developmental area Flashcards
according to the developmental area, what is behaviour due to?
our experiences
as we experience new cognitive, behavioural and environmental influences and information, we build it into our future behaviours
in this way, our behaviour develops over a lifetime
what are cognitive influences on development?
Kohlberg’s stages of moral development
how does our sense of right and wrong develop over time
behavioural influences on development?
experiencing punishment or reinforcement following behaviour can encourage or discourage repetition of behaviour
example of how environmental factors influence development
feral child ‘Genie’ raised socially isolated but developed non-verbal communication
what is the methodology of the developmental area?
developmental psychology is interested in how behaviour is affected by experiences
researchers want to make comparisons between people who have had different experiences
use methods such as observations, brain scans and experiments
what is Social Learning Theory?
says behaviour is learnt through the watching and imitation of role models
what were the 4 processes needed for social learning that Bandura (1977) said there were?
- attention: we notice a behaviour
- retention: we copy behaviours we remember
- reproduction: we copy behaviours we are capable of
- motivation: we must be motivated to reproduce a behaviour
what did Bandura and Hudson (1961) say?
children will imitate behaviour demonstrated by a model when the model remained present in the room
aim of bandura?
aimed to demonstrate that learning can occur through the observation of a model and that imitation of the learned behaviour can occur without the model being present
what were the four hypotheses to test in Bandura’s study?
- children viewing aggressive models will carry out more aggressive acts resembling the models than children in the non aggressive model or no model conditions
- children shown non aggressive models will show significantly less aggressive behaviour than children in the aggressive or no model condition
- boys will imitate more aggressive behaviours than girls
- children will imitate more behaviours if the model is the same sex as them
experimental method of bandura?
quasi
sample demographics of bandura?
72 children from a nursery at Stanford University
ages ranged from 37 months to 69 months, with an average of 52 months
36 girls and 36 boys
how were aggression ratings calculated in bandura?
given before children were allocated a condition
observed in their normal social interactions in the nursery by a teacher + experimenter
were rated for physical + verbal aggression, aggression towards inanimate objects and aggression inhibition on a 5 point scale
children then placed into groups of 3 based on similar aggression ratings
how were pts allocated to conditions in bandura?
3 main conditions: aggressive, non aggressive and no model
one child from each grp of three randomly allocated into each condition
within experimental grps there was another set of conditions based on sex of pts and model. This gave a total of 8 experimental grps. each containing 6 pts and one control grp containing 24 pts
what was stage one of bandura’s procedure?
in the experimental conditions the participant was taken into the first room where they were given some high interest activities eg potato prints and stickers
model sat in opposite corner of room w tinker toy set + bobo doll
NON AGGRESSIVE: model would play quietly play w tinker set and ignore doll
AGGRESSIVE: model played w tinker toy set. after 1 minute, they would start being aggressive to the bobo doll by hitting, throwing and shouting eg ‘SOCK HIM IN THE NOSE’
first stage lasted 10 MINUTES
stage 2 of bandura?
aggression arousal:
- all pts completed this stage
- pts taken to a second room w attractive toys eg firetrucks + tea sets, and were allowed to play w them
after 2 mins, the experimenter told the child that these toys were the best and so reserved for other children. they were told they could play with toys in the third room instead
this gave pts motivation to be aggressive
stage three of bandura?
third room contained a range of toys and were standardised
all the toys from the first room were in the third room. there were also additional aggressive toys eg a dart gun. they were observed through a one way mirror for 20 mins whilst they played
a behavioural checklist was used during the observation. a note was made for one of the categories once every 5 secs, giving each child 240 behaviour ratings
behavioural categories:
- imitative aggression (hitting doll with mallet)
- partially imitative aggression (hitting doll with something other than the mallet)
- non-imitative aggression (shooting the doll with a dart gun)
- no aggression (colouring)
findings of bandura?
1) children in the aggressive model condition showed significantly more aggressive responses than those in the other two conditions
2) no overall significant difference was found between the behaviour of children in the non aggressive model grp and the control grp
3) boys imitated more physical aggression than girls, however there was no significant difference between boys and girls regarding verbal aggression
4) there was some evidence of a ‘same-sex’ effect for boys but not for girls. overall, male models have a higher level of imitation than female models in all children
conclusions of Bandura?
this study provides evidence to support Social Learning Theory
Behaviour can be affected by external influences, eg who we view as role models
characteristics of role models, eg sex of model, have an effect on imitation
