Developmental Approach

Question 1

Bandura - Background

Answer 1

Banduras research into the transmission of aggressive behaviour in children is influenced by the social learning theory. This theory suggests that we learn through observation and imitation of role models, leading to the modelling of behaviour observed. Previous research by Bandura and Hudson found that children will readily imitate behaviour demonstrated by an adult role model if the model remains present in the situation. This research provided evidence for the influence of a role model on behaviour, however very little was known on how behaviour displayed by a model might affect an individual when the model is absent from the situation. Therefore, this influenced Bandura to investigate this further in experimental conditions to observe the level of aggression demonstrated by children in the absence of a previously observed aggressive model

Question 2

Bandura - Aim

Answer 2

To investigate whether learning can occur through mere observation of a role model and that imitation of learned behaviour can occur in the absence of a model.

Question 3

Bandura - Sample

Answer 3

· 72 children,
average age 52 months,
equal boys and girls

· Opportunity sample

Question 4

Bandura - Research Method

Answer 4

This is a laboratory experiment (IV = sex of child, sex of model, behaviour of model, DV = level of aggression shown in room 3, lab setting)

Matched participants design: Matched on aggression (5 point scale, rated on 4 types of aggression) (3 conditions: aggressive, non-aggressive, control)

Used observation to collect the data on aggressive behaviour

Question 5

Bandura - Procedure

Answer 5

ROOM 1: Children in the aggressive condition and non-aggressive condition went into a room full of toys with the experimenter and started playing with craft toys together. After one minute, the role model turned to the Bobo doll and spent the remainder of the time being either: aggressive or non-aggressive (two experimental conditions) towards it. This set routine was repeated THREE TIMES for each child.

ROOM 2: All 72 children went into this room. The children were taken to a room filled with attractive toys. The experimenter explained the toys were for the children to play with, but as soon as the child became involved in playing with the toys (about 2 mins), the experimenter then took the toys away. The purpose of this was to ensure all children were at the same level of arousal before entering room 3.

ROOM 3: This room contained various toys, both of an aggressive and non-aggressive nature. The child was allowed to play for 20 minutes and was observed without their knowledge through a one-way mirror by the male model and another observer using a double blind design in 5 second intervals. The female experimenter stayed in the room with the child but to avoid distraction kept themselves busy with paperwork. The children’s behaviour was observed and recorded in this room in order to gather data as to how aggressive they were behaving after seeing the role model.

Question 6

Bandura - Results

Answer 6

Quantitative:
· Children in aggressive condition showed significantly more aggressive acts than non-aggressive or control conditions
· Boys produced more imitative physical aggression than girls

Qualitative:
· The children seemed to simply accept the aggressiveness of the male model more easily saying things like ‘That man is a strong fighter’

Question 7

Bandura - Conclusion

Answer 7

· This study provides the evidence to suggest that behaviours can be learnt via observation of models and then can be transmitted from one situation to another (SLT).
· Children will imitate aggressive/non-aggressive behaviours displayed by adult models, even if the model is not present.

Question 8

Chaney - Background

Answer 8

Operant conditioning involves learning through the consequences of behavioural responses. Positive reinforcement is the process in which behaviour is learnt through the use of rewards; behaviour is rewarded and so associated with positive responses therefore repeated again and again. Skinner (1948) showed how rats could learn to press a lever if they were rewarded with food. One major issue health practitioners have had to deal with is the poor adherence to medical regimes such as the use of inhalers, research suggests that as little as 50% of children use their inhaler correctly. Chaney et al. therefore suggested that one way to improve adherence to medical regimes in asthmatic children is to introduce a positive reinforcement within the inhalers. They suggested that if the inhaler was more interactive, this could improve medication adherence in young asthmatics.

Question 9

Chaney - Aim

Answer 9

To investigate whether a Funhaler could provide positive reinforcement to improve adherence in child asthmatics compared to normal inhalers

Question 10

Chaney - Sample

Answer 10

· 32 children (22 males, 10 females)
· Perth in Australia
· All asthmatic (for at least 2 years)

Question 11

Chaney - Apparatus

Answer 11

Funhaler: incentive toy of whistle a spinner in the inhaler encourages child to breathe deeply so it will spin and make a noise (reward)

Question 12

Chaney - Research Method

Answer 12

Field experiment
(IV= normal inhaler or Funhaler, DV= Adherence to medical regime, conducted at home).

Repeated measure design: Use both normal inhaler and Funhaler

Question 13

Chaney - Procedure

Answer 13

Parents contacted by phone and then visited at home to explain purpose of study, informed consent gained from parents. Interviewed using a questionnaire (yes/no responses) about their child’s current usage of inhalers, characteristics of child, compliance of child and parents. Not shown Funhaler yet in case it influenced their decision. Then given Funhaler to use over 2-week period with child, only under adult supervision. Usage measured by phoning parents randomly and asking if they’d used it the previous day. Same parent visited at the end and given second questionnaire, attitudes and compliance measured again.

