Experimental Design

The hypothesis I am evaluating is whether playing violent video or computer games makes children more aggressive and violent. The independent variable in the hypothesis is playing violent video games. The dependent variable is aggressive and/or violent behavior. To test this hypothesis, I will design an experiment.
First, I will randomly select 36 sixth grade students, 18 males and 18 females, from Delhi Public School. I will obtain a list of all sixth grade students (approximately 100 students) from the principal, stratify the list by sex, then randomly select 18 students from the list of males and 18 students from the list of females. Computer generated random numbers will be used to make the selections. Parents of the selected children will be contacted via telephone, informed of the nature of the study, and, if they agree verbally to allow their child to participate ( telephonic conversation would be recorded). If a selected child’s parent does not allow them to participate, an alternate will be randomly selected using the procedure described above. After all 36 parental consent, the students will be contacted and asked personally if they are willing to participate in a study evaluating video and computer games. They will not be told the study is about violence in such games else the children might alter their behavior if they knew the true nature of the study.
Once the 36 students agree to be in the study, they will be randomly assigned to 3 groups (2 experimental groups and 1 control group), each containing 6 males and 6 females. Computer generated random numbers will be used to make assignments. The three groups will be scheduled to meet separately at the school on three successive afternoons from 10:00am to 2:00 pm. The dependent variable (violent or aggressive behavior) will be operationalized through direct observation. After the students gather on the scheduled time, the students will be placed in a room with table, chairs, and several age appropriate books and toys. The children will be told that they may play with whatever they like, but must remain in the room until the researcher returns for them. There would be CCTV cameras in the room that would “record / watch “ the children play in the room. A research assistant would also be present there to volunteer to watch the children.
The tally sheet lists indicators of violence and aggression and provides a space for marking the number of occurrences witnessed. Aggressive and violent behavior is defined as any behavior that intentionally harms or threatens to harm another person or object and includes verbal as well as physical aggression. Indicators of physical violence or aggression include actually or attempting to hit, slap, punch, kick, pinch, poke, bite, shove, push, bump, stab, cut, shoot, throw something at, or spit on another person or object.
It also includes forcefully taking an object from another person. Indicators of verbal violence or aggression include screaming or yelling at someone or something and insulting or threatening someone or something. Pretend violence (violence that is acted out as a part of play) will not be counted as act of violence or aggression.
To reduce the likelihood of researcher bias or influence, the research assistant will not know whether they are observing an experimental or control group. Tallies from the research assistant will be compared with that as taken down by the researcher after seeing the CCTV camera to assess inter-coder reliability. This one-hour of initial observation serves as the pre-test in the study.
The independent variable in the study (playing violent video games) will be operationalized and measured by varying the exposure of the three groups to violent video games. After the initial hour of free-play, the groups will be moved to another room to play video and computer games. The first experimental group will be encouraged to play and/or watch others play Manhunt, a popular video game that contain somewhat realistic violence. The second experimental group will be encouraged to play and/or watch others play a game containing animated, cartoon-like violence, Super Smash Brothers Brawl. The control group will be encouraged to play and/or watch others play a relatively non-violent computer game, Cityville or Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. The room in which the groups are placed will contain nine computer or video game systems, so all group members may play at the same time. However, participants will be allowed to watch others play if they choose. Research assistant will observe and document how much time each participant spends playing and/or watching video games during a one-hour period.
After playing the video games, group members will be returned to the first room and once again be told that they may play with whatever they like, but must remain in the room until the researcher returns for them. As before, two research assistants will watch the children play for one hour and record instances of aggressive or violent behavior using a tally sheet identical to the one used in the pre-test situation. This one-hour of observation serves as the post-test in the study.
At the end of one hour, the children will be joined by their parents, given greater detail as to the true nature of the study, and thanked for their participation. They will then be allowed to leave with their parents.
After the observations are completed and all the data have been collected, the total number of violent or aggressive acts from the pre-test and post-test situations will be calculated and compared to determine if the number of violent and aggressive acts increased. If the hypothesis is correct, the first experimental group should exhibit the greatest increase, the second experimental group the next greatest, and the control group will show little or no increase. Statistical tests will be performed to determine if any differences are significant.