Video games in psychotherapy.

Video games have found their way into the clinical care of youth in most medical fields, and academic interest in their use is increasing steadily. The popularity of video games among youth may qualify them as a useful tool in psychotherapy for children and adolescents. Limited literature on use of video games in mental health care suggests that they can help young patients become more cooperative and enthusiastic about psychotherapy. Recent experience suggests that video games may facilitate therapeutic relationships, complement the psychological assessment of youth by evaluating cognitive skills, and elaborate and clarify conflicts during the therapy process. Concerns about video game content, perceived effects on youth, and lack of familiarity with this medium may form a barrier in their use in therapy offices. Further research on the benefits of video game use in psychotherapy, including patient characteristics that may moderate outcomes, is needed. Finally, future collaborations between clinicians and video game developers may produce specific games to be used in psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exposure to violent media: The effects of songs with violent lyrics on aggressive thoughts and feelings.

Five experiments examined effects of songs with violent lyrics on aggressive thoughts and hostile feelings. Experiments 1, 3, 4 and 5 demonstrated that college students who heard a violent song felt more hostile than those who heard a similar but nonviolent song. Experiments 2-5 demonstrated a similar increase in aggressive thoughts. These effects replicated across songs and song types (e.g., rock, humorous, nonhumorous). Experiments 3-5 also demonstrated that trait hostility was positively related to state hostility but did not moderate the song lyric effects. Discussion centers on the potential role of lyric content on aggression in short-term settings, relation to catharsis and other media violence domains, development of aggressive personality, differences between long-term and short-term effects, and possible mitigating factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Video games and spatial cognition.

Video game enthusiasts spend many hours at play, and this intense activity has the potential to alter both brain and behavior. We review studies that investigate the ability of video games to modify processes in spatial cognition. We outline the initial stages of research into the underlying mechanisms of learning, and we also consider possible applications of this new knowledge. Several experiments have shown that playing action games induces changes in a number of sensory, perceptual, and attentional abilities that are important for many tasks in spatial cognition. These basic capacities include contrast sensitivity, spatial resolution, the attentional visual field, enumeration, multiple object tracking, and visuomotor coordination and speed. In addition to altering performance on basic tasks, playing action video games has a beneficial effect on more complex spatial tasks such as mental rotation, thus demonstrating that learning generalizes far beyond the training activities in the game. Far transfer of this sort is generally elusive in learning, and we discuss some early attempts to elucidate the brain functions that are responsible. Finally, we suggest that studying video games may contribute not only to an improved understanding of the mechanisms of learning but may also offer new approaches to teaching spatial skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Video games in health care: Closing the gap.

Although a great deal of media attention has been given to the negative effects of playing video games, relatively less attention has been paid to the positive effects of engaging in this activity. Video games in health care provide ample examples of innovative ways to use existing commercial games for health improvement or surgical training. Tailor-made games help patients be more adherent to treatment regimens and train doctors how to manage patients in different clinical situations. In this review, examples in the scientific literature of commercially available and tailor-made games used for education and training with patients and medical students and doctors are summarized. There is a history of using video games with patients from the early days of gaming in the 1980s, and this has evolved into a focus on making tailor-made games for different disease groups, which have been evaluated in scientific trials more recently. Commercial video games have been of interest regarding their impact on surgical skill. More recently, some basic computer games have been developed and evaluated that train doctors in clinical skills. The studies presented in this article represent a body of work outlining positive effects of playing video games in the area of health care. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Human behavior between instinct, feelings and responsibility

The paper deals with the fundamental problem: How does the brain (in the way it is and the way it functions) influence human experience, behaviour and social interaction? Deriving from this question, there's the matter of how all this influences people as road users. After some epistemological considerations the following subjects are dealt with the article: the human perception and human "reality", the limits of human imagination, the basis of human learning, the complexity of processes within the brain, the reaction to changes and the ability to concentrate as well as McLean's theory of the triune brain. The subjects are complemented by aspects of biological and socio-cultural evolution of man, starting from evolutionary ethics going right up to the problem of responsibility.     

Level-of-aspiration behavior and feelings of adequacy and self-acceptance.

Using data obtained from the Rorschach, it was found that goal-level setting was not related to feelings of adequacy as defined in this study. However, it was found that both very high and very low goal setting were related to self-rejection, and that only those who could accept themselves were able to use low positive goal setting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of distressed and aggressive behavior.

