Bandura Flashcards
What is the background to Banduras study?
Was proposed that social learning theory suggests that it is possible of people to lean by observations and imitation of a role models behaviour. If someone is rewarded for behaving, such as praise that are more likely to repeat the behaviour (operant conditioning), and if someone else sees another person rewarded for a behaviour they can be vicariously reinforced and also imitate that behaviour in the future
What is the Aim to Banduras study?
To demonstrate that learning can occur through observation of a role model and that imitation of learned behaviour can occur in the absence of that model
What were the hypothesis of Banduras study?
1, Children shown aggressive models will show more significantly imitative aggressive acts compared to the children shown non-agressive models or no models
2, Boys will ahow significantly more imitative aggression than girls
3, Children will imitate same sex models to a greater degree than opposite sex behaviour
What is the Sample of Banduras study?
-72 children (36 boys and girls) aged between 3 and 5 from a nursery school in Stanford California
-opportunity sampling as they were already avaliable in the nursery at the time
-sampling is likely to be representative of how all children would respond therefore having population validity and can be generalise
-ethnocentric as children are at a university nursery therefore may not be representative of other cultures and societies
What is the Method of Banduras study?
-Laboratory Experiment
-3 IV’s 1,whether the child was exposed to / witnesses an aggressive model, non-agressive model or no model present, 2,sex of the model, 3,sex of the child
-DV is the amount of imitative behaviour and aggression shown by the child in phase 3
- Observed through one-way mirror
- Physical, verbal, speech -aggressive responce, this allowed for standardisation for example using the same bobo doll which would reduce the chance of EV affecting results therefore establishing causality
-low ecological validity as children are not in their natural environment and so aggression towards the bobo doll would not happen in a real life situation
what is the Design of Banduras study?
the children were pre-tested to see how aggressive they were, the experimenter and nursery teacher observed the children and judged their aggressive behaviours on 4 5-point rating scales; physical aggression, verbal aggression, aggression towards inanimate objects,aggressive inhibition.
-matched pairs design was used which reduces participant variables. however there could be individual differences which could explain why one child may show imitative aggression or not
what is the Procedure to Banduras study?
-Phase 1- The child was taken to a room and sat in the “child’s corner”. In the adults corner was toys like bobo dolls, toy guns and a mallet. Durring the aggressive model condition the adult played with the bobo doll like hitting/punching/throwing and would also verbally yell’hit him down’, ‘pow’, and ‘kick him’. The adult played for 10 minutes and after that an experimenter entered the room and dismissed the adult and took the child out the room and into a second room
Phase 2- in the second room the child was told they cold play with toys such as doll and fire truck, after 2 minutes the experimenter tells the child that they are no longer able to play with the toys because she is reserving them for another child, this was done to frustrate the child and to see how they would respond in the final phase
-Phase 3- the experimenter took the child into the first room this time without a model and told them that they could play with the toys from both the adults corner and the child’s corner and were allowed to play for 20 minutes. The experimenter used time sampling at 5 second intervals to record the results creating 240 responses and found high inter-rater reliability
what were the findings to Banduras study?
-children with aggressive condition showed significantly more imitation of physical and verbal aggressive behaviour and non-aggressive verbal responses than children in the non-agressive or control conditions
-children in the non-agressive condition showed very little aggression and were often inhibited although results was not always significantly less than the control group
-behaviour of male model had more influence than the female model and that boys produced more imitative physical aggression than girls
-data is considered quantitative which is therefore easier to analyse and compare but lacks insight into why they were behaving in this imitative way
what are the conclusions to banduras study?
children will imitate aggressive/non-agressive behaviours displayed by adult models even if the model isn’t present which can be explained by social learning theory
What were the Materials of Banduras study?
What are the strengths of Banduras study?
-Used laboratory experiment and so was very standardised reducing the effects of extraneous variables. same; room, toys and, in each room for the same amount of time.
-Quantitative data was collected, so it is easier to compare and analyse the levels of aggression across different conditions; same sex model ((non-)aggressive),and opposite sex model ((non-)aggressive)
-Increased ecological validity as the setting of the experiment play room was similar to that of the nursery they went
-There was a great understanding of how easily aggressive behaviours are imitated, which leads to practical applications (for example putting violent TV shows on at a later time at night )
What are the weaknesses of Banduras study?
-Due to the use of laboratory the study lacked realism and so cannot be applied to real life scenarios (hitting a doll is very different than hitting a person)
-Only collecting quantitative meant that the researchers could not gather insight into the way the children were thinking or behaving in the way they did
-The use of children in the study raises ethical issues as they cannot give informed consent, and may find it difficult or understand that they have a right to withdraw. consent was gained through the school they went. The children were deliberately annoyed by the researchers as part of stage 2 of the study, which could raise issues of distress.
-Ecological validity is low as playing with a stranger in a room isn’t a typical task
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What is the definition of social learning theory?
When a child observes the behaviour of a role model who is important to them, and then imitates this behaviour
