The Contrast Study Of Effect Of Violent Video Games On Instant Desensitization Between Positive Playing And Passive Viewing

As the product of modern science, the effect of video games on the children and adolescents has interested the psychologists. Many researches on the relationship between violent video games and the aggressive variables show that: violent video games exposure increases aggressive thoughts, aggressive feelings, aggressive behaviors, physiological arousal, and makes the individual desensitize to the real violence, which leads to the decrease of prosocial behaviors. In addition, video games have some characteristics as a new kind of media, such as the interaction between players, the direct reinforcement of violent acts and so on, although they are similar to the traditional media to some extent. Therefore, the researches on the negative effect of violent video games should get special attention.This study focused on the psychological desensitization leaded by violent video games: took the emotional physical arousal as the index and explored the change of arousal index. In addition, this study added a new variable on the base of previous researches, the way of video game exposure, to contrast the degree of instant desensitization between the condition of positive playing and passive viewing, to test the modulation effect of individual variables on the desensitization, and to explore the characteristic of this new type of media.The experiment measured the skin conductance and heart rate of the participants by Bio-feedback instrument before and after positive playing or passive viewing, and monitored the two physical indexes during the videotape watching. The result showed that:1 Violent video games had the instant desensitization effect. The violent group showed lower physical arousal during videotape watching compared with the non-violent group after they exposed to violent video games for 15 minutes and the increase of skin conductance was significantly smaller than that of non-violent group. This result was consistent with the previous researches.2 The way of video game exposure had no effect on the degree of instant desensitization. Both of the positive way and passive way of video games exposure had the instant desensitization effect, but the increase of skin conductance between the two groups had no significant difference. However, the result could not prove there was no difference between the desensitization of video games and that of traditional media, because this study only focused on the instant desensitization. The experimental researches on this topic were very limited and we needed more religious researches.3 The positive group and passive group had different perception when exposing to the same content. The positive group fell more enjoyment, less frustration, and thought the game was easier compared to the passive group. Anyhow, the positive group was more involved. The result showed that the manipulation of the way of video games exposure was effective.4 Interaction was one of the characteristics of video games and the important difference from traditional media. The basis to design variable of the way of games exposure was the interaction of video games. The way of games exposure actually made the participants have different feelings, which proved the interaction was one of the video games characteristics indirectly.5 The level of physical aggression and the past exposure to violent video games had no modulation effect on the instant desensitization of violent video games. This result was consistent with the two researches on the violent video games desensitization in 2006, which meant the desensitization was independent of individual variables to some extent. Anyhow, the relationship between individual variables and media variables was always the key topic in the researches on the violent media. There was much work to do make sure of the relationship between them.