Bandura (1961) - Original Bobo Doll Experiment

Question 1

What was the aim of Bandura’s 1961 study?

Answer 1

To investigate the impact of adult role models on children’s aggressive behaviour and whether there are any gender differences

Question 2

What were the IV and DV of Bandura’s 1961 study? (3 points)

Answer 2

IV:
+ Observing an aggressive or non-aggressive role model
+ Role model is the same or opposite sexto the child

DV: The number ofverbal and physicalaggressive behaviours the children imitated

Question 3

What was the methodology of Bandura’s 1961 study? (2 points)

Answer 3

Type: Laboratory experiment

Design: Matched-pairs design for:
+ Age
+ Gender
+ Pre-tests for initial aggressive behaviours

Question 4

Who were the participants and what were the groups for Bandura’s 1961 study? (2 points)

Answer 4

Participants:
+ 72 children (3-6 years old) - 36 boys and 36 girls enrolled at Stanford University Nursery School
1 male and 1 female role model

Groups:
+ Control group: 24 children exposed to no role model
+ Condition 1: 24 children exposed to aggressive role model
+ Condition 2: 24 children exposed to non-aggressive role model

Question 5

What were the 3 stages of Bandura’s 1961 study?

Answer 5

Stage 1: Modeling

Stage 2: Mild Aggression Arousal

Stage 3: Test for Delayed Imitation & Observations

Question 6

What happened in Stage 1 for both conditions of Bandura’s 1961 study? (5 points)

Answer 6

Non-aggressive condition:
The role model assembled tinker-toys in a quiet, subdued manner, ignoring the Bobo doll

Aggressive condition:
1. The role model assembled tinker- toys for 1 minute
2. They then laid the Bobo doll on its side, sat on it, and repeatedly punched its nose
3. The role model hit the Bobo doll with the mallet and kicked it around the room

Repeated 3 times over 10 minutes with verbal aggression in-between (shouting ‘Hit him down’ ‘Kick him’ ‘He keeps coming back for more’)

Question 7

What happened in Stage 2 for both conditions of Bandura’s 1961 study? (3 points)

Answer 7

All children were taken to a different experimental room away from the main nursery school building - gave them the impression they were no longer at nursery school

All children were told by the experimenter that they could not play with the toys, which were now reserved for other children

This was to control emotion in the children (frustrated)

Question 8

What happened in Stage 3 for both conditions of Bandura’s 1961 study? (2 points)

Answer 8

All children were exposed to aggressive toys (mallet, Bobo doll, guns) and non-aggressive toys (cars, tea set) for 20 minutes

Their behaviour was observed through a one-way mirror - time sampled (5-second interval) observations for 20 minutes

Question 9

What were the 4 types of aggression counted in Bandura’s 1961 study?

Answer 9

2 judges independently rated each child on the number of:
+ Imitative verbal aggression, ‘Hit him down’ ‘Kick him’ ‘He keeps coming back for more’
+ Imitative physical aggression, sits/punch/kick/ hit Bobo doll with mallet.
+ Aggressive gun play, ‘aiming and shooting’ the toy gun
+ Non-imitative aggression not modelled to the children

Question 10

What were the results of Bandura’s 1961 study? (2 points)

Answer 10

Observing an aggressive role model increases the number of imitated aggressive behaviours compared to observing a non-aggressive role model:
Aggressive model - 25.8
Non-aggressive model - 1.5

Boys copied more aggressive behaviours than girls
Boys: 25.8M, 12.4F
Girls: 7.2M, 5.5F

Question 11

What are the 3 conclusions of Bandura’s 1961 study?

Answer 11

Children learn aggressive behaviour from role models through the process of observation and imitation

Boys are more likely to imitate aggression compared to girls, especially physical aggression

Boys are more likely to copy same-sex role models compared to girls

Question 12

How generalisable is Bandura’s 1961 study? (3 points)

Answer 12

The study does not use a generalisable participant sample

Equal numbers of boys and girls but age range (3-6) is not representative of adolescence or adults

Ethnocentric - likely raised in affluent socio-economic backgrounds from a Western, individualistic culture which values autonomy

Question 13

How reliable is Bandura’s 1961 study? (3 points)

Answer 13

The experimental procedure was standardised
+ Same script read-aloud for each condition
+ Same male and female role models used
+ Systematic timings (repeating aggressive acts 3 times for a total of 10 minutes)

Can be replicated by other researchers to test for reliability and consistency of results regarding the imitation and observation of same-sex role models’ aggression

2 judges independently rated each child - increased inter-rater reliability

Question 14

How applicable is Bandura’s 1961 study to real life? (2 points)

Answer 14

Could be argued that it has beneficial applications to both the scientific community and society to understand the impact of celebrities and media on children’s learning

Could provide evidence for the observation and imitation of celebrity role models in society - had led to a higher prevalence of eating disorders like AN in the Western World

Question 15

How is Bandura’s 1961 study internally valid? (2 points)

Answer 15

Cause and effect can be established because of the standardised procedure

Matched-pairs design for age, gender, and pre-tests for aggressive behaviour increases causality due to fewer participant variables

Question 16

How is Bandura’s 1961 study not internally valid? (2 points)

Answer 16

Bobo doll was a toy that the children had never seen before - their behaviour may be due to demand characteristics as they imitated the behaviour they thought was expected of them rather than feeling aggressive

Biological explanations of aggression are ignored - higher mean aggression scores observed between male and female children could be explained by boys having more testosterone

Question 17

How ecologically valid is Bandura’s 1961 study? (3 points)

Answer 17

The nursery was a natural setting for the children - some ecological validity

However, the experiment was conducted in an artificial laboratory setting - not the children’s normal classroom setting

Lacks real-life context and mundane realism

Question 18

How ethical is Bandura’s 1961 study? (3 points)

Answer 18

Parents gave presumptive consent on behalf of children

Children were distressed and exposed to physical and verbal harm - could have manifested as a long-term behavioural disorder

No attempt to debrief the children about the purpose of the study