Moral Disengagement in Violent Video Games Case Assignment

Moral Disengagement in Violent Video Games Case Assignment

Order ID	53563633773
Type	Essay
Writer Level	Masters
Style	APA
Sources/References	4
Perfect Number of Pages to Order	5-10 Pages

Description/Paper Instructions

Moral Disengagement in Violent Video Games Case Assignment

Journal of Communication ISSN 0021-9916

ORIGINAL ART ICLE

It’s Okay to Shoot a Character: Moral Disengagement in Violent Video Games Tilo Hartmann & Peter Vorderer

Department of Communication Science, Center for Advanced Media Research Amsterdam, VU-Free University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands

What makes virtual violence enjoyable rather than aversive? Two 2×2 experiments tested the assumption that moral disengagement cues provided by a violent video game’s narrative and game play lessen users’ guilt and negative affect, which would otherwise undermine players’ enjoyment of the game. Experiment 1 found that users’

familiarity with the violent game reduced guilt and negative affect, and enhanced enjoyment, whereas opponents’ nonhuman outer appearance and blameworthiness had no effect. Experiment 2 found that fighting for a just purpose, perceiving less mayhem, and framing the overall situation as ‘‘just a game’’ or ‘‘just an experiment’’ reduced

guilt and negative affect, whereas the distorted portrayal of consequences did not. Effects on game enjoyment were mixed and suggest that moral disengagement cues may both foster and diminish game enjoyment.

doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2009.01459.x

Playing video games has become one of the most popular leisure activities among youth (Smith, 2006). Violent video games, particularly first-person-shooters like Half-Life II or Doom3, are among the best-selling video games. Male adolescents are especially prone to play violent video games (Hartmann & Klimmt, 2006; Jansz, 2005).

Violent games have been criticized and praised both in society and in science. Critics’ biggest concern is that violent games could make their user more aggressive.

Indeed, abundant research finds evidence that playing violent games increases short-term aggressive cognitions, feelings, and behavioral intentions (Anderson, 2004). Users easily perceive computer-mediated characters as social beings (Scholl & Tremoulet, 2005). Accordingly, research finds that aggressive video game play stimulates

the same brain activity as real-life aggression does (Weber, Ritterfeld, & Mathiak, 2006). With this in mind, it seems immoral to play violent games, as the virtual violence appears to have serious consequences (Elton, 2000). Those who enjoy playing violent video games, however, often say that they feel no wrong committing virtual violence

(Ladas, 2002). Rather, they highlight their enjoyment from playing violent games (Jansz, 2005).

Corresponding author: Tilo Hartmann; e-mail: t.hartmann@fsw.vu.nl

94 Journal of Communication 60 (2010) 94–119 © 2010 International Communication Association

1. Hartmann & P. Vorderer Moral Disengagement

Little past research has tried to examine both sides of the debate together, determining the circumstances under which virtual violence produces enjoyment rather than moral distress and distaste. The present studies pursue this goal by studying the psychological processes of moral disengagement in violent video games. We assume

that violent games are generally enjoyable when players consider shooting virtual characters to be justifiable.

The puzzle of enjoyable virtual violence

Drawing on Baron and Richardson’s (1994) definition of aggression, virtual violence can be defined as any user behavior that follows the intention to do harm to other social characters in a video game, while the game characters are motivated to avoid the harm-doing. One could argue that the concept of doing harm does not apply to video

games at all, because game characters are not living beings and thus do not fall into the ‘‘scope of justice’’ (Opotow, 1990, p. 3). In fact, users of violent games argue that shooting opponents in a video game does not constitute the elimination of social entities but rather the removal of objects or obstacles (Ladas, 2002). If so, the term

‘‘virtual violence’’ would be inappropriate, because such acts lack another living being against whom the violence is committed.

