Social Learning Theory - AO3

Question 1

Describe Bandura’s Bobo doll study

Answer 1

• boys and girls aged 3-5 years
• controlled environment where children either saw an adult behave aggressively to a bobo doll or showed no aggression to the bobo doll
• the children who saw the aggression to the bobo doll were more likely to show aggression. Shows children imitate the behaviour of role models

Question 2

Alternative explanation: Biological

Answer 2

P: alternative explanation for human behaviour is the biological explanation
E- suggests that human behaviour is due to genes or hormones rather than learning through observation
E- For example, the SLT underestimates the role of hormones in Bandura’s research as one consistent finding was that boys were often more aggressive than girls regardless of the situation they were in.
L: this difference could be explained by hormones. Therefore the SLT is not the only explanation of human behaviour that should be considered

Question 3

Strength: scientific methods

Answer 3

P: uses scientific methods
E: based on objective and empirical techniques such as Bandura’s bobo doll lab experiment
E: which had high control over extraneous variables such as using the same model in each condition
L: therefore it could be argued that this increases the overall internal validity of the SLT , raise psychology’s scientific status.