Book Opinion: Grand Theft Childhood

I was reluctant in buying that book because some of the content were already known to me and I had access to their published journal articles. So I could’ve saved some money. However, the book contained valuable information that raised eyebrows and some surprising opinions from various experts. The book was well written for a public-oriented audience and had addressed issues parents might have, such as video game violence, addiction, advertisement video games (that was a surprise), etc. I will address some things that I noticed during my reading of this book (as an wanna-be scholar).

As Kutner and Olsen noted, opinions differed based on training, professional background and personal experience (p.63). Throughout the book, they expressed doubts on everything including their own findings. IMO, Besides the persuasive evidence they brought up, another factor I have in mind are the authors’ background, since they’re from a clinical psychological background while other researchers, such as Craig Anderson of Iowa State University are of social psychology background. To elaborate in general, clinical psychologists look for vulnerable groups and what personal and environmental characteristics that may impede these groups’ normal functions within society, in this case whether certain groups are vulnerable to violent video games. This is apparent in their scepticism whether their statistical results apply in real life (see chapter 4). In contrast, social psychologists look for results that apply to individuals of a representative population. So, they may take many factors in consideration and try to see if a variable of interest has an interactional effect with considered factors or an effect beyond such factors. This, I believe, explains why R.L. Huessman’s arguments that violent video games are a public health risk. So, the opinions of experts depend on how they interpret the situation at hand. IMO, Kutner and Olsen seemed to take a pragmatic approach to this problem.

Longitudinal study on internet and video game use and psychosocial predictors (Willoughby, 2008)

If I knew someone at Brock University was studying media psychology, I would have applied grad studies there… Why did I miss her?! Maybe I should contact her to see if anyone else is also interested in media psychology. 

Abstract

Prevalence, frequency, and psychosocial predictors of Internet and computer game use were assessed with 803 male and 788 female adolescents across 2 time periods, 21 months apart. At Time 1, participants were in the 9th or 10th grade; at Time 2, they were in the 11th or 12th grade. Most girls (93.7%) and boys (94.7%) reported using the Internet at both time periods, whereas more boys (80.3%) than girls (28.8%) reported gaming at both time periods. Girls reported a small decrease over time in the frequency of hours spent per day on overall technology use, mostly due to a decrease in gaming. Both linear and curvilinear relations were examined between parental relationships, friendship quality, academic orientation, and well-being measured in early high school and the frequency of technology use in late high school. Being male significantly predicted both computer gaming and Internet use. There also were trends in favor of higher friendship quality and less positive parental relationships predicting higher frequency of Internet use. Importantly, moderate use of the Internet was associated with a more positive academic orientation than nonuse or high levels of use.

Graduate school response #2

Now I’m truly fucked, I got my rejection letter from the psychology department at the University of Michigan. So it seems I won’t research video game effects on aggressive behaviours.

Now I only have one grad school left to hear from. Ryerson University, my last backup grad school left. If you’re reading this and you’re a professional in the video game industry, journalism, advocacy group or anything related. If you’re looking for someone to hire in Montreal or somewhere “close-by”, I will graduating with a BA in psychology with extensive knowledge of video game research, I have good writing skills, excellent analytical skills, intensely hard-working on any tasks at hand, mellowed during stressful or boring times and a penchant for organization.

If you like what you read in this blog and would like to know more on video game psychological research. Please give me a sign of support (financially or sending recent journal articles to me or leaving a comment in the knowledge that someone is listening)