Robert Smith
Professor Marianne Buttenschon
Introduction to Sociology
September 28th, 2014 Article: “A Longitudinal Study of Risk-Glorifying Video Games and Behavioral Deviance”
In the world there is violence, criminal acts that are happening all around us such as robberies, theft, murders, etc. This article is focusing on all those criminal acts that are happening these days with our younger generation of human beings because of the violent video games that kids and adolescent teens are playing these days. Such video games are “Grand Theft Auto”, which is an open world video game that allows the player to go around and shoot whoever he feels he would want to shoot, or you can go and steal any car that you see driving around the streets.
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Current theoretical approaches are emphasizing that thoughts, feelings, and actions are being put into the video games that are somehow coming into the real-world. Video games serve are the chance to try out different actions and experiences that are being associated with thoughts and feelings. Behavioral simulation is being distinguished from the adopting approaches of Identity simulation logic: besides focusing on the specific thoughts, feelings, and behaviors enacted in games, this perspective emphasizes the impact of video gameplay on one sense of self. Character-based video games according to the article are giving the opportunity to play as someone else. As for the results of playing as someone else the consequences are potentially much broader than the specific kinds of behaviors enacted in the games. These studies of simulation are being tested to see what violent video games are doing to these day and age of kids in the world that are younger than there teen years. They are running around the 7 to 12 years of age. The studies are also being done on adolescent teens as well to see how they are contributing to alcohol abuse, or some of them are picking up smoking. Studies have found that male participants that are adults playing Grand Theft Auto III instead of the Simpsons: Hit and Run have more permissive attitudes toward drinking alcohol. Besides simulations for results on behavioral analysts, there are surveys that researchers were doing as well such as on the telephone. These researchers were conducting telephone surveys towards the adolescent teens; the purpose of this survey was to show the media exposures and adolescent risk behaviors. This survey contained questions on video game use, alcohol consumption, smoking, aggression, delinquent behavior, sexual behavior, personality constructs, and attitudes and expectancies