Bandura Study 1961 Flashcards
What was the aim
To find out whether children will imitate aggressive behaviour even when in a different environment without a model present
What was the sample
36 boys, 36 girls
Stanford university nursery school
Caucasian
Aged 3-5
Average age 52 months
What were the independent variables
How the role model acted/ if there was one
Gender of the role model
Gender of the participant
How were the samples sorted
24 saw agressive role model
( 6 boys and 6 girls had a female model etc)
24 saw non aggressive
24 were control
Procedure
Room 1
Modelling room
Bobo doll and rubber mallet (aggressive)
Tinker Toy set (non aggressive)
Procedure
Room 2
Aggression arousal
Many cool toys
Researched took child in but only allowed them in for 2 minutes then said the toys weren’t for them
Procedure
Room 3
Delayed imitation
Bobo doll, mallet and gun
Tea set, tinker toy set
How were results gathered
2 researchers (1 model, 1 independent coder - didn’t know the model seen)
Watched the child for 20 minutes
Recorded every 5 seconds (test retest reliability)
240 observations made per child
Dependent variables
Directly copied
Imitative aggression responses
Physical: striking bobo doll w mallet, punching in nose, throwing in air
Verbal: hit him down, kick him
Dependent variables
(Copied somewhat)
Partially imitative response
Mallet aggression e.g using mallet on other toys
Sitting on bobo doll
Dependent variables
Not copied
Non imitative aggressive response
Slapping/ punching bobo doll
Non imitiative physical and verbal aggression
Aggressive gun play
Results (numeral)
Children who had seen an agressive role model showed 50.9 on average physical aggressive compared to 4.2 non aggressive RM
Results
Boys watching a male model were the most aggressive
Girls watching a female model were more aggressive
Girls were more verbally aggressive
Both were more likely to imitate same sex models
Conclusion
Supports Bandura SLT as children observed and imitated behaviour
Generalisability
Can’t generalise to other ages
Parents all of high education level
All Caucasian
Good Sample size, boys and girls
Reliability
Standardised procedures
Same criteria was used to measure the aggressive behaviour
All kids seeing aggressive saw the exact same acts in the exact same order
Replicabke
Application
How we punish children for behaviour so it won’t be repeated later on
How to help children who have witnessed domestic violence
Validity Strengths
Laboratory experiment meant high control of any variables
Confounding variables were removed (matched on age and gender)
Matched children on pre existing levels of aggression (asked nursery teacher to rate (0-5))
Had 2 raters giving inter rater reliability and one didn’t know the true aim
240 observations
Validity weaknesses
Laboratory experiment - artificial setting
Demand characteristics - children behaved artificially
Ethics
Normalised aggressive behaviour which could have been detrimental as they may have replicated this later on
No consent or right to withdraw for children
Didn’t tell children behaving that way is bad
Children purposely distressed in arousal stage (children in real life experience frustration)
Vicarious reinforcement
Independent variable of the observed consequence for the model, some rewarded some punished
Children who saw the model punished were significantly less agressive
Promise of reward was the most powerful influence
