Bandura

Question 0

Sample

Answer 0

72 children (36 boys 36 girls) aged 37-69months were rated on existing levels of aggression and allocated to different conditions.

Question 1

Aim and background

Answer 1

A report of a lab experiment which exposed young children to adults behaving aggressively to see if the children imitated the adults behaviour.

The aim of the experiment was to demonstrate that if children were witnesses to an aggressive display of an adult then they would imitate the aggressive behaviour at any given opportunity, even if they saw the behaviour in a different environment and if the model was no longer present.

Question 2

Controls

Answer 2

Observing an aggressive female model or aggressive male model, observing non-aggressive male model or non-aggressive female model. No model (control group)

Question 3

Procedure

Answer 3

Stage 1: 10mins child seated in room and encouraged to play with toys. In non-aggressive model the adult would play with tinker toy set. In the aggressive model the adult played with toy set for 1min then started to act aggressively to the bobo doll. Acts were deliberately stylised and included throwing the bobo doll in air.

Stage 2: approx 2mins each child was subjected to mild aggression arousal

Stage 3: approx 20mins in final room children’s play behaviour was observed through 2way mirror at 5sec intervals

They recorded; 1) imitation of physical aggression (punch doll in nose) 2) imitative verbal aggression (pow & sock him) 3) imitative non-verbal responses (he keeps coming back for more)

Question 4

Results

Answer 4

.Aggressive model: made more aggressive response (Mean aggression score being 13.7)
.Non-aggressive: mean aggression score 6.7
. Boys made more aggressive responses (across all conditions), with mean average of 14.1, than girls with mean average of 6.3
. Boys in aggressive model showed more aggressive responses if model was male (mean average of 22) in comparison to if model was female (mean average 12.4)
. Girls in aggressive model condition showed more physical aggressive imitative responses if model was male (mean average of 7.2) in comparison to if model was female (mean average 5.5)

Question 5

Conclusions and implications

Answer 5

. Findings support bandura’s social learing theory
. Children learn social behaviour e.g. Aggression, through process of observation learning through watching behaviour of another person