Bandura (1963) Flashcards
What was the aim of this Bandura study?
To test whether exposing children to film-mediated aggression would increase the probability of aggression.
Who were used in the sample?
96 boys and girls with a mean age of 52 months from Stanford University nursery school.
What type of method was used?
Lab
What were the 4 different conditions?
1) Control group
2) Watched real life male/female models become aggressive towards the Bobo doll
3) Watched a 10 min film of a male/female model become aggressive towards the Bobo doll
4) Watched a cartoon version of a female model dressed as a cat become aggressive towards the Bobo doll
What were the 3 IVs?
1) Condition children were exposed to
2) Gender of the child
3) Gender of the adult
What were the 2 DVs?
1) Number of physical aggressive acts displayed
2) Number of verbal aggressive acts displayed
Briefly describe the procedure of this study.
- Children were divided equally into the 4 different conditions
- Each child not in the control group watched the aggressive acts individually
- Children then put in a room with other toys but was told it couldn’t play with them to elicit ‘mild aggression arousal’
- Children were then sent to the next room where they could play freely with the toys including the Bobo doll and the ‘weapons’ the models used
- The researchers observed the children and their interactions with the Bobo doll
What were the results of Bandura’s study?
- Children who had been exposed to aggressive behaviour showed nearly twice as much aggressive behaviour as the control
- Boys showed more overall aggression than girls
- Boys exposed to male model showed significantly more aggressive gun play (15.9) than when exposed to female model (7.3)
- Girls showed significantly less aggressive gun play when exposed to the female model (1.8) as opposed to boys (7.3)
Describe the conclusions of this experiment.
- Findings support the idea that children learn social behaviour such as aggression through the process of observation
- It doesn’t need to be through observing real life aggression, it can be through the means of the media and with models that aren’t human
Evaluate the generalisablity using a high and low point.
P - High
E - Used sample of 96 boys and girls
E - This is a large sample representing both genders
P - Low
E - Used sample of children
E - This limits the ability to represent older ages such as teenagers
Evaluate the reliability using 2 high points.
P - High
E - Standardised procedure such as showing the film of model for 10 mins
E - Making the study easily replicable to test for consistency of results
P - High
E - Carried out in a controlled environment with control over EVs
E - Can replicate the same conditions to test for consistency
Are there any applications?
P - Yes
E - Highlights how children will imitate the behaviour of role models even if they aren’t human or are shown in a film
E - This has lead to measures such as the watershed being put in place to protect children by showing mature TV shows after 9pm
Evaluate the validity using 2 low points.
P - Low
E - Children had never seen a Bobo doll before so maybe they thought they were supposed to hit it
E - Therefore no cause and effect could be established because they thought that was how you play with it rather than actually being aggressive
P - Low ecological
E - Carried out in an artificial environment where the model and the child were strangers
E - Doesn’t represent how children would observe and imitate behaviour in real life
Evaluate an ethical issue.
P - Unethical
E - The children were deliberately encouraged to be aggressive with no talk of removing that aggression
E - And so children may have been aggressive after the study which they should have countered by showing a pro-social role model to calm them down
