the developmental area Flashcards
classic:bandura+kohlberg contemporary:chaney+lee
aim of banduras study
see if children would imitate adult behaviour when given the opportunity, even if they saw them in a diff environment, which the model no longer present
4 hypothesis of banduras study
- subjects exposed to aggressive models would reproduce aggressive acts
- observation of non agressive models would have a generalised inhibiting effect on the subjects subsequent behaviour
- subjects would imitate the behaviour of a same sex model to a greater degree than a model of the opposite sex
- boys should be more pre-disposed than girls toward imitating aggression
sample of banduras study
72 children aged 3-5years from stanford uni nursery, equal gender split.
opportunity sampling
design of banduras sample
matched participant- each participant paired with another with shared characteristics (agression levels) before being put into diff groups for the experiment
pre testing in banduras study
children observed by 2 nursery teachers and rated on a 5 point scale out of 20 in 4 caterogies of aggression.
0.89 inter rater reliability
bandura variables
independant: model behaviour, sex of model, sex of child
bandura model conditions
- aggresive male
- aggressive female
- non aggressive male
- non aggressive female
- no model
3 stages in banduras procedure
- child taken individually to a room with either an aggressive model, non-aggressive or no model. aggressive model bunched bobo doll, hit it with mallet. non aggressive ignored it and played with potato stamps and stickers.
- mild aggression arousal stage- child taken to room with attractive toys (doll set, train) told they could play, experimenter then told child these toys were saved for others and they had to go to another room
- taken back to main room and observed through one way mirror. behaviours recorded were either: 1.imitative behaviour of physical or verbal aggression 2. partial imitative behaviour of aggression 3. novel aggressive behaviour
why was stage 2 (mild aggression arousal stage) included
so the child had a reason to show agression, and aggression shown would be learnt as research showed that witnessing aggression tends to reduce immediate aggression
banduras quantitative results:
1.boys had a mean number of 25.8 physical acts with a male model, and only 2 in the control group
2. girls had a mean of 13.7 verbal aggressive acts with a female model, and only 0.7 in the control group
qualitative findings of banduras
comments made by children:
“hes a good fighter like daddy”
“that girl was just acting like a man”
conclusions of banduras study
for a child to copy an action they only have to see it once
no evidence that aggression is cathartic
children learn aggression from parents through imitation
how does banduras study link to behaviourist perspective
social learning theory
how the environment around the child can influence the behaviours they develop
evaluation of banduras study
strengths- anonymity, protection from physical harm
weaknesses- potential mental harm, no consent, no debrief, no right to withdraw, deception, time consuming
how does kohlberg link to the developmental area
moral development
how someones morality changes over lifetime in an invariant sequence that is universal
background to kohlbergs study
1.the psychodynamic perspective explains morality in terms of the development of a superego-Freud
2. the behaviourist perspective explains morality as a consequence of children “observing and imitating models”- bandura
3.cognitive account- heteronomous moral thinking (weighing outcome of an action) and autonomous moral reasoning (weighing intent of an action-more advanced) - Piaget
aim of kohlbergs study
wanted to provide research that would back up his theory of moral development inspired by piaget
kohlbergs sample
75 boys ages 10-16 until they were 22-28 from USA,UK, turkey, taiwan, malaysia, mexico and canada
kohlbergs procedure
- present each biy with moral dilemmas (inc heinz) every 3 years
- using their answers, kohlberg ranked them in 6 categories (1 least morally developed, 6 most) if about 50% of their answers fell into that stage.
