Bandura (1961)

Question 0

What was the specific aim of the study?

Answer 0

To see whether children would reproduce aggressive behaviour when the model was no longer present
And
To look for gender differences in learning of aggression

Question 1

What is the overall aim of the study?

Answer 1

To investigate observational learning of aggression

Question 2

What were the hypotheses?

Answer 2

1 - participants exposed to an aggressive model would be more likely to reproduce similar aggression than those exposed to a non-aggressive model/no model
2 - participants exposed to a non-aggressive model would be less aggressive than those exposed to no model
3 - participants would imitate a same sex model more than an opposite sex model
4 - boys would be more inclined than girls to imitate aggression

Question 3

How many participants were there? Male and female?

Answer 3

72 participants
Males - 36
Females - 36

Question 4

What was the age range of the participants?

Answer 4

37-69 months

Mean age of 52 months

Question 5

Where were the children selected from?

Answer 5

Nursery school of Stanford university

Question 6

What was the experimental design?

Answer 6

Independent measures and matched participants design

Question 7

What were the three independent variables?

Answer 7

The behaviour of the model
The sex of the model
The sex of the children

Question 8

How did the experimenters avoid natural aggression being a confounding variable?

Answer 8

All the children were matched for their aggression. The experimenter and a nursery teacher independently rating the children’s aggression on a scale of 0-5.

Question 9

What was the inter-rator reliability between experimenter and teacher?

Answer 9

0.89 - very good agreement

Question 10

What was the first condition?

Answer 10

12boys and 12girls exposed to an aggressive model
Six boys and six girls saw aggression modelled by a same sex model
Six boys and six girls saw it modelled by an opposite sex model

Question 11

What was the second condition?

Answer 11

12boys and 12girls exposed to a non-aggressive model
Six boys and six girls saw aggression modelled by a same sex model
Six boys and six girls saw aggression modelled by an opposite sex model

Question 12

What was the control group?

Answer 12

12boys and 12girls did not see a model display and form of behaviour

Question 13

Three stages of the procedure - modelling the behaviour?

Answer 13

Child was brought into a playroom and invited to join in a game. Lasted for 10minutes. First two conditions, a model was also present in the room
Aggressive - model kicked and hit a 5ft bobo doll. Yelled ‘kick him… Pow… Sock him on the nose’
Non-aggressive - adult assembled toys and did not interact with doll

Question 14

Three stages of procedure - aggression arousal?

Answer 14

To annoy children and increase chances of aggressive behaviour
Children taken to a playroom with attractive toys, played for two minutes then told they couldn’t play with the ‘very best toys’ as they were being reserved for other children

Question 15

Three stages of procedure - testing for delayed imitation?

Answer 15

Children observed playing for the next 20minutes
Experimenter remained in the room but was busy doing paperwork
Two observers watched through a two way mirror - unaware which condition the child was in (eliminated bias)
There was a smaller bobo doll in the room

Question 16

What three types of aggression were recorded by observers?

Answer 16

Imitative aggression - aggression identical to model
Partially imitative aggression - aggression similar to model
Non-imitative aggression - new aggressive acts not demonstrated by model

Question 17

What type of data was recorded?

Answer 17

Qualitative data was recorded

Question 18

What did the data show?

Answer 18

The data collected showed significant differences in levels of imitative aggression between the aggressive model group and the other two groups

Question 19

Results in terms of the hypotheses?

Answer 19

1. Children with an aggressive model were more aggressive
2. Very little difference between aggression in the non-aggressive model and no model conditions
3. Boys were more likely to imitate aggressive male models
4. Boys were more physically aggressive and girls were more verbally aggressive

Question 20

Conclusions?

Answer 20

1. Witnessing aggression in a model can be enough to produce aggression by an observer
2. Children selectively imitate gender-specific behaviour (imitate same sex models more)

Question 21

Possible explanations for conclusions/findings?

Answer 21

Children were not learning aggression but were simply disinhibited by witnessing the adult aggression - became ok to be aggressive when witnessing an adult do it
However
Children tended to imitate exactly what the model did - actually suggests learning