Running head: PROBLEM, SOLUTION, CONCLUSION SECTIONS AND REFERENCE
PAGE
Problem, Solution, Conclusion Sections and Reference Page
Mesfin Aragie
Rasmussen College
This essay is being submitted on May 15, 2014 for Tomas Stoltz, Professional Communication
B271/COM1007 course.
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PROBLEM, SOLUTION, CONCLUSION SECTIONS AND REFERENCE PAGE
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
PURPOSE
Our local school districts propose a plan where children volunteer to stop playing violent video
games for one year. The purpose of this program is to reduce or eliminate the negative effects of
playing violent video games that can accumulate over time and could be devastating on the
overall behavioral, social, physical and academicals wellbeing of students.
PROBLEM
Many researches and experimental studies indicate that playing violent video games have several
negative effects on children and adults. Playing violent video games increase aggressive
behavior, it teaches students to be disrespectful for authorities or parents, it also encourages
criminal behavior, stereotypes, and malice.
Solution (or Plan)
As a solution to the problem that caused by violent video games, with the cooperation of students
and parents, the school district proposes a plan for students to stop playing violent video games
for a year. The school explained to the kids the consequences of playing video games and
encourages them to have other means to spend their free time. As an additional measure, the
school district selects and suggests appropriate games and advises parents to monitor, to be a role
model, and to play games with their kids.
CONCLUSION:
The main goals of the school program for student volunteers to stop playing violent video games
are to improve their academic performance, to lower hostile behavior of students either in school
or at home, and to measure the overall improvements of students in their behavioral, physical,
social, and academicals performances.
PROBLEM, SOLUTION, CONCLUSION SECTIONS AND REFERENCE PAGE
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PURPOSE
Our local school districts propose a plan where children volunteer to stop playing violent video
games for one year. The purpose of this program is to reduce or eliminate the negative effects of
playing violent video games that can accumulate over time and could be devastating on the
overall behavioral, social, physical and academicals wellbeing of students. The school proposes
this plan to break the habit of playing video games and to prevent the kids from becoming
aggressive and violent. After a year, the school will measure the behavioral, academic, social life
and physical performance changes of students. The main reason the school district proposes this
plan is to lower aggressive behavior and violence from the school ground or the community. And
by eliminating unnecessary distraction the school wanted to improve academic performance of
the students. The school proposes this because there is an increase in aggressive behavior on
students because of violent video games. Students who play violent video games are more likely
to have aggressive thoughts, criminal behavior, and disrespect for the school or any authority.
According to Dr. Anderson who published his own findings after studying 225 college students
aged 18 to 25. “Those with a teenage history of game-playing scored lower marks in school and
were more aggressive than their non-game-playing peers, he found. Worse, a 1998 study
published in Psychological Reports found that one in five adolescents could be classified as
pathologically dependent on video games. Young boys with pre-existing aggressive tendencies
were especially vulnerable to ill effects. Even normal children exposed briefly to violent video
games experienced a temporary rise in aggressive behavior.” (Ko, 2000).
PROBLEM, SOLUTION, CONCLUSION SECTIONS AND REFERENCE PAGE
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Most kids are becoming an addicted of
video games this days, what starts out as
innocent recreation and a happy playing
time became an addiction. The high
score, the new discovery, the will to beat
the games and the role-playing are some
of the reasons that make video game
addictive.
Image taken from http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/tag/video-game-violence/
PROBLEM
Many researches and experimental studies indicate that playing violent video games have several
negative effects on children and adults. Playing violent video games increase aggressive
behavior, it teaches students to be disrespectful for authorities or parents, it also encourages
criminal behavior, stereotypes, and malice. Some video games teach kids the wrong value; like
considering killing as normal, foul language, sexual or gender stereotypes. And students who
play games regularly are tending to be socially isolated.
A researcher examines a new study provides the first experimental evidence that the negative
effects of playing violent video games can accumulate over time. According to the study,
researchers found that people who played a violent video game for three consecutive days
showed increases in aggressive behavior and hostile expectations each day they played.
Meanwhile, those who played nonviolent games showed no meaningful changes in aggression or
hostile expectations over that period. (Bushman, 2012)
PROBLEM, SOLUTION, CONCLUSION SECTIONS AND REFERENCE PAGE
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In addition to behavioral problems, violent video games also have negative effects on students’
academic achievements, social life and health. Students who play violent video games have poor
performance and lower grades. In addition to that the long hours they spent on video games is
making them awkward, socially isolated and affects their health. The problem is worsened
recently with the increase of sophisticated video games and consoles.