- this formed his theory of stages of moral development
how was kohlbergs study longitudinal
studied same 75 boys for 12 years
kohlbergs 3 levels and 6 stages of moral development
pre conventional:
1. orientation towards punishment
2. self interest orientation
conventional:
3. good boy/girl orientation
4. orientation towards authority
post conventional:
5. social contract orientation
6. universal ethical principles
kohlberg conclusions
the stages follow an “invariant developmental sequence”
“all movement is forwards in sequence, and does not skip steps”
the nature of the sequence is “universal”
evaluation of kohlberg ethics
strengths- possible mental harm,
weaknesses- consent gained every 3 years, right to withdraw, anonymity, no deception
reliability in kohlberg
internal- standardised as repeated every 3 years with same dilemas and ensuring 50% of answers fit into a stage to deem the boy in that stage, replicable but takes time
external- sample size large enough to establish a consistent effect and repeated in diff countries
validity in kohlberg
construct(internal)- not an accurate measure of moral development as answers could have been changed to be morally acceptable
population(external)- only males and certain age so cannot be generalised from. but wide range of cultures makes it generalisable to other places
ecological(external)- responses may not reflect how someone would act as how you respond may not be how you act.
ethnocentrism in kohlberg
cultural bias- assumed moral development would be the same everywhere based off us sample
not ethnocentric- 7 diff places repeat in and found similar results
chaney et al aims
to see if the principles of positive reinforcement could be incorporated into an attachment spacer device to help children how to use their asthma inhaler properly. this new device was called the funhaler- a whistle would sound and a disc spin round if the child used the correct breathing technique
chaney et al sample
32 children from australia (22 boys 10 girls) from 7 clinics or paediatricions around perth
chaney et al procedure
- parents were contacted by phone to give written informed consent before they filled in a questionnaire about their childs current inhaler device
- parents were given a funhaler for their child to use for 2 weeks
- parents then filled in a questionnaire to fill in on funhaler after 2 weeks
chaney et al findings
behaviour- 50% of children had achieved desired 4+ breath cycles per delivery with past device and 80% with funhaler
attitudes- 10% of parents were completely happy with childs past device and 61% with funhaler
how does chaney et al link to the behaviourist perspective
uses operant conditioning including positive reinforcement as well as negative reinforcement to teach children behaviours
similaritites and differences between ‘external influences on childrens behaviour’ studies (chaney+bandura)
similarities:
-both studied young children
-both sit on ‘nurture’ side of nature=nurture debate
differences:
-bandura used observation, chaney used self report
-bandura used matched participant design, chaney used repeated measures
how has chaneys study changed our understanding of ‘external influences on childrens behaviour’
-it showed that behaviour of children can be changed by reinforcement rather than just observation and imitation
-but both studies still only tell us about young children
lee et al background
hosfede proposed individualism-collectivism as one dimension upon why cultures can vary and found the west is more individualistic and the east more towards collectivism
lee et al aims
culture: to find out if the culture a child grows up in affects their views about truth telling and lying
age; to find out if the views of children about truth telling and lying change as they grow older
lee et al sample
cross sectional study of 40 7 year olds, 40 9 year olds and 40 11 years olds from both china and canada
lee et al procedure
each child had 4 stories read to them in random orders (half physical half social stories):
1.child behaves anti socially and lies about it
2.child behaves anti socially and tells the truth about it
3.child behaves pro socially and lies about it
4.child behaves pro socially and tells the truth about it
answers about the childs behavour was rated on a 7 point scale from very very good to very very bad
lee et al findings
pro social stories:
-telling the truth about pro social actions was viewed less positively by children in china as they got older
-lying about anti social actions was viewed more positively by children in china as they got older
anti social stories:
-culture had no influence on responses
-telling the truth about anti social behaviour was seen positively
-lying about anti social behaviour was viewed negatively, and got more negative as children got older
similarities and differences of ‘moral development’ studies (lee+kohlberg)
similarities:
-both cross cultural
-both involved children given scenarios to comment upon
differences:
-kohlbergs was longitudinal and lees was snapshot
-kohlbergs consisted of only boys and lee had boys and girls
how has lee et als study changed our understanding of ‘moral development’
-suggests that the culture a child grows up in has an effect on their development moral thinking
-isnt talking about ‘stages’ of development
-but both find that childrens moral thinking changes as they grow up
-it doesnt find anything to challenge the idea of moral thinking developing in a sequence
