Bandura Flashcards
Aim
To see whether children will imitate behaviour, not at the time they see it but later, even if it was not rewarded.
Sample
36 boys and 36 girls, aged between 3 to 5 years old were enrolled in Stanford University nursery. The lab experiment involved 8 experimental groups of 6 participants – 4 were girls and 4 were boys – half of these watched an aggressive model and half watched a non-aggressive model – half were male models and half were female modes. There was one control group of 24 who did not watch any behaviour. All ps. were matched for levels of aggression before the study started.
Method
In the aggressive conditions, an adult behaved aggressively to the bobo doll and in the non-aggressive conditions, the adult played calmly. Then the children were taken to another room where they were told they weren’t allowed to play with some toys, and then to another where the bobo doll was.
Watching the aggressive model led to more boys copying the actions than girls. Boys were more likely to copy to hit the bobo doll if the adult was the same sex as them – copying 25.8 acts when the model was male and 12.4 when model was female. Girls were more likely to imitate opposite sex – 5.5 acts when model was female and 7.2 when model was male.
Not all behaviour is shaped through rewards or punishment, some is learnt through observations.
Conculsion
Not all behaviour is shaped through rewards or punishment, some is learnt through observations.
+standardised
The study was set up very carefully with strong controls as a lab experiment, which meant cause and effect conclusions could be drawn – operationalized variables such as matched pairs design – they previously rated children’s original aggressive behaviour.
+reliability
High inter-rater reliability – two judges present who both did not know the conditions of each child – double blind – so researcher bias and demand characteristics are controlled.
-validity
Rooms had been set out to look rooms at nursery, increases ecological validity but lacks experimental validity – it is not natural to see an adult hitting a bobo doll.
-ethics
Bad concerns of ethics – no mention of consent.
-standardised
Not standardised – models witnessed in real-life in front of ps. so each model may have acted differently – low reliability.
