Bandura Flashcards
Bandura procedure
Each child was taken individually to a room. The child was taken to a table and given toys to play with e.g. potato printing and stickers. The adult model sat at the other table which had tinker toys, a bobo doll and a mallet.
In the non-aggressive condition, the model played and ignored the bobo doll.
In the aggressive condition the model played with the tinker toys for 1 minute then turned to the bobo doll, layed it on its side, sat on it and punched it repeatedly in the nose. They then struck it with the mallet and kicked it around the room. This was repeated 3 times with verbal aggressions e.g. ‘sock him in the nose’, ‘hit him down’, ‘throw him in the air’ and ‘pow’ and two non aggressive comments e.g. ‘he keeps coming back for more’ and ‘he sure is a tough fella’. They were in the room for 10 mins.
In stage 2 (mild aggression arousal stage) the child was taken into a smaller room with attractive toys e.g. a toy fire engine, jet plane and a pram and doll. They played with these for two mins before the experimenter came in and said these toys must be saved for the other children but there were toys in the next room they could play with.
This stage motivated the child to be aggressive by annoying them.
Stage 3: This room included the toys from the first room (with mini bobo doll) as well as aggressive toys e.g. dart gun and ball hanging from the ceiling and non-aggressive toys. They were allowed to play for 20 minutes on their own while being watched through a one-way mirror.
Every 5 seconds a note was made on their behaviour based upon categories by 2 observers.
Bandura pre-testing
To control for extraneous variables, before the experiment the children were assessed individually for their prior levels of aggressiveness. They were rated on 4 aggressive rating scales by the experimenter and school teacher. Looking at their social interactions in nursery, the scales measures the extent that children showed verbal aggression, physical aggression.
51 children were rated independently by both judges and their judgements were compared through use of a test of correlation. A high correlation co-efficient was achieved so there was a high level of inter-rater reliability between the observers scores.
What was the aims and hypothesis of Bandura and results.
The aim of the study was to see whether children would imitate aggressive behaviour when given the opportunity, even if they saw these behaviours in a different environment and the original model they observed performing the aggressive act was no longer present.
- subjects exposed to aggressive behaviour would reproduce aggressive acts resembling those of their models.
- yes
- observation of non-aggressive models would have a generalised inhibiting effect on the subjects subsequent behaviour.
- yes
- subjects would imitate the behaviour of a same sex model to a greater degree than a model of the different sex.
- Boys were more likely to imitate males but for girls it didn’t matter.
- Boys should be more pre-disposed than girls towards imitating aggression.
- Boys were more physically aggressive.
- girls were more verbally aggressive if the model was female.
Experimental design
Matched participants
Research method
Lab experiment
Background
Behaviourists suggest all behaviours can be explained in terms of learning from the environment.
Bandura developed the concept of social learning theory based on behaviourist principles. SLT- people can learn through observation of an adult role model whose behaviour they subsequently imitate.
Hypothesis
- Children exposed to aggressive models would reproduce the aggressive acts.
- Observation of non-aggressive models would have a generalised inhibiting effect on the subjects subsequent behaviour.
- Subjects would imitate the behaviour of a same sex model to a greater degree than a model of the different sex.
- Boys will be more pre-disposed than girls towards imitating aggression.
Sample and sampling method
72 children from Stanford University Nursery.
Mean age 52 months.
Equal gender split.
Opportunity sampling- asked the teacher for permission.
IVs
- Male or female model.
- Sex of child.
- Aggressive or non-aggressive model.
What kind of sampling used
Time sampling
Qualitative findings
‘That ain’t no way for a lady to behave’
‘He’s a good fighter like daddy’
Quantitative findings
Girls more verbally aggressive when matched with aggressive female model (13.7) and boys more physically aggressive when matched with an aggressive male model (25.8).
Ethnocentrism
Western culture (America) so the behaviours won’t be the same as children from different, less fortunate backgrounds who’s children may have stricter parents. Gun ownership is high in America so could’ve been imitating behaviour they’d seen elsewhere.
Ethics
Broken:
Informed consent: teachers gave consent not children’s parents.
Right to withdraw: children didn’t know this was an experiment.
Protection from harm: children learnt violent behaviours they could use towards other people.
Deception: they didn’t know they were being watched or studied.
Confidentiality: a video was taken and a few of the children’s faces can be seen.
Debriefing: didn’t tell parents or children.
Reliability
Internal:
Highly controlled- same toys in room, models behaviour, time in each room.
Replicable- did 72 times.
Inter-rather reliability: high level of inter-rater reliability between observers (ratings of aggression were consistent) in pre-test.
In the 3rd room, there was a second observer for half the participants.
External: 72 children mean age 52 months.
Only 6 children in each condition which isn’t large enough.
