Bandura (1965) Flashcards
What were the aims of this Bandura study?
To see if reinforcing consequences to the model would result in significant differences in the performance of imitative behaviour
To see if rewarded models would display the highest performance differences in matching responses
Who was used in the sample?
66 boys and girls with a mean age of 51 months from Stanford University nursery school.
What were the 3 different conditions?
1) Model rewarded
2) Model punished
3) No consequences to the model
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 different verbal imitative responses reproduced
2) Number of different physical imitative responses reproduced
What were the 3 stages of this experiment?
1) Exposure procedure
2) Performance measure
3) Acquisition index
Briefly describe the ‘exposure procedure’ stage of this study.
Children watched a 5 min film of a model acting aggressively towards a Bobo doll
Four responses were each accompanied with verbalisation
For example the model would hit the Bobo doll with a mallet and say “sockeroo… stay down” as the verbalisation that followed it
The sequence of physically and verbally aggressive behaviour was repeated twice
Children in the reward condition were exposed to a closing scene of the model receiving a chocolate bar as positive reinforcement
Children in the punishment condition were exposed to a closing scene of the model being told they were a “big bully” and that if they didn’t stop they would receive a “spanking”
Children in the no consequences condition were shown no reinforcement at the end
Briefly describe the ‘performance measure’ stage of this study.
After the exposure procedure children were taken to a room that contained the Bobo doll and other toys such as guns and a dolls house
The child was told they could play with any of the toys
They spent 10 mins, being recorded every 5 seconds in terms of predetermined imitative response categories
The number of different physical and verbal imitative responses performed spontaneously constituted the performance measure
Briefly describe the ‘acquisition index’ stage of this study.
At the end of the 10 mins the experiment walked back in with a fruit juice and a book of stickers
They informed the children that for each physical and verbal imitative response they reproduced they would receive a sticker and more juice
The experimenter put a picture on the wall and said they would be interested to see how many stickers the child could get on the picture
The experimenter then asked the child, “show me what Rocky did in the TV program, tell me what he said”
The children were rewarded with a sticker and juice after following each matched response
What were the results of Bandura’s study?
Boys performed more matched responses than girls
After positive incentive there was a significant increase in matched responses performed from no incentive for girls and boys
Girls in the model punished condition performed 0.5 matched responses compared to boys who performed 2.5
Describe the conclusions of this experiment.
After viewing the film children imitated the aggressive behaviour
Those in the model rewarded or no consequences condition were more willing to imitate due to not having seen anything bad happen as a result
Evaluate the generalisablity using a high and low point.
P - High
E - Used sample of 66 boys and girls
E - 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 observing children for 10 mins at 5 second intervals
E - Making the study easily replicable to test for consistency of results
P - High inter-rater
E - Researchers agreed 99% of the timeand looked for predetermined responses
E - Increasing the objectivity of results
Are there any applications?
P - Yes
E - Highlights how children are less likely to imitate the behaviour of role models if they are punished
E - Helps parenting by showing punishments to children of their role models to stop any undesirable behaviour being reproduced
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
