Social learning

Question 1

What is aggression?

Answer 1

An act carried out with the intention to harm

Question 2

Social learning theory suggests that we..

Answer 2

Learn aggressive behaviours through vicarious reinforcement and watching others

Question 3

For effective social learning to take place a person must..

Answer 3

• pay attention to the model
• remember the action
• be able to repeat the action
• be motivated to repeat the action

Question 4

How do people learn to behave aggressively?

Answer 4

People learn the form the behaviour takes, the situation in which the behaviour should be reproduced and the targets towards which the aggressive behaviour is directed

Question 5

They are more likely to learn if..

Answer 5

• the model is similar to themselves
• the model is perceived as having aspirational qualities
• the individual has low self esteem

Question 6

Walters and Thomas supporting study

Answer 6

Participants watched a film (either a violent or non violent scene). Then individuals were paired with a learner whom they had to shock if they gave a wrong answer. Participants who watched the violent scene selected higher shock levels, showing that people can imitate behaviour

Question 7

Evaluation of Walter and Thomas study

Answer 7

• low mundane realism
• historical bias
• low ecological validity
• deception
• demand characteristics
  THEREFORE LOW INTERNAL VALIDITY

Question 8

Bandura supporting study

Answer 8

Children were assigned to one or two conditions. They watched an adult being aggressive towards a bobo doll or they watched an adult displaying neutral behaviours. The children who had seen the aggressive model were physically and verbally aggressive towards the doll. The others were not.

Question 9

Evaluation of bandura study

Answer 9

STRENGTH
- the fact that children were not directly rewarded for being aggressive shows that we can learn aggression vicariously
WEAKNESS
- children (low external validity)
- historically bias
- ethics
- demand characteristics - supposed to hit? Low internal validity

Question 10

Patterson et al

Answer 10

Compared families with at least one highly aggressive child to those of the same status with no aggressive children. Found a cold difficult home environment with little affection typical in families with the aggressive child. So children may be more likely to learn aggressive behaviours in certain home environments when there is harsh discipline and lack of supervision

Question 11

Margaret mead (cross cultural)

Answer 11

Studied tribes in New Guinea who showed major cultural differences in behaviour.
Tribe 1 - masculine traits and women and men were aggressive
Tribe 2 - feminine traits as women and men were more emotional
Tribe 3 - men did house work, women hunted

Indicates that aggressive behaviour are typically learned through social learning

Question 12

Evaluation of Margaret mead

Answer 12

• imposed etic. Used her views which were westernised and made a decision on what was masculine and feminine. Lowers external validity
• lots of info lost in translation
• observations can produce demand characteristics

Question 13

Strength of social learning

Answer 13

Can explain individual differences in that people act differently in different situations because aggression is likely to be rewarded in some situations and not others. This shows that people may learn behaviours that are appropriate to particular contexts

Question 14

Conclusion

Answer 14

It is possible that some people are aggressive because they have learned to be while others may be aggressive due to too much testosterone or due to genetic factors