The present approach, however, presumes that users perceive video game charac- ters not as objects, but as social entities. Three arguments support this assumption. First, mediated cues easily trigger our automatic social perceptions, creating the sense that another social entity is present. As Heberlein and Adolphs (2004) summarize:

‘‘Anthropomorphizing [. . .] occurs when we attribute social meanings to stimuli that are not social, such as computers or clouds, presumably based on cues that signal the presence of agency or emotion. That we do so universally and automatically is a hallmark of human cognition’’ (p. 7490).

Also, according to Mar and Macrae (2006), ‘‘[Humans] routinely view quite abstract nonliving representations as if they were intentional agents’’ (p. 110, see also ‘‘Ethopoeia’’ in Nass & Moon, 2000). Related research from various scientific domains indicates that people automatically identify social entities once they detect biological

motion (Ahlstrom, Blake, & Ahlstrom, 1997; Morewedge, Preston, & Wegner, 2007), readily perceive simple action-sequences with artificial objects as social (Heider & Simmel, 1944; Oatley & Yuill, 1985), easily anthro- pomorphize nonhuman characters (Epley, Waytz, & Cacioppo, 2007; Mar & Macrae, 2006), automatically behave toward

computers and computer-animated agents as if they were human (Bente, Kraemer, Petersen, & deRuiter, 2001; Scholl & Tremoulet, 2000; Yee, Bailenson, Urbanek, Chang, & Merget, 2007) or social actors (Nass & Noon, 2000; Reeves & Nass, 1996), are inclined to feel empathy toward animated characters (Morrison & Ziemke, 2005), and

consequently tend to feel as though they are in a social situation if a computer-animated character is displayed (Garau, Slater, Pertaub, & Razzaque, 2005; Hartmann, 2008). Thus, multiple strands of research provide compelling evidence that users readily perceive mediated objects as social beings, primarily due to automatic social

perception processes. Recent research

Journal of Communication 60 (2010) 94–119 © 2010 International Communication Association 95

