Bandura - Core study Flashcards
Area?
Developmental area
Assumption 1?
Behaviour develops with age and experience
Assumption 2?
Behaviour develops through nature and nurture
Key theme?
External influences on children’s behaviour
Background summary?
-Social learning theory (including observation and imitation).
-Aggression is an overt,harmful,social interaction with the intention of inflicting damage or other unpleasantness upon another individual.
-Relevance, children learning aggression from TV shows/Video games as TV was just starting to enter the home.
What is the main aim?
To show that children can learn aggressive behaviour through observation and imitation.
What is the specific aim?
To see if children would reproduce aggressive behaviour when the model was no longer present and to look for gender differences.
What is the experiment?
Lab experiment with observation.
What is the IV?
-Condition to which the child was exposed.
-Gender of the child.
-Gender of the model.
What is the DV?
Behaviours of children observed in a structured observation.
What are the strengths of this method?
-Highly controlled and structured observation.
-Same model behaviour.
-Same timings.
-Same toys.
-High internal validity
What are the weaknesses of this method?
-Lacks ecological validity.
-i.e. asking children to play in a strange room with a strange adult is not an everyday scenario.
What was the sample obtained?
Opportunity sampling.
What are the details of this sample?
-72 participants (36 male, 36 female)
-Age range 3 (37 months) - 5 years and 9 months (69 months).
-Mean age 4 years and 4 months (52 months)
-Recruited from nursery school at Stanford University.
What is the 1st step of the procedure?
Step 1:Aggressive role model-behaved aggressively towards Bono doll-specific behaviours.
-i.e. throwing in air, hitting with mallet, saying things like ‘pow’.
Non-aggressive role model-played in a quiet and subdued manner for 10 mins.
What is the 2nd step of the procedure?
Step 2:Mild aggression model-taken to a room with attractive toys, but told they were the very best toys and she had decided to reserve them for the other children.
What is the 3rd step of the procedure?
Step 3:Child kept in room for 20 mins, variety of toys - non-aggressive (3 bears, crayons) behaviour was observed by brushes through a one-way mirror and experiment who was sat quietly recording behaviour in a room.
What are the qualitative results?
‘Al’s a good socker, he beat up Bobo’
‘I want to sock like Al’
‘Punch your nose’
-Children have directly observed and imitated the model.
What are the quantitative results for this procedure?
Quantitative Data - Bandura
—————————————————————
Mean number of imitative physical aggressive acts
Girls Boys
Aggressive female model 5.5 12.4
Aggressive male model 7.2 25.8
Non-aggressive female model 2.5 0.2
Non-aggressive male model 0 1.5
Control 1.2 2.0
—————————————————————
Mean number of imitative verbal aggressive acts
Girls Boys
Aggressive female model 13.7 4.3
Aggressive male model 2.0 12.7
Non-aggressive female model 0.3 1.1
Non-aggressive male model 0 0
Control 0.7 1.7
—————————————————————
Finding:
-Children (male and female) were significantly MORE aggressive if they had witnessed an aggressive model in comparison to a non-aggressive model and a control (no model).
Quantitative data:
Gender |Aggressive|Non aggressive|Control
of child | model | model |
Female | 28.4 | 2.8 | 1.9
Male | 55.2 | 2.8 | 3.7
What does this mean?
This therefore provides support for hypothesis one.
—————————————————————
Findings:
Boys were MORE aggressive overall (for verbal and physical aggression). For example
The there was one category when females were significantly more aggressive than males- this was for imitative verbal aggression but only when the model was female.
Quantitative data:
Total mean imitative
aggressive scores
(combined physical and
verbal aggressive acts)
Control
Gender of
Aggressive Non
child
model
aggressive model
Female
Male
28.4
55.2
2.8
2.8
1.9
3.7
Gender of child
Female
Male
Total mean number of imitative aggressive acts- physical and verbal regardless model)
33.1
61.7
What does this mean?
Mean number of imitative verbal aggressive acts for females and males with an aggressive female model
Gender of
Female
child
model
Female
13.7
male
4.3
What are the conclusions for this study?
-Aggression can be learned: just by witnessing aggression in a model, via imitation and modelling alone, then generalised to another situation. No reward was needed (as behaviourists like Skinner previously believed).
-Children selectively imitate gender specific behaviour:
-Boys: imitate physical aggression more than girls in a same sex model.
-Girls: more likely to model the physical aggression of the male model.
-But girls with female model: more verbally aggressive than boys, so this imitative process is not just for boys.
What ethical guidelines are broken and why?
Informed consent: Bandura thanked headteacher but didn’t ask parents for consent.
Right to withdraw: Forced to stay in room 3.
Protection of p’s: Distress in stage 2, long-term aggression not reversed integrity, a lot of deception.
Debrief: None presumed.
What ethical guidelines were adhered to?
Observation: Public space.
What are the applications in this study?
-Ratings on films.
-9pm watershed.
-Celebrities (fashion, sport) are often condemned for showing negative behaviour (influence of role models).
-Can help child psychologists and social workers understand the behaviour of children who have witnessed aggression and inform strategies to reduce it.
-Advice to parents - don’t hit your child as that provides an aggressive role model.
How does the core study link to the area?
Assumption 1: People develop with age and experience.
Link: Children can learn to be aggressive as they age due to exposure to models (SLT).
Evidence: Bandura’s experiment showed that children who experienced an aggressive role model were significantly more likely to imitate that aggression than those who saw the non-aggressive model or no model at all.
