bandura et el Flashcards
aim
To investigate the extent to which children would imitate
aggression modelled by an adult, and to investigate the effects of
gender on imitation.
method
72 children were divided into three groups. One group
saw an adult attack an inflatable doll (a Bobo doll) in a play room.
A second group saw an adult behave non-aggressively, and 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.
results
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.
conclusion
Children can acquire aggression through observation
of adults modelling aggression. They selectively imitate gender-
specific behaviour and boys imitate male models, at least selectively.
CONTEXT
This study is concerned with the tendency of children to imitate adult social
behaviour, specifically aggression. Learning behaviour by imitating others is
called observational learning. Several studies had already demonstrated
that children are influenced by witnessing adult behaviour. However, previous
studies had tended to show children repeating adult behaviour in the same
situation and in the presence of the adult that modelled the behaviour. Although
this suggests that children identify with adult models, it does not show
whether they will go on to repeat the observed behaviour in other situations
and without the adult present. One purpose of the study, therefore, was to test
whether children will reproduce observed behaviour in a new situation and in the
absence of the model.
This study is also concerned with the learning of gender-specific behaviour.
Previous studies had shown that children are sensitive to gender-specific
behaviours. For example, children see their parents as preferring gender-
stereotyped behaviour. Aggression is a good example of a gendered social
behaviour, being associated with masculinity. A further purpose of this study was to investigate whether boys were more
likely to imitate aggression than girls, and whether they would be more likely to
imitate male than female models.
key term : observational learning
Observational learning is learning behaviour through observation of that behaviour in another individual, known as the model. Observational learning can be seen in many species. Albert Bandura and colleagues demonstrated observational learning in humans and built the idea into social learning theory.
AIMS AND HYPOTHESES
The overall aim of the study was to investigate observational learning of
aggression. Specifically, the study aimed to see whether children would
reproduce aggressive behaviour when the model was no longer present, and
to look for gender differences in learning of aggression. Several hypotheses
were tested:
1 Participants exposed to an aggressive model would be more likely to
reproduce similar aggression than those exposed to a non-aggressive model
and those who did not see a model at all.
2 Participants exposed to a non-aggressive model would be less aggressive
than those not exposed to a model at all.
3 Participants would imitate aggression modelled by a same-sex adult more
than that modelled by an opposite-sex adult.
4 Boys would be more inclined than girls to imitate aggression.
METHOD - Participants
There were a total of 72 participants: 36 male and 36 female. All were selected
from the nursery school of Stanford University. Ages ranged from 37 months
(just over three years) to 69 months (five-and-three-quarter years). The mean age
was 52 months (four years and four months).
METHOD - design
This was a laboratory experiment, using an independent measures design. The
effect of three independent variables was tested:
*The behaviour of the model – aggressive or non-aggressive;
*The sex of the model; and
*The sex of the children.
There were eight conditions in all. The children in each condition were matched
for their aggression levels, so that this did not become a confounding variable.
This was achieved by the experimenter and a nursery teacher independently
rating 51 of the children on a scale of 0 to 5. Very good agreement between the
two raters was achieved (0.89). The conditions were as follows:
1 12 boys and 12 girls were exposed to an aggressive model. Six boys and six
girls saw aggression modelled by a same-sex model, while the rest saw it
modelled by an opposite-sex model.
2 12 boys and 12 girls were exposed to a non-aggressive model. Six boys and
six girls saw non-aggression modelled by a same-sex model, while the rest
saw it modelled by an opposite-sex model.
3 A control group of 12 boys and 12 girls did not see a model display any
behaviour, aggressive or otherwise.
METHOD - procedure
The procedure consisted of three stages.
1 Modelling the behaviour. Each child was brought individually into a
play room and invited to join in a game. This lasted for 10 minutes. In the
first two conditions there was also an additional adult present in the room.
In the aggressive condition, this adult demonstrated aggression towards
a 5-foot tall inflatable Bobo doll, kicking and hitting it, including with a
hammer. They also said aggressive things, such as ‘kick him … pow … sock
him on the nose’. 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.
2 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 some very attractive toys. After being allowed to
play with these for around two minutes, the participants were told they were
not allowed to play with them any more as they were ‘the very best’ toys and
they were going to be reserved for other children.
3 Testing for delayed imitation. Children were then observed playing for
the next 20 minutes as the experimenter remained in the room but busied
herself with paperwork. Two more observers watched through a one way
mirror. The room contained a range of toys including a bob doll (smaller than
the one seen earlier). During the observation, the observers were unaware
which condition the child was in. This helped eliminate bias.
Three types of aggression were recorded by observers:
1 Imitative aggression – physical and verbal aggression identical to that
modelled in stage 1;
2 Partially imitative aggression – similar behaviour to that carried out by
the model;
3 Non-imitative aggression – new aggressive acts not demonstrated by
the model.
