Core study three-Bandura (1961)- developmental area Flashcards
What is the developmental area
The developmental area looks at how behaviour develops over time throughout a person’s life.
As the most dramatic behavioural changes occur in childhood it tends to focus on child development.
It often considers whether behaviour is due to nature or nurture.
Nature: our behaviour is explained as a result of our genetic inheritance (we are born that way)
Nurture: our behaviour is explained by how we have been brought up (we are born blank- tabula rasa)
What was the predominant thought at the time about the effects on children of seeing adult behaviour ( social learning theory)
Human behaviour is too complex to be defined in a few concepts. We learn by observing and imitating those around us.
Sometimes, one particular person can become a model for our behaviour. This process is known as modeling
Aim
To investigate if aggressive behaviour can be learnt in children by imitating an aggressive role model.
Hypotheses
Observing an aggressive role model reproduce aggressive acts.
Observing a non aggressive model or no model at all will lead to less aggressive behaviour.
Children will imitate same sex role models over opposite genders.
Boys are likely to be more aggressive than girls.
Sample
72 Children
From Stanford Nursery School
Aged 37 – 69 months (average 52)
36 boys, 36 girls
How was the sample obtained
They were obtained through opportunity sampling as it was participants who were readily available.
DV
Whether children imitate behaviour or not
IV
The gender of the participant
The gender of the model
The model behaviour
Are there any extraneous variables at all
How aggressive the children
are before the experiment
Pre-Test
First, they had to control for aggression before the experiment began
To do this, they observed behaviour of the children in the playground
Used inter-rater reliability – teacher rating and psychologist rating
And then matched the aggression score of the children with the controls
Matched Pairs
The children were matched on their levels of natural aggression before the experiment took place
Both the children’s nursery teacher, and the experimenter (who knew the children) gave each of the participants a score out of 5 for 4 types of aggression.
Physical aggression
Verbal aggression
Aggression towards objects
Aggression inhibition (the ability to ‘hold back’ when annoyed
When the teacher and the experimenter compared the scores, they found their inter-rater reliability was very high (0.89)
Children were matched and put into separate conditions so that each group had children that were of similar levels of aggression.
What were the models conditions
Aggressive male model
Non-aggressive male model
Aggressive female
Non-aggressive female model
control group
How was the aggressive model physically aggressive towards the Bobo Doll
Punching, Kicking, Throwing the Doll, Hitting the Doll with a mallet.
How was the aggressive model verbally aggressive towards the Bobo Doll
“Hit him down!”
“He keeps coming back for more!”
“Sock him in the nose”
“Pow!”
General Findings
Children who saw the aggressive model were far more imitatively aggressive towards the Bobo doll than the children in other groups.
Children who observed the non-aggressive model or who had no model showed fewer aggressive acts.
Boys were more likely to imitate same sex models than girls.
Boys were more physically aggressive than girls.
Girls were more verbally aggressive if it was a female model.
“He’s a good fighter” “Who’s that Lady? She’s not very lady like” “Shoot the Bobo”
QUANTITATIVE
Boys watching an aggressive male model gave 25.8 aggressive acts vs only 1.5 when watching a male non-aggressive model.
Boys watching a male non -aggressive model gave 1.5 aggressive acts vs 2 when given no model.
Boys watching a male model gave 25.8 aggressive acts vs only 12.4 when watching a female model. However, girls were more physically aggressive if they observed a male model
Boys showed on average 38.2 imitative physical aggressive acts and girls only 12.7.
Qualitative Findings
“That ain’t no way for a lady to behave”
“That girl was just acting like a man”
“He’s a good fighter like daddy”
Conclusion
Aggressive behaviour can be ‘transmitted’ through observation and imitation. Seeing adults act in a certain way means that children think it’s okay to act that way too (it legitimates the behaviour)
Why was there gender differences
In western culture, boys and girls are socialised to act in certain ways. Girls are more comfortable with verbal aggression because physical aggression is ‘un-ladylike’. Boys see heroic characters use aggression in stories
What do thing was Bandura interested in investigating
Where human aggression comes from.
