Evaluate

• The sample was Age Biased and therefore it is difficult to make generalisations – limited age range investigated. This does not represent all children or adults
• The sample is also Culturally Bias – the impact of computer games may be influenced by the cultural setting in which they are played. Certain children may also have been missing from the sample. Would a parent consent to their child taking part if the child was already aggressive? Would the parent of a passive child want their child potentially exposed to violent video games?
• The study was in an artificial setting – this leads to low levels of ecological validity. Normally video games are not played under strict time conditions, or with one individual observing and not allowed to get involved in the games physically.  Lab settings are too controlled and do not mirror the setting of playing a video game at home where the effect maybe weaker or stronger.
• Aggressive behaviour was measured in a narrow way leading to low levels of construct validity – two measures of aggression were used but they did not match. Therefore there could just be one reliable measure of aggression. This could be seen as trying to take a complex behaviour such as aggression and narrow it down to a simple score.
• There were a number of uncontrolled extraneous variable’s making it difficult to establish cause and effect – they experimenters accounted for whether the participants had experienced the game or not but they did not have control go show much experience a participant had with a game. Boys could have been less effected by Missile Command because they were more used to playing it.
• Only the immediate effects of aggressive video games were tested – video games may influence an individual’s aggression overtime. The researcher’s wanted this influence to occur straight away. In real life it might take a while before they have the confidence or desire to imitate a behaviour they have observed. This internalisation period needs to happen over a period of time too.