HIGH SCORES: HOW VIOLENCE AND FRUSTRATION IN VIDEO GAMES AFFECT AGGRESSION by KEVIN D. WILLIAMS (Under the Direction of Joseph Dominick) ABSTRACT As both the popularity of video games and the reporting of teenage violent acts increase, much has been said regarding the ability of violent video games to influence aggression in their players. Yet, other factors in video games which may contribute to aggressive players have not been heavily discussed in the media or in academia. Using the General Aggression Model (GAM), a 2 X 2 factorial design was conducted with 150 male college undergraduates playing different video games to investigate the impact of 1) the violent content in video games and 2) frustration with playing the game on later measurements of aggressive affect and physiological arousal. Results showed that neither violent content nor frustration affected heart rate. Violent content did not affect blood pressure although frustration increased blood pressure. Individually, both violent content and frustration did increase scores on a scale designed to measure feelings of anger. The combination of violent content and frustration led to the highest scores on the anger instrument. Findings support the GAM and suggest that frustration with gameplay could be just as an effective means, if not more so, of influencing aggression within game players as exposure to violent content. INDEX WORDS: Video games, Aggression, Violence, Frustration, Mortal Kombat, Dance Dance Revolution, Arousal, Heart rate, Blood Pressure, STAXI, Aggression Questionnaire, Hostility, General Aggression Model, Experiment HIGH SCORES: HOW VIOLENCE AND FRUSTRATION IN VIDEO GAMES AFFECT AGGRESSION by KEVIN D. WILLIAMS B.A., The University of Georgia, 1996 M.A., The University of Georgia, 2002 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2005 2005 Kevin D. Williams All Rights Reserved HIGH SCORES: HOW VIOLENCE AND FRUSTRATION IN VIDEO GAMES AFFECT AGGRESSION by KEVIN D. WILLIAMS Major Professor: Joseph Dominick Committee: Dean Krugman Spencer Tinkham Janice Hume W. Keith Campbell Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2005 DEDICATION I may never be given as much latitude in a publication’s dedication as I am given with this dissertation so I will say what I want now. As I write this, you have no idea or care for what I have done or what I am doing. Nor should you have any care. You are a small toddler and such matters should be of no concern to you. With this dissertation I have reached a great pinnacle, but it is dwarfed in comparison to the experience of having you in my life. When you are a child, I hope that we will have talks and I can share my observations of life with you. I hope that you will find the world a magical and mysterious place and I hope you will hold my hand as we share it together. You have bought so much joy into my life and such a deeper understanding of how important love really is. When you are around, I understand more fully what a blessing heaven truly could be; and when I think of a life without you, I can also imagine the intolerable pain of hell. When you are a teenager, we will no doubt have arguments over what seems to be monumental things in your life. You may not understand the stubborn decisions I make regarding you. You may even question how much I love you. I’ll probably be an aging hipster who seems lame and unknowledgeable about the current world. Still, I hope we laugh together and occasionally you’ll hold my hand. When you are in college or first away from home, you’ll become involved with others as your life expands beyond the normal horizons with which you were accustomed. You will find bigger ideas. You may find the love of your life or you may be heartbroken. Maybe you’ll miss me a little bit. The good thing about this dissertation is that it will probably be on the Internet for iv you to see. So, in a weird way, you could find this document and perhaps we could hold hands on this page. When you are an adult and are raising your own family, I may not be there to hold your hand. But, I promise you that I will always be near. Hopefully, you will have asked me questions about my life and our family, and you will use those lessons and inspiration in your own life. Hopefully, you will be able to feel me there still holding your hand. When you were born, you were premature and I was scared of how fragile you were. I would not touch you while the nurses attended you right after your delivery. As your uncle told me from behind the nursery glass window to touch you, I reached out my finger. You grabbed my hand and I felt my old self die away, reborn into your father. You held my hand and life hasn’t been the same since. This dissertation will help me to become a better provider for my family. I dedicate it to your life and the journeys you have ahead of you. Your daddy loves you very much, Alex. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In completing this project, I am reminded that I am most certainly not a self-made man. The opportunity to pursue this degree was provided to me only through the work and sacrifice of those around me. Most notably, my wife has sacrificed much to put me through school. She has shown the dedication, persistence, and understanding that only comes from a person who truly loves you. I may be a tall man but I constantly feel as though I am standing on your shoulders. Thank You. When I think of the word “blessing,” I am always reminded of my parents. I was blessed to be given them as parents. Without their unwavering support and gentle kindness, the path that leads me here would have been obscured. Thanks for letting me make my own decisions. I know you don’t totally understand what I do. In spite of that, I hope it makes you proud. Thanks are also in order to the two assistants who worked with me on this experiment. Hye Jin Yoon was an extremely diligent worker who picked up the material quickly. I enjoyed our little talks about culture and personal matters when we had “down” time. Matt Coleman was a student of mine who proved to be an expert on video games. His expertise in this area flooded over into the experiment, making him exuberant and eager to work every day. His energy and work ethic were always welcome. To my dissertation committee, I have had a class with all of you; and therefore, this work has been shaped by your mind in some way. You have honored me with your time and your perspective. Dr. Hume has always been there to help me in a pinch and provide guidance when I was unsure of things both academic and personal. She has been both a mentor and a friend. Dr. vi Krugman has shown me the value of thought. I have found his small chats into intellectual matters to have been at times more helpful than some full semester courses I have taken. Dr. Tinkham has impressed upon me the belief that a scholar is ever-busy. Even when you have reached the top of your field, your work is not done. Dr. Campbell has showed me that even among heavily producing scholars, Hawaiian shirts are acceptable and may even be necessary (think about that one for a while). I was told when I began my dissertation that I would be the last student Joe Dominick advised. This is a tremendous honor to me. When beginning my Masters degree in Joe’s class, I felt like I had found a professor who I most resembled. I also found the mentor that I wanted to become. This past year, Joe has served as a therapist, an adviser, a colleague, a supervisor, a friend, and an intellectual father-figure. My most sincere desire is that he feels this dissertation honors him. I have nearly worn a hole in his door from knocking on it daily with either a question in mind or just to tell him what progress I was making. I never had an appointment. I usually barged in. Yet, he never turned me away or rushed me off. Our mantra was, “Get me done in 3 years!” I started in August of 2002 and I’m finishing in August of 2005. We kept our promise. Thanks. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.............................................................................................................vi LIST OF TABLES.........................................................................................................................xi LIST OF FIGURES......................................................................................................................xii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................1 Background and Justification.............................................................................1 Purpose of the Study..........................................................................................6 2 THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF AGGRESSION..........................................8 Understanding Aggression and Its Related Constructs......................................8 Early Theories of Aggression..........................................................................11 Recent Theories of Aggression........................................................................13 GAM: Subsuming the Many Theories.............................................................30 GAM: How it Works.......................................................................................31 Concluding.......................................................................................................39 3 UNDERSTANDING THE RESEARCH ON VIDEO GAMES.............................42 Past Work Involving Media Violence..............................................................42 Video Games Versus Television......................................................................43 Video Games in the Home...............................................................................45 The Effect of Violent Video Games on Arousal..............................................49 viii