Bandura 63 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 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 (either in real life or on TV)
- 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?
Those exposed to an aggressive model showed more aggression than the control (83 in live action, 92 for filmed model, 99 for cartoon model and 54 for control). This also showed that filmed/TV models can have just as much impact as real world models
Describe the conclusions of this experiment.
Findings support the idea that children learn social behaviour such as aggression through the process of observation with all conditions being higher than the control 83,92 and 99 vs 54
- 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 92 in filmed, 99 in cartoon
give an evaluation of the generalisablity of the study
Used a sample of 96 boys and girls. This does not represent how adults would observe and reproduce behaviour of their role models due to being significantly different in context to the role models of children AND opportunity sample from the same nursery so might have shared characteristics effecting their aggression
Evaluate the reliability of Bandura 1963
High as standardised procedure such as actions shown by the models on the TV shows making the study accurately replicable to test for consistency of results
What is good about using a matched pairs design in Bandura?
Their natural aggression was accounted for meaning this didn’t impact on the aggression they showed after watching the model
Evaluate the validity using the Bobo doll in this experiment
Low as children may have hit Bobo as that is the purpose of the toy. Therefore no cause and effect could be established because they thought that was how you play with it rather than actually being aggressive
Evaluate the ecological validity of Bandura’s 1963 study
Low ecological validity. Carried out in an artificial environment where the model and the child were strangers. Doesn’t represent how children would observe and imitate behaviour in real life
Evaluate a strength of using covert observations?
The children are less likely to show aggression due to demand characteristics as they don’t know the purpose of the study
Evaluate a strength of using structured observations?
High levels of control e.g. the setting, toys in the room, what behaviours they saw etc which meant EVs about the model couldn’t impact their behaviour