Two studies examined the hypothesis that distressed behavior induces negative emotions in others but also prompts solicitousness and deters aggression. In Study 1, 48 marital dyads rated various behaviors in terms of their feelings and reactions toward a spouse engaging in each behavior. Distressed behavior prompted both negative and solicitous emotions, but deterred hostile reactions. Aggressive behavior prompted negative feelings and hostile and argumentative reactions. In Study 2, 41 couples rated videotaped examples of a woman engaging in distressed, aggressive, or neutral behavior, with variations in verbal content and nonverbal affect. Examples of distressed behavior prompted more negative feelings and more solicitous feelings than neutral behavior. Aggressive examples prompted more negative feelings and hostile reactions. The studies indicate the importance of distinguishing between distressed and aggressive behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Consistency of assertive, aggressive, and submissive behavior for children.

Assessed the interpersonal behavior of 50 3rd–5th grade children (22 boys and 28 girls) over an 8-mo period in a wide variety of naturally occurring school activities. The consistency of the Ss' behavior was found to vary as a function of the S's sex, the class of behavior examined, and the similarity–dissimilarity of the contexts in which the behaviors occurred. Boys demonstrated remarkable consistency in their aggressive expression; 46 of 105 intercorrelations for the aggressiveness dimensions were statistically significant. In general, the consistency of assertive behavior for both boys and girls was unexpectedly high. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hostility in Rorschach content and overt aggressive behavior.

"The Rorschach was administered to 96 hospitalized psychotic veterans, 48 assaultive and 48 nonassaultive, under one of five conditions. Test records were scored for aggressive content… . It was predicted that there is a positive correlation between the behavioral and test measures of aggression, and that the test measure is influenced by the… power and status of the examiner. A significant positive correlation… was found." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social connections and suicidal thoughts and behavior.

Disrupted social connectedness is associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors among individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs). The current study sought to further characterize this relationship by examining several indices of social connectedness—(a) living alone, (b) perceived social support, (c) interpersonal conflict, and (d) belongingness. Participants (n = 814) were recruited from 4 residential substance-use treatment programs and completed self-report measures of social connectedness as well as whether they had ever thought about or attempted suicide. Multivariate results indicated that interpersonal conflict and belongingness were significant predictors of a history of suicidal ideation, and that belongingness, perceived social support, and living alone were significant predictors of suicide attempt. These results indicate the most consistent support for the relationship between suicidality and thwarted belongingness, and also support the clinical utility of assessing whether individuals live alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation between barrier scores and aggressive behavior.

A study by Fisher and Cleveland (1958) indicated that high barrier Ss express anger outwardly, yet other investigations have indicated low barrier Ss are more impulsive and aggressive. A study of barrier scores in a sample of 75 juvenile delinquents indicated that the delinquents had barrier scores significantly lower than nondelinquent adolescents; moreover the more seriously delinquent Ss had barrier scores significantly lower than the less seriously delinquent Ss. Correlational data also indicated some association between low barrier scores and aggressiveness. Adaptiveness of aggression in various situations and on the interpretation of the barrier score as an index of ego identity as opposed to ego diffusion are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Desensitization to media violence: Links with habitual media violence exposure, aggressive cognitions, and aggressive behavior.

This study examined the links between desensitization to violent media stimuli and habitual media violence exposure as a predictor and aggressive cognitions and behavior as outcome variables. Two weeks after completing measures of habitual media violence exposure, trait aggression, trait arousability, and normative beliefs about aggression, undergraduates (N = 303) saw a violent film clip and a sad or a funny comparison clip. Skin conductance level (SCL) was measured continuously, and ratings of anxious and pleasant arousal were obtained after each clip. Following the clips, participants completed a lexical decision task to measure accessibility of aggressive cognitions and a competitive reaction time task to measure aggressive behavior. Habitual media violence exposure correlated negatively with SCL during violent clips and positively with pleasant arousal, response times for aggressive words, and trait aggression, but it was unrelated to anxious arousal and aggressive responding during the reaction time task. In path analyses controlling for trait aggression, normative beliefs, and trait arousability, habitual media violence exposure predicted faster accessibility of aggressive cognitions, partly mediated by higher pleasant arousal. Unprovoked aggression during the reaction time task was predicted by lower anxious arousal. Neither habitual media violence usage nor anxious or pleasant arousal predicted provoked aggression during the laboratory task, and SCL was unrelated to aggressive cognitions and behavior. No relations were found between habitual media violence viewing and arousal in response to the sad and funny film clips, and arousal in response to the sad and funny clips did not predict aggressive cognitions or aggressive behavior on the laboratory task. This suggests that the observed desensitization effects are specific to violent content. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive/affective reactions in the improvement of self-esteem: When thoughts and feelings make a difference.

