Bandura (1961) Flashcards
what did people previously believe about the effects of children seeing adult behaviour
that they wouldnt immediately imitate the adult, they would have to see something multiple times to copy the actions
describe the general aim of banduras study
he wanted to see if given the opportunity would children imitate aggressive bahaviours in different environments and if the original person who displayed this behaviour wasnt present
describe hypothesis one
‘Subjects exposed to aggressive models would reproduce aggressive acts resembling their models’
describe hypothesis two
‘observation of non aggressive models would have a generalised inhibiting effect on the subjects subsequent behaviour’
describe hypothesis three
subjects would ‘imitate the behaviour of same-sex models to a greater degree than a model of the opposite sex’
describe hypothesis four
‘boys should be more pre-disposed than girls toward imitating aggression’
describe how hypothesis one and two were upheld
boys who saw the aggressive mofrl had a mean number of imitative physical acts of 25.8, boys who had observed the non-aggressive model had a mean number of aggressive physical acts of 1.5. this same pattern occurred with the girls
describe how hypothesis three was upheld/disproved
this hypothesis is correct for the boys but not the girls. if the boys observed the aggressive male model they had a higher mean number of physical aggressive acts of 25.8 rather than one of 12.4 after observing an aggressive female model. however, for verbal aggression with an aggressive female model the girls had a mean number of imitative verbal aggressive acts of 13.7 but only a mean of 2.5 after observing the male model
describe how hypothesis four was upheld
the highest mean number of imitative physical aggressive acts for boys was 25.8 whereas for girls it was a lesser 13.7
describe the sample (5)
- 72 children
- enrolled at Stanford university nursery
- age range 37-69 months
- mean age 52 months
- equal number of boys and girls
what sampling technique was used
opportunity
how was the sampling opportunity
researchers used children who were present in the nursery on the day of testing
name the independent variables of the study
- model behaviour
- sex of model
- sex of child
name the model conditions
- aggressive male model
- aggressive female model
- non-aggressive male model
- non-aggressive female model
- no model (control)
name an advantage of the matched participant design
able to stop prior levels of aggression from influencing the results
name a disadvanatge of the matched participant design
very time consuming and sometimes not possible to find everyone a match
name three comments made by the children
‘that aint no way for a lady to behave’
‘that girl was just acting like a man’
‘hes a good fighter like daddy’
define matched participants design
each participant is paired with another participant with a shared characteristic before being put into different groups for the experiment
what four criteria were the children matched on in the matched participant design
they were matched on physical aggression, verbal aggression, aggression inhibition and aggression towards inanimate objects
describe the ‘pre-test’
two observers, the nursery teacher and the experimenter observed the children. each type of aggression was measured on a 5-point scale for each child, the observers made judgements on these.
what was the inter-rater reliability in the pre-test
0.89
how many children were there in each condition
24
how long was stage 1
10 minutes
describe stage one (aggressive model condition)
- each child taken individually to a room
- child taken to a table and given toys such potato printing and stickers to play with
-adult model sat on another table with tinker toys, a bobo doll and a mallet - model played with tinker toys for one minute then turned to the bobo doll and.. ‘the model laid bobo on its side, sat on it and punched it repeatedly in the nose. the model picked up the mallet and struck the doll in the head. following the mallet aggression, the model tossed the doll up in the air aggressively and kicked it about the room. this sequence of physically aggressive acts was repeated approximately three times’
describe stage one (non-aggressive model condition)
each child taken individually to a room
- child taken to a table and given toys such potato printing and stickers to play with
-adult model sat on another table with tinker toys, a bobo doll and a mallet
- the adult model played with the tinker toys and ignored the bobo doll
how long was stage 2
2 minutes
describe stage 2
children taken to a smaller room filled with attractive toys such as a fire engine, jet plane, train, cable car, spinning top and a doll set and pram. they played with these for two minutes where they were then told by the experimenter that these were their best toys and had to be saved for other children. they were told that there were other toys in the next room that they could play with
describe stage 1 (control condition)
‘the control group had no prior exposure to the adult models’
how long was stage 3
20 minutes
describe stage 3
- all 72 children taken back to the main experiment room one-by-one
- observed by male model through a one-way mirror
- record made every 5 seconds of the behaviour shown by the child (time sampling)
name the three behaviours recorded in stage 3
- imitative behaviour of physical or verbal aggression
- partially imitative behaviour (imitating the model but not exactly)
- novel aggressive behaviour (showing aggression in a different way to the model)
how was inter-rater reliability determined in stage 3
half the children were observed and scored independently by a second observer. records from both observers were consistent- a high inter-rater reliability
why was it necessary for the aggressive model to have distinct aggressive acts
to ensure the child would be imitating the model and not just acting in their usual manner
what did bandura conclude about how children learn aggressive behaviour
through observation and imitation
how does this study link to the behaviourist perspective
links to social learning ideas, how people learn through the observation and imitation of others
name 6 strengths of the study
- sample had both boys and girls (representative of both sides)
- external reliability - large sample size of 72 children. sample large enough to establish consistent effects
- internal reliability- procedure controlled
- inter-rater reliability - observers agreed in pre-test and stage 3
- matched participants design made the groups fair (accuracy, validity)
- opportunity sampling used so quick, cheap and easy to gather participants
name 6 weaknesses of the study
- only 6 children per condition (not large enough to establish consistent effects)
- children upset after stage 2 (breaks ‘protection from harm’)
- no debriefing after the study- children could’ve ;eft with aggressive behaviour
- parents didnt give consent for their childs participation
- (low ecological validity) scenario not very realistic
- children all from same place (sample very similar)
