university students aged 18-58, separated into five separate groups, were asked to play either prosocial, neutral, or aggressive video games for a period of eight to ten minutes, and then were asked a series of questions and to rate the video games. The questions were assessed on three scales, The Positive and Negative Affect Schedules (PANAS; Watson, Clark & Tellegan, 1988), the General Learning Model (GLM; Buckley & Anderson, 2008) and the General Aggression Model (GAM; Anderson & Bushman, 2002). The college students were separated into five groups; the first a pilot study to ensure the prosocial, neutral and aggressive video games were perceivably different and correctly labeled as prosocial, neutral and aggressive. The pilot also conducted a series of questions and physical reaction tests to determine that the games were evenly matched in both challenge and arousal. The other four groups conducted experiments on how prosocial video games specifically effected prosocial behavior.

In the first experiment, 34 women and 20 men played video games for eight minutes, and then were asked a series of...