Semester Research Topic!!!

I can still remember the cheat codes to my first pc video game "Doom". The codes,idkfa, and iddqd, would give you all of the most amazing weapons and you couldn't ever die no matter what monster attacked you! I loved being invincible :) Even though this game was evtremely violent and gory, ironically I did not grow up to be a sociopathic killer, or something along those lines. (and neither did my brother). It's becoming more and more prevelant, that people believe that violence and video games are related. I want to learn more about this. If they are related, then why didn't me or my brother or other family members that grew up around violent video games become violent ourselves? I was to explore why some people believe that children and adults alike, are affected negatively by video games. Is this theory even feasible? If so, what makes some people violent, and others not violent? Could it be that the people that are said to have been negatively affected by video games could have other underlying problems or past traumatic experiences that caused them to become violent as an outcome? Maybe children and adults that are violent "because of video games" were abused as children, or they never had any parental direction?

To begin my research I came across the "American Psychological Association's" website. They have 11 different myths and facts regarding video games and violence posted within the article and I plan on exploring myth and fact number one today.

"Myth 1. Violent video game research has yielded very mixed results.
Facts: Some studies have yielded nonsignificant video game effects, just as some smoking studies failed to find a significant link to lung cancer. But when one combines all relevant empirical studies using meta-analytic techniques, five separate effects emerge with considerable consistency. Violent video games are significantly associated with: increased aggressive behavior, thoughts, and affect; increased physiological arousal; and decreased prosocial (helping) behavior. Average effect sizes for experimental studies (which help establish causality) and correlational studies (which allow examination of serious violent behavior) appear comparable (Anderson & Bushman, 2001)."

Above statement came from the American Psycological Association's website that focused on violence from video games;(http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2003/10/anderson.aspx)

In the statement above, it says (in regards to different results from violent video games), that there haven't always been negative or any results from the video games. I guess thats where I fall if I were to have been evaluated. I think its very interesting how people have become so differently affected by video games, and im excited to learn about this even more!