Bandura - Developmental Area

Question 1

aim

Answer 1

• was to investigate the extent to which children would imitate aggression modelled by an adult, and to investigate the effects of gender on imitation

Question 2

method

Answer 2

• 71 children were divided into three groups
• One group saw an adult attack an inflatable doll (a Bobo doll) in a playroom
• A second group saw an adult behave non-aggressively
• A third group did not see an adult playing
• All the children were then frustrated by being banned from playing with attractive toys and left to play in a room containing a Bobo doll.

Question 3

sample/participants

Answer 3

• were a total of 72 participants (36 male and 36 female)
• all were selected from the nursery school of stanford university in america
• ages from 3-5
• the mean age was 4

Question 4

procedure

Answer 4

• Modelling the behaviour:
  each child was brought individually into a playroom and invited to join in a game, this lasted 10 mins. In the first two conditions there was also an additional adult present in the room. In the aggressive condition, this adult demonstrated aggressiveness towards a 5-foot tall Bobo doll, kicking it and hitting it, including with a hammer. They also said aggressive things such as “kick him” “pow”. In the non-aggressive condition, the adult assembled toys and did not interact with the doll. In the control condition there was no additional adult in the room
• Aggression Arousal:
  In order to annoy the children and increase the chances of aggressive behaviour, all the children were then taken to a different play room with sine very attractive toys. After being allowed to play with these for around 2 mins, the participants were told they were not allowed to play with them anymore as they were the very best toys and they were going to be reserved for other children
• Testing for delayed imitation:
  Children were then observed playing for the next 20 mins as the experimenter remained in the room but bruised herself with paperwork. Two more observers watched through a one way mirror. The room contained a range of toys including a bob doll (smaller). During the observation, the observers were unaware which condition the child was in. This helped eliminate bias.

Question 5

results

Answer 5

• children who had witnessed the aggressive adult were more likely to play aggressively with the Bobo doll.
• boys were more likely than girls to imitate physical aggression, especially from a male model

Question 6

conclusions

Answer 6

• children can acquire aggression through observation of adults modelling aggression. They selectively imitate gender-specific behaviour and boys imitate male role models, at leat selectively

Question 7

The strengths and weaknesses of the different research methods and techniques

Answer 7

• Laboratory experiment (method) - high validity but could possibly have demand characteristics
• matched pairs (used in the pre test) negative: hard to find similar people) and independent measures
• covert observation (used in stage 3)
• time sampling used

Question 8

The strengths and weaknesses of different types of data

Answer 8

• qualitative (positive: can give opinions, aggressive words used by the children) and quantitative data (positive: easy to analyse, mean levels of aggression, rating scales in the pre-test)
• results can be generalised

Question 9

ethical considerations

Answer 9

• could potentially have psychological harm, mental and physical - exposed child to aggression
• kids could not consent however parents/legal guardians could
• no debrief - not ethical
  were able to withdraw but not necessarily made aware
• respect, responsibility, integrity, incompetence
• There was confidentiality

Question 10

validity

Answer 10

• lacks ecological validity (lab experiment)
• possible demand characteristics due to it being a laboratory experiment
• internal validity, everything is standardised in the procedure

Question 11

reliability

Answer 11

• This study is reliable and can be replicated
• standardised procedure
  inter-rater reliability
• internal reliability - everyone went through the same 3 stages, everybody had the same checklist, pre-test all rated on a scale 1-5
• Inter-rater reliability - from pre-test

Question 12

sampling bias

Answer 12

• opportunity sample
• no gender bias, equal girls and boys in each group of the 3 different conditions
• all from one nursery
• all from one age range 3-5
• cannot be generalised
• only 6 people washing the same sex model (small groups)

Question 13

ethnocentrism

Answer 13

• all from america (stanford) - ethnocentric however america is a diverse country you can argue that is it not ethnocentric
• all from the same nursery attached to stanford university
• cannot generalise
• children may not be affected by culture
• children come from good, wealthy backrounds