One of the most controversial topics here on Cognitive Daily is whether playing video games can lead to aggressive behavior or violence -- and one of the most dramatic demonstrations of the impact of violent video games was a 2000 study by Craig Anderson and Karen Dill. In that study, participants played violent or non-violent games, and then were asked to play another "game," this time against what they believed was a real person in a nearby room. In fact, there was no human opponent, and the game was rigged so that the player "won" half the time. The gamers were wearing headphones, and were allowed to administer a painful noise blast whenever they "won." When they lost, the computer produced a noise in the player's own headphones. Players who had previously played violent video games administered what they believed to be human opponents with significantly louder noise blasts than players who had played non-violent games.
But the Anderson and Dill study also made it clear that not all games are created equal: if some games led to more aggression than others, then perhaps some games could actually decrease aggression. A team led by Brian Meier designed a simple game to test this concept. 81 volunteers were shown words that randomly appeared in a corner of the computer screen. They had to click on each word, causing a new word to appear in its place. They were told to memorize these new words for a test later on.
In fact there was no test: what mattered was the sequence of words they were shown. For some players the words they clicked on were aggressive words like "hate" and "murder" half the time. These were nearly always followed by helpful words like "promise" or "share." The rest of the time the words they clicked on were neutral, and half the time these words were followed by helpful words, and half the time they were followed by neutral words.
The rest of the players played the same game, with one difference -- the aggressive words were replaced by random strings of the same letter, like "ssss" or "llll". So some players were trained to expect calming, helpful words after aggressive words, while others never saw the aggressive words. Did any of this have an impact on aggression?
After playing this game, everyone played the same game as in the Anderson and Dill study, blasting what they believed to be a human opponent with a noise as "punishment" for losing. Here are the results:
The players who had clicked on aggressive words and were then asked to memorize helpful words chose significantly lower levels of noise to blast their "opponents." A key to this study is that everyone saw just as many helpful words -- the only difference between the two groups is that for one group, the helpful words followed aggressive words. So it appears that training people to expect helpful words after seeing aggressive words somehow influences them to behave less aggressively when confronted with real-world hostility.
The aggressive/helpful group also took significantly longer to set the noise level compared to those who saw neutral/helpful words. Could this mean they are stopping to consider the consequences of their actions?
The researchers suggest that a game like this might be used in therapy for people with aggression or anger-management problems. It makes some sense -- if a game can train you to become aggressive, then a game could probably also train you to be less aggressive and more deliberative.
www.daybreakservices.com/games/lava/index.html
MEIER, B., WILKOWSKI, B., & ROBINSON, M. (2008). Bringing out the agreeableness in everyone: Using a cognitive self-regulation model to reduce aggression Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44 (5), 1383-1387 DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.05.005
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Heyward on golf: Anger management will increase enjoyment of game
An unfortunate occurrence in golf is a player losing his or her temper. Getting angry because of what happens on a golf course, no matter what or who caused the anger, is plain nonsense if it destroys what is supposed to be an enjoyable experience. Negative actions by one golfer can spoil not only his or her own pleasure, but also damage the fun for the rest of the group.
What are the benefits of eliminating temper? I play better golf; my friends and family have rejoined me and, best of all, I feel good about myself, I truly do experience joy when I play golf. If you want to eliminate temper from your personality while playing golf and, incidentally, enjoy the benefits of that absence that carries over into the rest of your life, take a good look at the following:
1. Make a decision right now to commit yourself to the conviction that you are in charge of yourself.
2. Subscribe to the concept that you and you alone own your feelings. Nothing outside of yourself can dictate to you how you feel, unless you give it or them permission to do so.
3. Temper in all forms, including hostility, irritation, anger at yourself, and anger at others ( persons, things or circumstance), will be eliminated from your personality.
4. On each round of golf you play from now on, mark a T on your personal scorecard at every hole where you become even slightly perturbed.
5. Temporarily stop playing for scores. Your new game is to play for zero Ts on your scorecard. If you have even one, you lose the round. If you have none, you win!
6. Continue playing for a total absence of Ts until you accomplish at lease three T-free rounds. Then resume your usual score-conscious efforts.