Some studies indicate that
children's exposure to violent
video games leads to long-term
increases in their risk for
behaving aggressively and
violently. These long-term
effects are a consequence of the
powerful observational
learning and desensitization processes those neuroscientists and psychologists now understand
to occur automatically in the human child. Children automatically acquire scripts for the
behaviors they observe. Image taken from
http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/game-over-for-video-game-violence-alarmism/
SOLUTION
As a solution to the problem that caused by violent video games, with the cooperation of students
and parents, the school district proposes a plan for students to stop playing violent video games
for a year. The school explained to the kids the consequences of playing video games and
encourages them to have other means to spend their free time like developing useful hobbies,
PROBLEM, SOLUTION, CONCLUSION SECTIONS AND REFERENCE PAGE
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meeting with new people, exercising, and to perform other outdoor activities. As an additional
measure, the school district selects and suggests appropriate games and asks professionals if the
particular game is appropriate for kids. The district also advises parents to monitor, to be a role
model, to set clear gaming rule, to strongly warn kids about the potential danger of video games
and to spent family times and to play non-violent games with their kids.
One thing that distinguish violent video games from violent movies is, games are not passive. In
order to play and win, the players must engage in the game and has to be the aggressor. In other
words the video games are training our kids to be a serial killer.
Images taken from http://gamersworldplus.com/?attachment_id=2612,
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/09/10/fox-amp-friends-hypes-flawed-link-betweenmass/195811
CONCLUSION
Most of the bad effects of video games are blamed on the violence they contain. Children who
play more violent video games are more likely to have increased aggressive thoughts, feelings,
and behaviors, and decreased prosaically helping, according to a scientific study (Anderson &
Bushman, 2001). The effect of video game violence in kids is worsened by the games’
PROBLEM, SOLUTION, CONCLUSION SECTIONS AND REFERENCE PAGE
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interactive nature. In many games, kids are rewarded for being more violent. The act of
violence is done repeatedly. The child is in control of the violence and experiences the violence
in his own eyes. The school district understands action must have taken to stop this malice. The
main goals of the school program for student volunteers to stop playing violent video games are
to improve their academic performance, to lower hostile behavior of students either in school or
at home, and to measure the overall improvements of students in their behavioral, physical,
social, and academicals performances. If the outcome of this proposal is positive, the school
district has a plan to expand this experience to other students and schools.
After certain period of time, the school can measure the benefits of not playing video games and
its’ impacts on students. What is the change in the students overall academic performance? What
improvement students show on their behavioral, physical, and social lives? What can the school
learn from this and how the experience benefited the students?
Students that played video games regularly have a shorter attention span, lower grades than
non-player students, and poor performance in all science, language, or math skills. On average
some students spent 5-8 hours playing games, this means they don’t have time for studying,
homework or other school
activities
Image taken from
http://mediaviolence.org/ot
her-groups/impacts-on-theclassroom/
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References
Bushman, B. (2012, December 10). Violent Video Games: More Playing Time Equals
More Aggression. Retrieved from http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/
violgametime.html
Greitemeyer, T. (2014). I Am Right, You Are Wrong: How Biased Assimilation Increases the
Perceived Gap between Believers and Skeptics of Violent Video Game Effects: e93440. I
Am Right, You Are Wrong: How Biased Assimilation Increases the Perceived Gap
between Believers and Skeptics of Violent Video Game Effects: e93440, 9(4)
http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/10.1371/ journal.pone.0093440
Ko, M. (2000, May 22). Mortal consequences: New studies find video games lead to violent,
anti-social behavior in children. Report Newsmagazine, 27(2), 47
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/cv_565052/docview/214880727/
8CBA22C531704983PQ/3?accountid=40836
Percival, J. (2008, January 27). Crackdown on sales of violent video games: [FINAL Edition].
Scotland on Sunday, p. 9.
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/docview/326650750/A0EF23C18D15
4A39PQ/8?accountid=40836
PROBLEM, SOLUTION, CONCLUSION SECTIONS AND REFERENCE PAGE
Tumbokon, C. (2009). The positive and negative effects of video games. Retrieved April 30,
2014, from http://www.raisesmartkid.com/3-to-6-years-old/ 4-articles/34-the-good-andbad-effects-of-video-games
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