Bandura et al

Bandura et al

1. Method

   • Laboratory experiment
   • Matched participants design
     • Age
     • Gender
     • Aggression rating
       • Observed by teacher and experimentor
       • Physical Aggression
       • Verbal aggression
       • Aggression to inanimate objects
       • Aggression inhibition

2. Aim

   • To demonstrate that learning can occur through only observaton
   • To show imitation can occur in the absence of the model

3. Participants

   • 72 children
     • 36 boys
     • 36 girls
   • Stanford University nursery
   • 37-69 months old

4. Procedure

   • Stage 1
     • 10 minutes
     • Children played with high interest activities
       • eg. potato print
     • Aggressive model
       • Played with the tinker toys for 1 minute
       • Physically and verbally attacked the Bobo doll
     • Non aggressive model
       • Played with tinker toys
     • Control group had no model
   • Stage 2
     • Mild aggression arousal
     • Allowed to play with toys for 2 minutes
     • Toys were then taken away
   • Stage 3
     • Aggressive and non aggressive toys
     • Observed for 20 minutes
       • One way mirror
       • Imitative aggression
         • Physical/ Verbal/ Non aggressive speech
       • Partially imitative aggression
       • Non imitative physical and verbal aggression
       • Non aggressive behaviour

5. Results

   • Children in the aggressive condition imitated more physical and verbal aggressive behaviour and non aggressive verbal responses
   • Children in the aggressive condition showed more partial imitation and non imitative physical and verbal aggression
   • Non aggressive condition showed very little aggression
   • Boys showed more aggression if the model was male
   • Girls showed more verbal aggression if the model was female
   • Male model had more influence
   • Boys were more imitative aggressive than girls

6. Disscussion

   • Aggressive model made then more aggressive in general
   • Aggression more accepted in boys
   • Relationship with model doesn't matter

7. Evaluation

   • Validity
     • Highly standardised
       • Reduced extraneous variables
     • Pre tested on aggression and matched
       • Eliminates natural aggression as a variable
     • Particular behaviours shown
       • Must have been learnt in study
     • Not tested o long term effects
   • Reliability
     • Procedure was highly replicable
     • Sample not large enough to establish reliable effects
   • Ethics
     • No right to withdraw
     • Teacher gave consent
     • No debrief
     • Harmful/ caused anxiety
     • The gains of the study out weigh the ethical issues
   • Data
     • Quantitive
       • Analyse and test for significance
       • Doesn't give detail
     • Qualitative
       • Gives more understanding of behaviour
   • Sample
     • Only children
       • Cannot generalise to adults
     • University nursery
       • Same background
   • Ethnocentrism
     • Only America
     • Cultural norms influence behaviour
       • Not ethnocentric
   • Research Method
     • Highly Standardised
       • Lacks ecological validity
       • Controlled extraneous variables
     • Participant variables controlled

8. Usefulness

   • 9 pm watershed introduced
   • Role models are punished for showing bad behaviour

9. Links to area/perspective

   • Developmental area
   • Behaviourist perspective
   • Cognitive area

10. Links to key theme

    • Importance of the environment children are brought up in
    • Hard to test whether it is due to social learning theory

11. Links to debates

    • Nature/ Nurture
      • Bandura shows evidence for Nurture
      • Boys could be naturally aggressive
      • Socially acceptable for boys to be aggressive

12. Hypotheses

    • Children exposed to an aggressive model would reproduce aggressive acts shown by the model
    • Children shown a non-aggressive model would show less aggression than the control group
    • Children would imitate same sex models more than opposite sex models
    • Boys would show more aggression than girls