Investigated the hypothesis that in some contexts people may give more weight to their cognitive-affective reactions than to their behavioral reactions when making self-evaluative inferences. 69 university students who participated as Ss were administered the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventories and a self-concept inventory. In 1 of 2 contexts, Ss recalled either their positive cognitive-affective reactions, their positive behavioral reactions, or their unspecified positive reactions to several standard situations; these were reactions that had led them to feel a special appreciation for their own personal qualities. The experimental context of these recollections involved either private rehearsal, in which Ss simply thought about their past reactions, or public expression, in which they presented their reactions verbally while being tape-recorded. The impact of Ss' recollections on their subsequent self-esteem in each context was assessed. Results show that recalling positive cognitive-affective reactions had a significantly greater impact on self-esteem than did recalling positive behavioral or unspecified reactions when these recollections took place in a private, nonevaluative context, but not when they took place in the more public context in which the perspective of outside observers was likely to have been salient. Findings are discussed in terms of theories of self-inference processes and of actor–observer differences. Probable limitations of the findings are outlined. (73 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional arousal and aggressive behavior

Reviews evidence that (a) supported the proposition that general emotional arousal facilitates aggression in the presence of aggressive cues and (b) substantiated the position that an arousal state of anger specifically increases the instigation to aggression. Furthermore, research is reviewed which supports the view that additional general arousal increases or decreases the effect of anger on aggression, depending on whether the arousal state is attributed to the source of the anger or to another source of general arousal. Controversy about the anger/aggression relation is discussed in terms of the failure to specify the function of the aggressive response. Research revealed that if the aggressive response is directed primarily toward injuring the target (but not toward some other goal), an angered person expresses aggression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of affective assessment in modeling aggressive behavior.

Examined the role of affective assessment, a self-generated influence in learning acquisition, in the A. Bandura et al (1963) modeling-of-aggression procedure. 32 1st- and 2nd-grade children rated toys and televised acts of aggression against an inflated doll according to their personal affective preference. A matched control group of 32 children was yoked to the affective preferences of the experimental Ss. Control Ss were not shown the televised aggression. All Ss were then introduced to a free-play situation in which toys and an inflated doll were present. In line with the Bandura et al findings, it was predicted that observational learning would be demonstrated across conditions. However, in line with logical learning theory, it was predicted that Ss would model affectively preferred aggressive acts and toys more readily than affectively dispreferred acts and toys. Boys and girls differed significantly only in their imitation of positively rated aggressive actions, not in their imitation of negatively rated actions. Ramifications for the TV violence/aggression issue are discussed. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Magnesium deficiency alters aggressive behavior and catecholamine function.

Magnesium is an abundant mineral in the brain and is important for monoamine neurotransmitter synthesis and receptor binding. It should, therefore, have behavior-altering effects. Three experiments were conducted to determine the influence of magnesium deficiencies on aggressive behavior and catecholamine function in mice. There were concentration- and time-dependent reductions in offensive aggressive behavior with magnesium deficiencies. Defensive behavior was affected in a manner opposite to that of offensive behavior. Upon administration of low doses of apomorphine and l-amphetamine, less dopamine- and norepinephrine-related behavior occurred with less magnesium in the diet. These reductions also showed a time dependency. These data demonstrate that magnesium has an influence on aggressive behavior in mice. Also, a magnesium deficiency is capable of altering the potency of catecholamine stimulating drugs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of early aggressive behavior in the frequency, seriousness, and types of later crime.

This study reports on the relation between aggressive behavior at early school age and later delinquent activities of 1,027 subjects (517 boys and 510 girls) prospectively followed from late childhood to adulthood. The research group was a fairly unbiased age sample of children, covering most of the range of social and psychological upbringing conditions for 10-year-old children in a Swedish community. Aggressiveness was measured by teacher ratings at ages 10 and 13 years. Delinquency, defined as registered lawbreaking, was covered through age 26. There was a strong connection between both the aggressiveness ratings at ages 10 and 13 and adult delinquency for boys, with the majority of delinquents and recidivists being recruited from the early-aggressive boys. High ratings of aggressiveness were characteristic of boys who later committed violent crimes and damage to public property and generally of subjects with a diversified offense pattern. Aggressiveness was not predictive of later crime for girls until they reached the age of 13. For both sexes the relation between aggressiveness and crime was to a large extent independent of intelligence and family education. The possibility of making individual prognoses and the role of aggressiveness for the sexes are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)