Bandura Flashcards
What was the experiment about?
Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models
What was the aim?
To demonstrate that if children were witnesses to an aggressive display by an adult they would imitate this aggressive behaviour when given the opportunity
what was the sample?
36 boys and 36 girls aged between 37-69 months
What was the mean age of the participants?
4 years and 4 months
who were the role models?
one male adult and one female adult
What design was used?
Matched pairs
What were the P’s matched on?
pre-existing aggressiveness
How did the experimenter find out about pre-aggressiveness of the P’s?
they observed the children in the nursery and judged their aggressive behaviour on a 5 point rating scale
What were the 3 main conditions?
- Aggressive condition
- Non-Aggressive condition
- Control group
What happened to the children in the aggressive and non-aggressive conditions?
They were further divided by sex to the same sex role model
Hoe many IV’s are there?
3
What are the 3 Iv’s
- Condition children exposed to
- Sex of role model
- sex of child
How were the children tested?
Individually
What happened in stage 1?
- brought to experiment room by experimenter which was set out for play for nursery children’s age group
- One corner arranged as the child’s play area
- at the opposite side of room there was another corner with more aggressive toys , the model was seated here and the experimenter then left the room
What 3 activities were in the corner for child’s play area?
- Small table and chair
- Potato prints
- Picture stickers
What 4 toys were in the more aggressive corner?
- Small table and chair
- Tinker toy set
- A mallet
- Five foot inflatable bobo doll
What did the model do in the non-aggressive condition?
Ignored the bobo doll and assembled the tinker toys quietly and gently
What did the model do in the aggressive condition?
Began assembling tinker toys but after 1 min turned to the bobo doll and was aggressive to the doll in a very stylised and distinctive way
How long was the child in the room with the role model for?
10 minutes
What happened when the child was taken from the first room?
They were taken to a second room which they were told was another games room
What were the children subjected to in stage 2?
Mild aggression arousal
What happened in stage 2?
It had some relatively attractive toys in and when the child began to play with them the experimenter told them they couldn’t play with them as they were their best toys and she had decided to reserve them for other children
What happened in stage 3?
- child was taken to another room where the child was told they could play with any of the toys.
- In the room were both aggressive and non-aggressive toys
How long was the child kept in stage 3 for?
20 minutes
How were the children observed in stage 3?
through a one way mirror
How often were observations made?
at 5-second intervals
How many observations were there in total for each child?
240
What were the three measures of imitation recorded?
- Imitation of physical aggression such as punching doll in nose
- imitated verbal aggression such as pow or sock him in the nose
- Imitated non-aggressive verbal responses such as he keeps coming back for more
What else did they record?
Aggressive and non-aggressive behaviour that was not an imitation of the role models
What 3 things did the researcher have to consider?
- Which children imitated the models
- Which models the children imitate
- whether the children showed a general increase in aggressive behaviour or a specific imitation of the adults behaviour
What were the main findings?
- Children in aggressive model condition made more aggressive responses
- Boys were more aggressive than girls
- boys in aggressive condition showed more aggressive responses if the model was male
- the girls in the aggressive condition showed more physical aggression if the model was male and more verbal aggression if model was female
On average what did the girls copy were?
- 5.5 aggressive acts if model was female
- 7.2 if model was male
On average what did the boys copy and were?
-25.8 if the model was male
What did they conclude?
That the findings supported Bandura’s social Learning theory which was that the children learn social behaviour such as aggression through the process of observation learning by watching another person
