A03

• X deterministic?

  • suggests aggression is pre-determined by playing violent computer games
  • pro - can intervene & stop people from playing computer games that are violent - putting age restrictions on them & stopping people from playing them
  • con - ignored role of free will
  • some people will continue to play regardless of age ratings
  • everyone may react differently in real life to playing video games
  • cannot pre-detemine peoples behaviour as everyone responds differently & choose how to behave
  • many people choose not to be aggressive in real life
• X use of lab experiments?

  • pro - control evs such as environment/control any distractions so that only computer games have influence on aggression
  • can establish cause & effect between computer games & aggression
  • con - artificial tasks are created in order to test effects of computer games
  • eg its not realisitic to play game with electrodes on head without any distractions so behaviour thats being measured is unnatural & not reflecting real life.
  • doesnt truly reflect real life aggression
  • findings cannot be generalised to real life aggression
• X correlational?

  • although we can establish relationship between computer games & aggression its unclear about causal relationship between them
  • cannot be concluded that it is computer games causing aggression/aggression causes use of computer games/other factors influencing both of these variables.
  • cause & effect cant be established between computer games & aggression directly
  • may be other methods that provide more findings about cause of aggression
• X increase in short term aggression?

  • increase in heart rate is only short term effect of aggression from computer games
  • means that aggression after computer game my be short lived
  • suggests that by playing computer games does not cause long term aggressive behaviour as cannot be sure this continues once game has stopped being played
  • computer games may not cause people to be aggressive in real life for long periods of time
  • could be situation causing them to be aggressive rather than playing game
• X problems operationalising what is aggressive?

  • aggression is interpreted differently by different people & in different pieces of research
  • eg some people consider mario kart to be aggressive but its not been intended to be an aggressive game
  • its difficult to operationalise what aggression is to research it