7. Never let a T occur on your scorecard again.
All you have to gain is the joy of golf in its real sense. All you have to lose is your temper.
Golf is a simple game, knock a ball from here to there with a stick, and hole it out. Simple, yes but not easy. It just looks easy, particularly on television when one watches the greatest players in the world hit incredible shots in routine fashion. When the show leaves the air, what happens? The golfing viewers are out the door and flocking to their courses immediately after switching off the set. They have spent two hours watching professionals who have practiced exhaustively since they were in grade school, who have the finest teachers in the world, who play with the best equipment, who compete three out of every four weeks during the year, and who feel that par is a bad round.
In comparison, the TV viewer is lucky to squeeze in two games a week, practices infrequently, takes too much of his instruction from friends, and uses clubs that are not matched to his swing. Yet this golfer somehow expects to perform like those players he saw on TV. How much more healthy and enjoyable it is to have a reasonable level of expectation. The over-competitive mindset is unrealistic and puts too much pressure on what should be a more relaxed experience. No player is ever going to be perfect, so golfers should become familiar with the words of a very well-known player, "Missing simple shorts is part of being human. Golfers are going to err so you should be prepared for it.
"All my life I wanted to play like Jack Nicklaus, and now I do." These are words spoken by Paul Harvey, a news commentator, after Jack Nicklaus shot an 83 in the British Open.
TOM HEYWARD is a PGA Master Professional. He writes a monthly column for The Sun News.
Contact Tom via e-mail at tsheyward@aol.com.
Daybreak Counseling Service
www.daybreakservices.com
310-995-1202
What are the benefits of eliminating temper? I play better golf; my friends and family have rejoined me and, best of all, I feel good about myself, I truly do experience joy when I play golf. If you want to eliminate temper from your personality while playing golf and, incidentally, enjoy the benefits of that absence that carries over into the rest of your life, take a good look at the following:
1. Make a decision right now to commit yourself to the conviction that you are in charge of yourself.
2. Subscribe to the concept that you and you alone own your feelings. Nothing outside of yourself can dictate to you how you feel, unless you give it or them permission to do so.
3. Temper in all forms, including hostility, irritation, anger at yourself, and anger at others ( persons, things or circumstance), will be eliminated from your personality.
4. On each round of golf you play from now on, mark a T on your personal scorecard at every hole where you become even slightly perturbed.
5. Temporarily stop playing for scores. Your new game is to play for zero Ts on your scorecard. If you have even one, you lose the round. If you have none, you win!
6. Continue playing for a total absence of Ts until you accomplish at lease three T-free rounds. Then resume your usual score-conscious efforts.
7. Never let a T occur on your scorecard again.
All you have to gain is the joy of golf in its real sense. All you have to lose is your temper.
Golf is a simple game, knock a ball from here to there with a stick, and hole it out. Simple, yes but not easy. It just looks easy, particularly on television when one watches the greatest players in the world hit incredible shots in routine fashion. When the show leaves the air, what happens? The golfing viewers are out the door and flocking to their courses immediately after switching off the set. They have spent two hours watching professionals who have practiced exhaustively since they were in grade school, who have the finest teachers in the world, who play with the best equipment, who compete three out of every four weeks during the year, and who feel that par is a bad round.
In comparison, the TV viewer is lucky to squeeze in two games a week, practices infrequently, takes too much of his instruction from friends, and uses clubs that are not matched to his swing. Yet this golfer somehow expects to perform like those players he saw on TV. How much more healthy and enjoyable it is to have a reasonable level of expectation. The over-competitive mindset is unrealistic and puts too much pressure on what should be a more relaxed experience. No player is ever going to be perfect, so golfers should become familiar with the words of a very well-known player, "Missing simple shorts is part of being human. Golfers are going to err so you should be prepared for it.
"All my life I wanted to play like Jack Nicklaus, and now I do." These are words spoken by Paul Harvey, a news commentator, after Jack Nicklaus shot an 83 in the British Open.
TOM HEYWARD is a PGA Master Professional. He writes a monthly column for The Sun News.
Contact Tom via e-mail at tsheyward@aol.com.
Daybreak Counseling Service
www.daybreakservices.com
310-995-1202
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