Video gamers’ aggression linked to frustration
Is this result a universal feature of human psychology, or is it the product of a culture of immediate gratification and high self-esteem?
You could answer this question by trying an identical study in several different cultures.
Validation for pulling Flappy Bird!
I hope one day soon we can make significant strides within the mental health field and bring some sanity to both professionals, big business, and the everyday person.
Of course this is all nothing more than my opinion, and it's coming from a 20 year old who thinks he can develop the web's front-end w/o a college degree (also unemployed if that lends a hand at discrediting myself or preventing some of you from pulling hair from your head because of my ignorance). I hope none of you will argue the belief that the brain and the human body are both so complex that we are nowhere near fully understanding not only "it" and what "it" is in it's entirety and it's role in the world, but more importantly that we don't even know how it works. Some of you may agree with me in saying that we may never know everything about the human body/mind. (And by never I simply mean the foreseeable future.)
One day soon I hope the industry changes into a field where it goes undebateable that while yes, the human mind and body could quite possibly be one of the most complex systems we've ever seen in nature... it is still much different than the human mind. When we treat the human mind as something different from the human brain we stop becoming victims and take more control over our lives.
I think we need to stop simply "treating the brain and observing the mind." What I mean by this is the practice of Psychiatrists and their willingness to prescribe medication like a band-aid patching up deeply rooted emotional issues. IMO it is not only wrong, but detrimental to believe that behavior is the outcome and not the cause. I am a behaviorist at heart (maybe fool-heartedly) but I believe that the human brain in the natural world is so complex... that in a sense, it has created something potentially destructive to itself. What I mean by this, put very simple, is the ability to make ourselves believe that something exists. Whether it's a dependency (OCD, Food) or man-made fear itself (think scary movie - cabin in the dark woods), we have the ability to make these things real. Not real in the physical world, but real enough in our personal world. When bad things happen to us in the physical world, our body reacts. When a loved one passes away, you feel the pain, and often find yourself becoming more vulnerable to sickness from the stress.
When I was about 10 or 11 I bought an old crystal at a flea market that was so big I could hardly fit it in my palm. I liked it, and I liked owning it but never paid much attention to it until one day my Grandmother noticed that I had been carrying it around. She told me to sit down and she began telling me a story about how supposedly crystals are so powerful that some people claim that they can heal you when you're sick simply by holding them. She began telling how she knew of some people who specifically wore jewelry with crystals attached with nothing but the pure intention of gaining some kind of fortifying health benefits. I was so mystified by this idea of a powerful healing stone I began to carry this crystal around. I carried it around in my hand for most of that day and the following day it was in my pocket and later under my pillow when I slept. The length of time of this was 2 days, 1 night. By the second night I was overcome by a nauseating sickness.
As a kid I was so mystified by the coincidence. I figured that the crystal had to have been so powerful that it had the opposite effect on me and became too string of a healing stone.
I wont get into whether or not the power of crystals is something real or not. The irony in this story is that a couple of years later I found that same crystal lying around in a box somewhere. It had yellowed and felt slightly malleable to the touch as though if I pressed into it too hard with my thumbnail it might leave an imprint.
It was a fake.
It wasn't a crystal, is wasn't quartz. It was all in my head. I made myself sick because I believed in something so hard. This is the type of sickness that psychiatrists are running in place trying to remedy.
Of course there is a little more to the story but I'll cut it short here.
As for the article, I'm not sure, but I can tell you I've had much more anger come from fixing cars and working on engines than any video game could ever create inside of me. The difference is that it's very easy to walk away in a fit of rage after working on an engine. I'm not sure what the difference is, or if there is any difference other than rage created from a video game will get much more attention than a motorhead restoring an old car. That would mean that the difference is only based on perspective.
Just a thought, FWIW.