Developmental Area Flashcards
What is the background of Bandura?
Bandura and his colleagues were interested in seeing how children can learn behaviours by copying the behaviour of those around them. They were also interested in the role that gender plays in this, and whether children are more likely to imitate behaviour from a same-sex role model. The study tests the model of Social Learning Theory.
What is the aim of Bandura?
Bandura aimed to investigate whether children would imitate aggressive behaviours observed from a role model. Bandura also aimed to see if gender of the child and role model impacted whether or not the aggressive behaviour would be imitated.
What is the method of Bandura?
Bandura used a laboratory experiment with a matched participants design. There were three independent variables:
- Whether the child witnessed an aggressive or a non-aggressive adult model (the control group was not exposed to an adult model).
- The sex of the model (male or female).
- The sex of the child (boy or girl).
The dependent variable was the amount of imitative behaviour and aggression shown by the child, measured by observers noting down at 5-second intervals: displays of imitative aggressive responses, partially imitative responses and/or non-aggressive imitative aggressive responses.
What is the sample of Bandura?
72 children, 36 boys and 36 girls, aged 3-5, mean 4.3, from Stanford University Nursery School. Participants were matched through a procedure which pre-rated them for aggressiveness. They were rated on four five-point rating scales by the experimenter and a nursery school teacher, both of whom were well acquainted with the children. These scales measured the extent to which participants displayed physical aggression, verbal aggression towards inanimate objects, and aggressive inhibition. On the basis of these scores, participants were arranged in triplets and randomly assigned to one of the two experimental groups or to the control group. Each child only participated in either one of the experimental conditions
What is the procedure of Bandura?
The children in the experimental conditions were individually taken into a room and sat at a table to play with potato prints and picture stickers for 10 minutes whilst the aggressive model began by assembling a tinker toy set but after around a minute turned to a Bobo doll and spent the remainder of the period physically and verbally aggressing it using a standardised procedure. The non-aggressive model assembled the tinker toys in a quiet subdued manner, ignoring the Bobo doll. The control group did not participate in this part of the procedure. All the children were then taken individually to an anteroom and subjected to mild aggression arousal. Initially they were allowed to play with some very attractive toys but after about two minutes the experimenter took the toys away saying they were reserved for other children. However they could play with any of the toys in the next room. The children were then taken individually into a third room which contained both aggressive and non-aggressive toys. Aggressive toys included: a 3ft high Bobo doll, a mallet, dart guns and non-aggressive toys, which included a tea set, cars, dolls. The children were observed through a one-way mirror for 20 minutes whilst observers recorded behaviour in the following categories: Imitative aggression (physical, verbal and non-aggressive speech). Partially imitative aggression. Non-imitative physical and verbal aggression.
Non-aggressive behaviour.
What is the findings of Bandura?
Children who observed the aggressive model made far more imitative aggressive responses than those who were in the non-aggressive or control groups. There was more partial and non-imitative aggression among those children who had observed aggressive behaviour. The girls in the aggressive model condition also showed more physically aggressive responses if the model was male, but more verbally aggressive responses if the model was female.
Boys were more likely to imitate same-sex models than girls. Boys imitated more physically aggressive acts than girls. There was little difference in verbal aggression between boys and girls.
What is the conclusion of Bandura?
Bobo doll experiment demonstrated that children are able to learn social behaviour such as aggression through the process of observational learning, through watching the behaviour of another person. The findings support Social Learning Theory. This study has important implications for the effects of media violence on children.
What is the materials of Bandura’s study?
- 3ft high Bobo doll
- a mallet
- dart guns
- a tea set
- toy cars
- dolls.