Question 14

Chaney - Results

Answer 14

· 81% parents had medicated their child the previous day with new Funhaler compared to 59% for old inhaler
· 30% more children took recommended 4 deep breaths per delivery with new Funhaler compared to old inhaler

Question 15

Chaney - Conclusion

Answer 15

· Operant conditioning (positive reinforcement) is useful for managing the medical regimes of young asthmatics.
· The use of self-reinforcement strategies can improve the health of children.

Question 16

Chaney - Evaluation

Answer 16

-Sample: Only children from Perth- limits generalisability
+ High ecological validity as at home where would usually take inhaler
+ Highly standardised (same questionnaire, two-week period, same inhaler)
- Ethnocentrism: difficult to draw conclusions about other cultures response to reward in Funhaler
+Ethics- Informed consent gained, fully informed, debriefed
+Quantitative data increases external reliability, objectivity, comparisons can be made between old inhaler and Funhaler. However, lacks insight- reasons why children adhered.
-Repeated measures design- increased risk of demand characteristics, however, reduced risk of individual differences and same children used
+Longitudinal- able to track development of adherence to Funhaler over 2 weeks

Question 17

Kohlberg - Background

Answer 17

Kohlberg was inspired by the work of Piaget and his theory of moral development in children. Piaget placed a structural approach on moral development suggesting that individuals morality develops from a social- cognitive and social-emotional perspective. However Piaget believed that children younger than 10 are focused on authority rather than evaluating their actions based on their own morals, but that it is around this age that children start to develop their moral compass, which is developed by adolescence. However, Kohlberg disagreed with Piaget and believed that moral development continued into early adulthood. This prompted Kohlberg to develop a three level, six stage process of moral development to explain how moral development progresses through these stages and evidenced this theory in his longitudinal study of moral reasoning.

Question 18

Kohlberg - Aim

Answer 18

o The aim of this study was to investigate development in moral reasoning throughout adolescence and early adulthood. (Enough for 2 marks)
o A secondary aim was to assess the extent to which these changes hold true in a range of cultural contexts.

Question 19

Kohlberg - Sample

Answer 19

o 75 American boys who were aged 10-16 at that start of the study.
-They were followed at three year intervals through to ages 22-28.
o Moral development was also studied in boys from
-Great Britain,
- Canada,
- Taiwan,
- Mexico
- Turkey

Question 20

Kohlberg - Research Method

Answer 20

o This was a longitudinal study following the moral development of the same group of boys for 12 years by presenting them with hypothetical moral dilemmas. These were all deliberately philosophical and aimed to show how, as young adolescents develop into young adulthood.
o Cross sectional research also conducted in the cross cultural study (snapshot)

Question 21

Kohlberg - Procedure

Answer 21

o Over the course of 12 years, Kohlberg studies 75 American boys aged at the start from 10-16 years through to 22-28 years,
o each of the boys was, at three yearly intervals, presented with hypothetical moral dilemmas all deliberately philosophical
o The stories (moral dilemmas) were to determine the participants’ stage of moral reasoning for each of the 25 moral concepts such as ‘the value of human life’
o Each dilemma involved options with different moral applications, and once the participant understood the dilemma they were asked what the character in the dilemma should do.
o The cross cultural research was a snapshot method, were asked about a story involving theft of food.
o They were asked “A man’s wife is starving to death but the store owner won’t give the man any food unless he can pay, which he can’t. Should he break in and steal some food? Why?”

Question 22

Kohlberg -

Answer 22

o One cross cultural similarity: Kohlberg proposed that moral development went through a series of three levels and six stages that were always passed through stage by stage and in the fixed order and the participants never went back to a previous stage. (Invariant)

REMEMBER P.I.G.L.S.U: This is basically the findings :

o One cross cultural difference: At the age of 16, Stage 5 thinking was more prevalent in the USA than either Mexico or Taiwan – this stage was reached by participants in these two countries at a later age.

