Bandura: Transmission through aggression Flashcards
Nature/Nurture Debate
Bandura et al.’s findings suggest the role of nurture - the models influence the behaviour of the children, and through observational learning, a behaviour is imitated by the child.
Boys seemed to show more aggression than the girls, which can be explained by the high levels of testosterone, therefore providing a biological explanation - role of nature.
However, male PPTs also said things such as ‘That ain’t no way for a lady to behave’, suggesting the role of societal norms about gender roles. The children will have adopted these stereotypical beliefs prior to the study - i.e. through parents description of their son, e.g. big boy, strong little man, etc. In other words, parents and other figures will reinforce these stereotypical views, therefore this fits into the nurture debate.
Free will/Determinism Debate
A child’s behaviour can be determined by the environment and the type of behaviour they are exposed to. BUT, the findings show that female models did not have as great an influence as the male models, the children make a choice to imitate or not - suggests the role of free will.
There is also biological determinism, if we accept that high testosterone levels lead to more aggression.
Interactionist view - nature (biology) can have a role in the level of imitation of behaviour, along with environmental factors which encourage/discourage certain behaviours, i.e. stereotypical gender roles.
LINKS TO AREA/PERSPECTIVE - Developmental + Cognitive + Behaviourist
Developmental - the study shows how a child’s environment and the behaviour shown by an adult role model can influence and change their (child’s) behaviour.
Cognitive - some of the children copied certain behaviours exhibited by certain models, suggestive a cognitive process which allows them to decide if its acceptable or not to imitate the behaviour. There is attention involved, where the child must must focus on the model and observe the behaviour, as well as memory, since they must retain the information to later reproduce it.
Behaviourist - the findings show that behaviour is learned, and suggests a new way of learning behaviour other than operant/classical conditioning, i.e. social learning theory.
reductionism/holism
Reductionism: can be considered as reductionist as it mainly investigates the development of children e.g. Bandura suggests that children’s behaviour is influenced by the social learning theory, but this is less generalisable to older age groups as children may be more susceptible to influence i.e. adults have more constructed views and beliefs which may prevent them from being so easily influenced by others.
