Criticle Article Review Violent Video Games Essay

Critical Article Review Psychology 475 Liberty University Abstract The aim of this paper is to provide a critical review of the article The Effect of Video Game Violence on Physiological Desensitization to Real-life Violence by Nicholas L. Carnagey, Craig A. Anderson, and Brad J. Bushman (2007). In this article Carnagey, Ander and Bushman experimentally examine the effects that violent video games have on those playing them, specifically in the area of physiological desensitization. It is the goal of this review to provide readers with an overall summary and critique of the article. This review will describe, discuss, and evaluate the key points of Carnagey, Anderson, and Bushman’s article and†¦show more content†¦The authors then share their analysis on the changes of heart rate and GSR at the many different points throughout their study. In the discussion portion of the article the authors discuss the lowered reaction to the violent images in the video following the 20 minutes of violent video game stimulation. They also discuss th e fact that results were quite dramatic across the different individuals and attitudes toward violence. They also give insight into their results and the implication of the GAM concerning the prevalence of lowered arousal levels to violence acts following the violent stimuli via video games. Using the GAM they discuss implications such as people’s lowered likeliness to respond a victim in a violent situation if they are not in an aroused state in the midst of the violent act. Lastly the article addresses the need for future research concerning the topic of desensitization to violence and the areas in which they feel it would be most beneficial. For instance a need to study the effects of more long term exposure to violent video games in regard to desensitization as most young game players do so on a regular basis. In their conclusion Carnagey, Ander and Bushman (2007) go as far as to refer to the media as an â€Å"effective desensitization tool.† Critique Carnagey, Ander and Bushman (2007) seem to be well versed on the previous research done on the negative effects of violent media on those exposed to it. They seem