Question 23

Kohlberg - Conclusion

Answer 23

· There is an invariant developmental sequence in an individual’s moral development
· Each stage of moral development occurs one at a time and always in the same order.
· There is a cultural universality of sequence of stages.
· This six stage theory of moral development is not significantly affected by widely ranging social, cultural or religious conditions. The only thing that is affected is the rate at which individual’s progress through the sequence

Question 24

Kohlberg - Strengths

Answer 24

o Longitudinal methods: Allows to track moral development over 12 years increasing internal validity
o Cross cultural: Get to see moral development in a range of cultures allowing for comparison
o Holistic: 25 moral concepts studied looking at a range of factors on moral development
o Useful: Enhances knowledge about moral development occurring in stages into early adulthood

Question 25

Kohlberg - Weakness

Answer 25

o Deterministic: Very much focuses moral development to be a biological maturity
o Reductionist: Underestimates the role of culture so lack usefulness
o Snapshot design used with cross cultural research, so individual differences can impact on findings so cant infer cause and effect about moral development

Question 26

Lee - Background

Answer 26

Previous research by Piaget suggests that children’s moral judgements about lying and truth telling primarily rely whether or not the lie is punished. He suggests that children do not begin to use the protagonist’s intention as the key factor of their moral judgements until around 11 years of age. Wimmer et al. (1984) disagreed with Piaget’s claim and suggested that even preschool children are capable of distinguishing lying from behavioural misdeeds. Sweetser (1987) further argued that the understanding of lying is greatly influenced by the cultural norms and moral values in which individuals are socialised. However, one of the limitations is that nearly all research was conducted with children in Western countries. Lee et al.’s study was conducted to bridge the gap between this previous research by directly testing the effect of culture on children’s moral evaluations of lying and truth telling.

Question 27

Lee - Aim

Answer 27

The aim was to investigate cross-cultural differences in children’s understanding and moral valuations of lying, comparing the responses of Chinese and Canadian participants to stories that involved lying and truth-telling, prosocial and antisocial situations.

Question 28

Lee - Sample

Answer 28

120 Chinese children aged 7,9,11 from schools in the People’s Republic of China (PRC)

108 Canadian children aged 7,9,11 from schools in the Capital of Canada

Question 29

Lee - research methods

Answer 29

Laboratory experiment.
Cross-cultural method= Children from China and Canada were used.

Cross-sectional design= Comparing children of different ages.

Independent measures experimental design (4 conditions)
IV’s= Social or Physical story; Prosocial or Antisocial story; Lie or Truth-telling 2
DV’s= 1. The rating given to the story character’s deed (ranging between very, very good and very, very naughty). 2.The rating given to what the character said (ranging between very, very good and very, very naughty).

Question 30

Lee - Procedure

Answer 30

1. Chinese and Canadian children randomly assigned to social or physical stories.
2. Children were read 4 scenarios individually. Children were read either 4 physical stories or 4 social stories, depending on which group they had been allocated to.
3. They were first instructed about the meaning of the words and symbols on a 7-point chart, these being
   Very very good
   Very good
   Good
   Neither good nor naughty
   Naughty
   Very naughty
   Very very naughty
4. A story’s “deed” section was first read to children, the information regarding the characters pro- or antisocial behaviours.
5. Children were then asked, “Was what she (he) did good or naughty?” They were then asked to give their rating on the scale either verbally, nonverbally, or both.
6. The children were then read the second section of the story, where the character in the story was always asked who carried out the deed, and they either lied or told the truth.
7. The participants were again asked, “Was what she (he) did good or naughty?”
8. Again, the symbols on the chart were used to make a judgement.

Question 31

Lee -Results

Answer 31

Cross cultural similarity- Children from both cultures rated the anti-social behaviours similarly. Truth telling in an anti – social situation is very positive. Lying in an anti-social situation is negative.

Cross cultural difference- Canadian children rate pro-social lie telling negatively, whereas Chinese children rate pro-social lie telling positively.

Cross sectional difference- Chinese children’s ratings of pro social lie telling changed from negative to positive as age increased whereas Canadian children ratings of pro social lie telling was negative, becoming less negative as they aged.

Question 32

Lee - Conclusion

Answer 32

1. Moral reasoning can be influenced by culture and the society we live in and this is emphasised as we develop through biological stages (age)
2. The emphasis on modesty and not boasting in Chinese children increases with age, as these moral standards are more firmly imbedded as they age.

Question 33

Lee - Evaluation

Strengths

Answer 33

Validity
High Internal validity- Lab experiment- high controls- alternating the order of the words ‘good and naughty’. The same language of the participant used.
High population validity- Collectivist and individualistic cultures assessed with a large sample size and mix of ages.

Reliability
High Internal reliability – Standardised procedure. The same scale was used. The meanings of the symbols on the scale repeated the same for each participant.
High external reliability- Quantitative data collected from the scale.

Determinism- Culture shapes moral behaviour, which helps to predict future behaviour.

Useful- Enhances knowledge into moral evaluations in children across different cultures.

Situational- the environmental surroundings influence behaviour, helping us to adapt the situations we are in to improve behaviour.

Question 34

Lee - Evaluation

Weaknesses