The review also indicated that there is “insufficient evidence” about whether playing violent video games can lead to criminal violence or delinquency.
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Just a couple days ago, a report was released by an American Psychological Association (APA) task force, confirming the link many believe exists between video games and violence.
“As a researcher in this field, I thought you might be curious to know that there are actually a lot of problems with this report, how the task force was comprised, and the basis for its conclusions on research”.
“The research demonstrates a consistent relation between violent video game use and increases in aggressive behaviour, aggressive cognitions and aggressive affect, and decreases in pro-social behaviour, empathy and sensitivity to aggression”, the report concludes. “As with most areas of science, the picture presented by this research is more complex than is usually included in news coverage and other information prepared for the general public”.
Meeting in Toronto, on August 7th, the Council of Representatives of APA adopted a resolution containing a recommendation for the Entertainment Software Rating Board, pinpointing the need for the video game rating system to be refined.
It has been said that the study’s findings have prompted a call for more parental control over violent scenes in video games from the American Psychological Association.
Considering that there are still gaps and incongruences in the research, APA also asked that until more research is conducted, game developers restrict video game content to appropriate psychological development of their target audience.
There’s a definite link to increased aggression in children who play violent video games. It replaces a 2005 resolution on the same topic. It seems every few months a new study is released that explains how video game violence is or isn’t related to aggression, especially in youth.
Appelbaum acknowledged “some variation among the individual studies”, but said that “a strong and consistent general pattern has emerged from many years of research that provides confidence in our general conclusions”.
“Many people would like to link first-person shooter video games and mass murders or even single murders, but that’s virtually impossible to do from a scientific research point of view”, he said.
Two of the seven members of the APA Task Force, Kenneth Dodge, PhD and Sherry Hamby, PhD, endorsed an amicus curiae brief submitted in favor of upholding the California law in the Brown v. EMA case.
See the report and policy here.
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What’s new, however, is that more than 200 psychology professors, scholars and other academics have thoroughly slammed their report lambasting them for blaming videogames like that. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people’s lives.
