Bandura Flashcards
What was banduras study on
The external influences on children’s behaviour
How does he believe children learn
By watching adults and imitation their behaviour
What was the aim of the study
To see whether children would imitate adult behaviour when given the opportunity even if they saw these behaviours in a different environment and the model was no longer present
What are the four hypotheses
- Subjects exposed to aggressive models would reproduce the aggressive acts
- Observation of non-aggressive models would have a generalised inhibiting effect on subsequent behaviour
- Subjects would imitate behaviour of the same sex model to a greater degree than a model of the other sex
- Boys should be more pre-disposed than girls toward imitating aggression
What were the characteristics of the sample
72 children
From Stanford university nursery
Aged 3-5 years
Mean age of 4 years
Equal gender split
What was the sampling method
Opportunity - researchers used children who were present at nursery on the days of testing
What was the matched participant design
Each participant is paired with another participant with a shared characteristic before being put into different groups for the experiment
What characteristics were children matched based on
- Physical aggression
- Verbal aggression
- Aggression inhibition
- Aggression towards inanimate objects
What was carried out before the study
Pre-test
Children were observed prior to the experiment by both the researcher and the nursery teacher
What was the level of inter reliability
0.89
What is inter reliability
The extent to which the observers/researchers agree on what they are looking for
How were they allocated into groups
Each type of aggression was measured on a five point scale for each child, and they were given a score out of 20
The similar children are then split up so one of each with the same score goes into each different test group
What is good about the matched participants
It means prior aggression levels will not influence the results
What is bad about the matched participants
It is very time consuming and sometimes not possible to find matches for every child
What are the three independent variables
Model behaviour
Sex of model
Sex of child
What are the five model conditions
Aggressive male model
Aggressive female model
Non aggressive male model
Non aggressive female model
No model (control)
What were the results found
Boys watching an aggressive male model gave 25.8 aggressive acts vs only 1.5 when watching a male non-aggressive model
Boys watching a male non-aggressive model gave 1.5 aggressive acts vs 2 when given no model
Boys watching a male model gave 25.8 aggressive acts vs only 12.4 when watching a female model
Boys showed on average 38.2 imitative physical aggressive acts and girls only 12.7
What were the qualitative findings
“That ain’t not way for a lady to behave”
“That girl was just acting like a man”
“He’s a good fighter like daddy”
What were the strengths of the study
The sample had both boys and girls
The sample was large
The procedure was very controlled
The observers agreed in the pretest and stage three on their ratings
The matched participants design made the groups fair
What were the weaknesses of the study
There weren’t many children in each condition
The children were upset after stage 2
The children could have been left with aggressive behaviour
The parents didn’t consent to their participation
The children were probably all very similar due to being from the same place
The scenario wasnt very realistic
The children didn’t know it was a fake situation
The age range was limited
What was stage one of the procedure
Each child taken individually to room for 10 minutes and shown high interest activities such as potato printing and stickers
The model sat at another table with tinker toys, a bobo doll and a mallet
Non-aggressive: model played with tinker toys and ignored bobo doll
Aggressive: played with tinker toys for one minute and then was aggressive towards bobo doll for remaining time
What was the procedure during stage 2
Children were taken into a smaller room with attractive toys such as toy fire engine, plane, train and spinning top
They were allowed to play for 2 minutes before experimenter removed them from the room due to them being the best toys and they had to be saved for other children
What was the procedure during stage 3
They went back to the first room and were given more toys such as a mini bobo doll, dart gun and a ball hanging from the ceiling as well as non-aggressive toys
They were allowed to play for 20 minutes whilst being watched through a one way mirror
Every 5 seconds, a note was made on the behaviour based upon categories
Why did the models have distinct aggressive acts
To ensure the children were imitating the model and not just doing things they would do anyways
Why was stage two (mild aggression arousal) included
To see if they would imitate the aggression in stage three or if previous work was correct and witnessing aggression is actually cathartic