RESULTS
Quantitative data was recorded. This showed significant differences in levels of
imitative aggression between the group that witnessed aggression and the other
two groups. This was true of physical and verbal aggression. To a lesser extent
this was also true of partial imitation and non-imitative aggression. Significantly
more non-aggressive play was recorded in the non-aggressive model condition.
In terms of the hypotheses tested:
1 Children who had witnessed an aggressive model were significantly more
aggressive themselves.
2 Overall, there was very little difference between aggression in the control
group and that in the non-aggressive modelling condition.
3 Boys were significantly more likely to imitate aggressive male models. The
difference for girls was much smaller.
4 Boys were significantly more physically aggressive than girls. Girls were
more verbally aggressive than boys after observing a female model.
Male imitative physical
aggression - male model agression (25.4)
female model agression (12.8) non agressive male model (1.5) non agressive female model (0.2)no model (2.0)
female imitative physical aggression - male model agression (7.2) feamle model agression (5.5) non agressive male model (0.0) non agressive female model (2.5) no model (1.2)
Male imitative verbal
aggression - male model agression ( 12.7) female model agression (4.3) non agressive male model (0.0) non agressive female model (1.1) no model (1.2)
female imitative verbal agression - male model agression ( 2.0) female model agresion (13.7) non agressive male model (0.0) non agressive female model (0.3) no model (0.7)
male non imitative agression - male agresion (36.7) female agression (17.2) non agressive male model (22.3) non agressive female model (26.1) no model (24.6)
female non imitative agression - male agression (8.4) female agresssion (21.3) non agressive male model (1.4) non agressive female model (7.2) no model (6.1)
CONCLUSIONS
1 Witnessing aggression in a model can be enough to produce aggression by
an observer. This is important because it had been widely believed prior to
this study that learning aggression was a more gradual process in which a
learner experimented with aggression and was rewarded in some way for
doing so.
2 Children selectively imitate gender-specific behaviour. Thus boys are
more likely to imitate physical aggression than girls. Because boys but not
girls were more likely to imitate aggression in a same-sex model, it could
be concluded only cautiously that children selectively imitate same-sex
models. It could not be ruled out that this process is specific to boys , as girls
who witnessed a female model were more verbally aggressive than boys.
There is more than one possible explanation for these findings. One suggestion
was that children were not learning aggression at all, but that they were just
disinhibited by witnessing the adult aggression. In other words, they already
knew how to act aggressively but it became okay when the adult did it. However,
if this were true, we would expect that children would be aggressive to the doll in
a wide range of ways. In fact, although there was non-imitative aggression, they
tended to imitate exactly the style of aggression modelled by the adult. This
suggests that they were actually learning the aggression.
EVALUATION - The research method
This study was a classic laboratory experiment, with the
strengths and weaknesses that typically go with laboratory
experiments. On the positive side, there are many excellent
controls that cut down the risk posed by extraneous variables.
All participants had very much the same experience, with
the same rooms and toys being used in all conditions. This
is a particular strength of the design. However, like many
laboratory experiments, this one lacks a degree of realism.
Hitting a Bobo doll is very different from hitting a person, and
we should be cautious about applying results obtained in this
experimental situation to more lifelike situations.
EVALUATION - Ethical considerations
All studies making use of children raise additional ethical
issues above and beyond those conducted on adults. This is because, unlike adults, children cannot really give informed
consent to take part in studies, nor can they withdraw as
easily. A typical response to these issues is to get parental
permission. Although in their research paper Bandura
et al. thank the head teacher of the nursery school, they
do not make clear what steps they took to ensure parental
permission. In this case, children were not doing anything
substantially different from their everyday activities so there
is little risk of real harm or serious distress, although they
were deliberately annoyed by not being allowed to play with
the nicest toys. Mild distress was therefore caused, and this
is an ethical issue. A more serious issue would be any lasting
change to the children’s behaviour. However, the type and level
of violence children witnessed here was similar to that which
they would expect in cartoons, so it is highly unlikely that any
child was left more aggressive by participating.
EVALUATION - Qualitative and quantitative data
Typically for a laboratory experiment, only quantitative
data were gathered in this study. This is both a strength and
a weakness. On the plus side, numbers allow us to easily
compare the levels of aggression in each condition. As long as
we are concerned with observable behaviour we are on safe
ground in rating what we observe quantitatively. However,
what we don’t get from this data is much indication of what
is happening in the minds of the children doing the imitating.
If you watch the film of Bandura’s participants, you can see
that some seem to have quite powerful emotional responses
to the situation. It would have been really interesting to have
qualitative data about what they thought and felt when hitting
the doll.