How aggression is transmitted (passed) from one person to another.
Procedure stage one
Each child in the experimental conditions was taken
individually to a room and the model was invited in to
join the game.
The child was taken to a table and shown high-interest activities, such as potato printing and stickers.
The model then sat at another table with tinker toys (small
construction toys with figures, cars, etc.), a Bobo doll and a
mallet.
The child was told these were the model’s toys. The
experimenter then left the child with the model.
In the non-aggressive condition, the model played
with the tinker toys and ignored the Bobo doll.
In the aggressive condition, the model began playing
with the tinker toys but then after 1 minute turned to
the Bobo doll and was aggressive towards it for the rest
of the time.
The total time in that room was 10 minutes.
Procedure stage two
mild aggression arousal- Children were taken into a smaller room with some attractive toys such as a toy fire engine, jet plane, train, cable car, spinning top and doll set including a pram.
They were allowed to play with these for 2 minutes BEFORE the experimenter said these were their best toys and must be saved for other children but there were toys in the next room they can play with.
Procedure stage three
This room included all toys from the first room
(with a mini bobo doll) as well as aggressive toys including dart guns and a ball hanging from the ceiling as well as non-aggressive toys including crayons and farm animals.
They were allowed to play for 20 minutes whilst being watched through a one way mirror.
Every 5 seconds a note was made on their behaviour based upon categories.
Ecological validity
Low- The behaviour of the aggressive model was quite unrealistic particularly the way they punched and threw the Bobo doll around. The set-up of the rooms, etc was highly controlled and staged so this reduces the ecological validity of the study.
High- The children were in their normal nursery school so the environment was a familiar one.
Population validity
Low- The sample is not devise as only included children of a very small age range (3 yrs - 5 yrs). Other children of different ages might behave differently .The parents of the children probably worked at Stanford University. This is a good university and so the sample may have been more middle class and educated than children in other areas of the USA.
High- Included both boys and girls so the findings (level of imitated aggression) should be representative of both genders.
Construct validity
High- Lots of controls in place such as the matching of participants on prior aggression in the pre-test, the layout of the toys in the room, the timings in each stage, and the highly unique behavior of the models all help reduce the likelihood of extraneous variables affecting the results of the study to ensure that we are measuring the concept we intent do which is the level of aggression.
Internal reliability
High internal reliability because it was a Standardized produce:
Same physical aggression shown to the bobo doll
Same verbal aggression shown to the bobo doll
The timings of the three stages was always the same
The layout of toys in stage 3 was kept the same for each child
However, The models and experimenters may not have been completely consistent in how they acted in the study.
External reliability
Low external reliability because due to participants being split across multiple conditions, it meant there were only six children in each condition. This means the reliability of the findings is quite limited as it could just be a fluke.
Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentric- This study took place in a nursery that reflected American and western culture. Childcare in different places (tribes e.g. the Zulu in Africa) may be very different.. Some of the toys in this study (e.g. Tinker Toys and Bobo Dolls) might be more familiar to children in America.
Not ethocentric- Stanford is a large university and California is a state with a diverse population so the children may be from different cultural backgrounds.. The way children learn through observation and imitation of adult role models would be expected to be the same regardless of culture.
Ethics
Informed content The parents didn’t informed consent to their participation
Harm- The children could have left with aggressive behaviour and the children were upset after stage two
How does Bandura link to the developmental area
Bandura’s study explains how the environment around the child (the presence of an aggressive model) can influence the behaviours they develop (such as aggression).
Strengths of the developmental area
often large sample sizes
often uses longitudinal research so we can see people develop
often has standardised procedures
Weaknesses of developmental area
often uses children (which can bring up ethical issues)
research is often time consuming
research often lacks ecological validity
research is often ethnocentric as parenting varies per culture
