The effects of computers and video games

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Negative effects of facebook use
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Terms in this set (10)
Negative effects of facebook use
Charles (2011) investigated the fb habits of 200 undergrad students and found that 12% felt anxiety directly related to their use of fb, the majority of these had significantly more friends than the others, they reported stress from deleting unwanted contacts, a constant pressure to funny and entertaining
Of those surveyed, 32% said that rejecting friend requests made them feel guilty and uncomfortable - 10% said they disliked receiving friend requests
Support for negative effects of facebook
Case study of 18 y/o boy with asthma - condition was stable, even when his gf broke up with him and deleted him from fb, however, he did change his name so they could become friends again but when he logged in and saw her picture, it triggered an asthma attack
Positive effects of Facebook
Gonzales and Hancock (2011) argue that fb walls can have a positive influence on on self-esteem, in a study of Us students, they were given 3 mins to use fb, look in the mirror or do nothing,they found that those who used fb reported more positive feedback about themsevles
Support for positive effects of Facebook
One explanation suggests that the self selection of info we choose to represent our selves can have a positive influence over our self esteem - computer mediated communication offers people an opportunity for positive self esteem as feedback on wall is usually positive
Negative effects of video games
Anderson et al (2007) surveyed 430 children, aged 7-9 at 2 points on the school year - those who had a hog exposure to violent video games became more verbally and pensively aggressive and less prosocial
Several meta-analyses have found a consistent link between violent games and aggression and appears to hold for adults and children
One study found that ppts playing a violent game blasted opponents with white noise and rated higher on the hostility scale compared to those playing a puzzle game
Against negative effects of video games
Research has yet to identify a reliable casual link between video games and aggression
Methodological problems - lab experiments cannot measure real life aggression and longitudinal studies may be affected by other factors
Positive effects of video games
Those who played lemmings subsequently displayed more prosocial behaviour than aggressive or neutral - after playing for 8 mins, ppts saw researcher accidentally knock pencils onto the floor, prosocial = 67% helped, neutral = 33%, violent = 28%
Found that those who listed sims as their fave game said they had learned about social issues and explored them in the game, also found that those who regularly took part in social interaction related to the game were more committed civically and politically
Against positive effects of video games
Video game industry is less likely to make prosocial games as they are seen as less attractive and so wouldn't sell
Support for positive effects of video games
Video game shave been successfully used in treating PTSD - virtual Iraq allows soldiers to confront their trauma but in a controlled and low threat context
IDA - Real world application
Research has show the tetris can reduce memory flashbacks after traumatic events - ppts were shown traumatic images of their own personal injuries and 30 mins later, they either played Tetris for 10 mins, a pub quiz or nothing - those who played Tetris had fewer flashbacks than the others