Study In Detail - Bandura, Ross & Ross

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

To see if children would copy an adults aggressive behaviour to a bobo doll.
To see if children were more likely to imitate the same sex adult

Question 2

Procedure (sampling)

Answer 2

• 72 (36 male & 36 female) nursery children aged 3-5 from Stanford university split into equal sex groups.
• divided into 8 experimental conditions, 6 children each remaining 24 went to control group
• physical & verbal aggression levels were measured via rating scales
• matched pairs design used. Assigned to aggressive, non aggressive or control

Question 3

Procedure (process)

Answer 3

• lab, contained toys and chair table mallet and 5foot bobo doll
• in aggressive, model played with toys for a mi and then began to act aggressively towards the doll. E.g. Sitting on it, punching shouting”sock him on the nose”
• non aggressive, model was calm and only played with toy, ignored bobo
• control was when there was no model present
• children were then taken to new room, played a bit, and then told the rom was for others. = equally frustrated and in a room with a bobo doll….observed and recorded 20 min

Question 4

Results

Answer 4

• Watching aggressive led to more aggressive copying in comparison to the the non aggressive model
• 1/3 imitated aggressive model
• 12.7 avg imitated aggressive
• boys more likely to imitate
• on avg, boys copied 25.8 aggressive if model was was male, if model was female 5.5
• girls more likely to engage verbal aggression, boys more physical
• 70% showed no aggression

Question 5

Conclusion

Answer 5

Not all behaviour is shaped through reward/punishment, also leaned via observation. Boys more aggressive then girls, buys less likely to imitate girls

Question 6

Evaluation - strengths ✅

Answer 6

Good ecological validity - nursery was a natural setting
Good population validity - 72 can be generalised to both genders
Highly reliable - high controls, standardised procedures E.g. All put in the same emotional state. Cause and effect established, replicable, consis
Positive app - helps us understand how children awe yore aggressive attitudes through imitation. Helps encourage good behaviour

Question 7

Evaluation - weaknesses ❌

Answer 7

Lacks ecological validity - artificial lab settings. Deliberately made frustrated which may not usually happen in real
Low population validity - only 3-5yo so can be generalised to older
Lacks experimental validity - never seen a bobo doll.
Ethics - no informed consent, made to feel aggressive effectively teaching them aggressive acts