SLT BANDURA Flashcards
The Bobo Doll Study
Bandura et al. (1961) want to examine
wanted to examine the effect role models have on behaviour
Studies aims
To examine if the sex of the model affected the participants and if same-sex models had a more significant influence on behaviour
To examine the effect of the continual influence of the model on behaviour
how many participents in the study
72 participants, 36 girls and 36 boys, aged between 37-69 months
how many groups and how many children in each.
8 experimental groups, with 6 children in each
how many ROLE MODELS
2 adult role models, 1 female and 1 male
how was the group split
Half of the groups observed an aggressive role model and half observed a non-aggressive role model
PROCEDURE
In the room, there was the Bobo Doll, a hammer and other toys
Participants who watched the aggressive model, observed the model hit the Bobo Doll with the hammer and shouted abuse and horrible words at the Bobo Doll, such as punch him and pow
The participants observed the behaviour of the model for around 10 minutes, after this, they were taken down a corridor and to another room
In the new room, there were also toys, however, the participants were not allowed to play with them and were told they were being saved for other children but they could play with toys in another room, this caused initial aggression arousal
The participants about 2 minutes later were allowed to play in the room with the toys they wanted to
In this room, there was a Bobo Doll, aggressive toys such as a mallet and dart gun and non-aggressive toys such as farm toys and crayons
The participants were observed and rated for 20 minutes whilst they ‘played’ with the toys
RESULTS
Children who had observed aggressive behaviour were more likely to be aggressive
Boys were more physically aggressive; girls displayed more verbal aggression
Children were more likely to imitate the behaviour of the same-sex role model
Conclusion
Observing a role model show aggressive behaviour may motivate a child to imitate that aggressive behaviour in a different setting
Evaluation of Bandura (1961)
This was a well-controlled observational study with a clear independent variable which means that the procedure is replicable and thus could be repeated to test for reliability
There are ethical issues: young children being exposed to an aggressive adult is problematic
Bobo dolls are designed to be hit and so, it is hard to judge the behaviour of participants who did so, affecting the validity of the study as there could be demand characteristics
The experiment only shows short-term effects of observed aggression, making it difficult to see if there are long-term effects