Moral Disengagement in Violent Video Games Case Assignment

RUBRIC QUALITY OF RESPONSE NO RESPONSE POOR / UNSATISFACTORY SATISFACTORY GOOD EXCELLENT Content (worth a maximum of 50% of the total points) Zero points:  Student failed to submit the final paper. 20 points out of 50:  The essay illustrates poor understanding of the relevant material by failing to address or incorrectly addressing the relevant content; failing to identify or inaccurately explaining/defining key concepts/ideas; ignoring or incorrectly explaining key points/claims and the reasoning behind them; and/or incorrectly or inappropriately using terminology; and elements of the response are lacking. 30 points out of 50:  The essay illustrates a rudimentary understanding of the relevant material by mentioning but not full explaining the relevant content; identifying some of the key concepts/ideas though failing to fully or accurately explain many of them; using terminology, though sometimes inaccurately or inappropriately; and/or incorporating some key claims/points but failing to explain the reasoning behind them or doing so inaccurately.  Elements of the required response may also be lacking. 40 points out of 50:  The essay illustrates solid understanding of the relevant material by correctly addressing most of the relevant content; identifying and explaining most of the key concepts/ideas; using correct terminology; explaining the reasoning behind most of the key points/claims; and/or where necessary or useful, substantiating some points with accurate examples.  The answer is complete. 50 points:  The essay illustrates exemplary understanding of the relevant material by thoroughly and correctly addressing the relevant content; identifying and explaining all of the key concepts/ideas; using correct terminology explaining the reasoning behind key points/claims and substantiating, as necessary/useful, points with several accurate and illuminating examples.  No aspects of the required answer are missing. Use of Sources (worth a maximum of 20% of the total points). Zero points:  Student failed to include citations and/or references. Or the student failed to submit a final paper. 5 out 20 points:  Sources are seldom cited to support statements and/or format of citations are not recognizable as APA 6th Edition format. There are major errors in the formation of the references and citations. And/or there is a major reliance on highly questionable. The Student fails to provide an adequate synthesis of research collected for the paper. 10 out 20 points:  References to scholarly sources are occasionally given; many statements seem unsubstantiated.  Frequent errors in APA 6th Edition format, leaving the reader confused about the source of the information. There are significant errors of the formation in the references and citations. And/or there is a significant use of highly questionable sources. 15 out 20 points:  Credible Scholarly sources are used effectively support claims and are, for the most part, clear and fairly represented.  APA 6th Edition is used with only a few minor errors.  There are minor errors in reference and/or citations. And/or there is some use of questionable sources. 20 points:  Credible scholarly sources are used to give compelling evidence to support claims and are clearly and fairly represented.  APA 6th Edition format is used accurately and consistently. The student uses above the maximum required references in the development of the assignment. Grammar (worth maximum of 20% of total points) Zero points:  Student failed to submit the final paper. 5 points out of 20:  The paper does not communicate ideas/points clearly due to inappropriate use of terminology and vague language; thoughts and sentences are disjointed or incomprehensible; organization lacking; and/or numerous grammatical, spelling/punctuation errors  10 points out 20:  The paper is often unclear and difficult to follow due to some inappropriate terminology and/or vague language; ideas may be fragmented, wandering and/or repetitive; poor organization; and/or some grammatical, spelling, punctuation errors 15 points out of 20:  The paper is mostly clear as a result of appropriate use of terminology and minimal vagueness; no tangents and no repetition; fairly good organization; almost perfect grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word usage. 20 points:  The paper is clear, concise, and a pleasure to read as a result of appropriate and precise use of terminology; total coherence of thoughts and presentation and logical organization; and the essay is error free. Structure of the Paper (worth 10% of total points) Zero points:  Student failed to submit the final paper. 3 points out of 10: Student needs to develop better formatting skills. The paper omits significant structural elements required for and APA 6th edition paper. Formatting of the paper has major flaws. The paper does not conform to APA 6th edition requirements whatsoever. 5 points out of 10: Appearance of final paper demonstrates the student’s limited ability to format the paper. There are significant errors in formatting and/or the total omission of major components of an APA 6th edition paper. They can include the omission of the cover page, abstract, and page numbers. Additionally the page has major formatting issues with spacing or paragraph formation. Font size might not conform to size requirements.  The student also significantly writes too large or too short of and paper 7 points out of 10: Research paper presents an above-average use of formatting skills. The paper has slight errors within the paper. This can include small errors or omissions with the cover page, abstract, page number, and headers. There could be also slight formatting issues with the document spacing or the font Additionally the paper might slightly exceed or undershoot the specific number of required written pages for the assignment. 10 points: Student provides a high-caliber, formatted paper. This includes an APA 6th edition cover page, abstract, page number, headers and is double spaced in 12’ Times Roman Font. Additionally, the paper conforms to the specific number of required written pages and neither goes over or under the specified length of the paper.
GET THIS PROJECT NOW BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK TO PLACE THE ORDER CLICK ON THE LINK HERE:  https://essaysolver.com/orders/ordernow You Can Also Place the Order In www.perfectacademic.com/orders/ordernow / www.essaysolver.com/orders/ordernow
Do You Have Any Other Essay/Assignment/Class Project/Homework Related to this? Click Here Now [CLICK ME] and Have It Done by Our PhD Qualified Writers!!

PLACE THE ORDER WITH US TODAY AND GET A PERFECT SCORE!!!

Do You Have Any Other Essay/Assignment/Class Project/Homework Related to this? Click Here Now [CLICK ME] and Have It Done by Our PhD Qualified Writers!!

Why Work With Us!!

• Tired of getting an average grade in all your school assignments, projects, essays, and homework? Try us today for all your academic schoolwork needs. We are among the most trusted and recognized professional writing services in the market.

• We provide unique, original and plagiarism-free high quality academic, homework, assignments and essay submissions for all our clients. At our company, we capitalize on producing A+ Grades for all our clients and also ensure that you have smooth academic progress in all your school term and semesters.

• High-quality academic submissions, A 100% plagiarism-free submission, Meet even the most urgent deadlines, Provide our services to you at the most competitive rates in the market, Give you free revisions until you meet your desired grades and Provide you with 24/7 customer support service via calls or live chats.