Hands Up! Atypical Defensive Reactions in Heavy Players of Violent Video Games When Exposed to Gun-Attack Pictures
Autor: | Sonia Gleiser, Mirtes G. Pereira, Eliane Volchan, Jose M. Oliveira, Fatima Erthal, Ivan Figueira, Maria Fernanda dos Santos, Aline F. Bastos |
---|---|
Jazyk: | angličtina |
Rok vydání: | 2019 |
Předmět: |
lcsh:BF1-990
Vulnerability emotion Poison control Suicide prevention 050105 experimental psychology Occupational safety and health 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Injury prevention Psychology 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Reactivity (psychology) General Psychology 05 social sciences Posturography posturography Human factors and ergonomics PTSD video games Brief Research Report defensive reactions gun lcsh:Psychology human activities 030217 neurology & neurosurgery violent games Clinical psychology immobility |
Zdroj: | Frontiers in Psychology, Vol 10 (2019) Frontiers in Psychology |
ISSN: | 1664-1078 |
Popis: | Threatening cues and surrounding contexts trigger specific defensive response patterns. Posturography, a technique for measuring postural strategies, has been used to evaluate motor defensive reactions in humans. When exposed to gun pointed pictures, humans were shown to exhibit an immobility reaction. Short and long-term exposure to violent video games was shown to be a causal risk factor for increased violent and aggressive behavior. Assaultive violence with a gun is a major trigger for motor defensive reactions, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most characteristic psychiatric sequelae. Recent studies point to links between PTSD symptoms and emotional shortfalls in non-clinical trauma-exposed samples. The present study investigated defensive reactions to gun threat and PTSD symptoms in heavy players of violent video games compared to non-players. Male university students were screened according to use of violent video games and divided in three groups: non-players, moderate players, and heavy players. Stimuli were pictures depicting a man pointing a gun directed at the participant. In matched control pictures, non-lethal objects replaced the gun. Posturography was recorded and PTSD symptoms were assessed. When exposed to the threat pictures, non-players exhibited the expected reduction in amplitude of body sway (immobility), heavy players presented atypical augmented amplitude of body sway, and moderate players showed intermediate reactivity. Heavy players presented a significant distinct reaction compared to non-players. They also scored significantly higher in PTSD symptoms than non-players. Disadvantageous defensive reactions and higher vulnerability to PTSD symptoms, revealed in the present study, add to other shortcomings for heavy players. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
Externí odkaz: |