Bandara, Ross and Ross (1963) Imitation of film-mediated aggressive models Flashcards
Why carry out the research?
The influence of the media in acting as model from which behaviour is imitated has not been subject to much research
The purpose of the study was to determine the
extent to which film-mediated aggressive models may serve as an important source of imitative behaviour
Hypothesis no. 1:
The more remote the media model was from reality, the weaker the tendancy would be for participants to imitate the behaviour of the model
Hypothesis no. 2:
Males would be more imitative of aggressive behaviour than females since aggresion is generally considered female inappropriate behaviour
Hypothesis no. 3:
Ppts who have high agg. anxiety would perform significantly less agg. imitative behaviour than those participants who display little anxiety over agg.
Hypothesis no. 4:
Ppts who observed agg. models would display sig. more agg. when frustrated than participants who were frustrated but who had no prior exposure to models demonstrating agg
How many participants?
48 boys and 48 girls from Stanford University Nursery school
The age range between
35 to 69 months
Who were the role models?
two adults, a female and a male, one female experimenter
Participants were matched on
aggressiveness
Participants were divided into 3 experimental groups and one control group
> one group observed real life aggressive models
second group observed same models on a film
third group shown a film with agg. cartoon character
Each experimental group was further divided into males and females so that
half were exposed to same sex models whilst others were shown a model of the opposte sex
Participants in human film aggression were put in a semi darkened room and a film was shown while the experimeneter left the room, the model
and behaviour shown in the movie was exactly the same as in the real life condition
The film was shown for
10 mins
In the cartoon film aggression condition the participant experienced the same conditions but before the experimenter left the room,
they walked over to the TV which was 3 ft from the table and said “I guess I’ll turn on the colour TV”
The same aggressive behaviour with the BOBO doll was displayed by the cat in the
cartoon
In all experimental conditions, when the observation stage was complete,
the experimenter entered the room and took the participant to the test room
The situation with the toys and the observation was exactly the same as the orgional, inter rate reliability was
90
Results demonstrate a significant difference in aggression scores between those who were exposed to aggressive models and those
in the control group
Participants who viewed real life models and film mediated models did not
differ from each other in total aggressiveness but all three were signficantly higher than the control group
Exposure to humans on film portaying aggressive behaviour was the most influential eliciting and
shaping behaviour
Boys demonstrated significantly more imitative aggression than
girls
Participants exposed to the male model showed more gun play than
those exposed to a female model
The results provide evidence that exposure to filmed aggression heightens
aggressive reactions in children
The results suggest that imitation can occur without
any reinforcers to the model or the observer
It is questionnable as to whether the aggressive acts studied could actually be classed as genuine
aggressive responses that would actually be displayed in real life, reducing the validty of the findings
Reliability is likely to be a strength of the experiments as researchers found the same high imitation of aggression in males more than females, aslo a
well documented procedure - all took place in semi carkened room which means it could be replicated with the chance of obtaining similar results
Ecological validity is likely to be limited as setting was unfamiliar and they hadn’t met the experimenter therefore
their behaviour may not be an accurate respresentation of how they would behave in real life situations, this means we cannot generalise to other settings
Validity is strengthened by obtaining high inter rater reliability of 90 which indicates that any subjectibe interpretation of the participants’ aggressive behaviour is likely to be
reduced as for 40% of the observations, more than one researcher independently agreed with the scores given
All participants were randomly assigned to conditions based on their aggression scores, this increases the validity of the
findings as the existing amount of aggression each participant displayed was controlled for, meaning that it woud not have had an affect
Generalisability is limited to children of the same age range of 35 to 69 months and culture of the USA, it is therefore likely that different results may be obtained when
using older or younger children as their verbal and motro ability is likely to be more or less developed, may have more or less of an understanding or morals, not representative of all ages
