bandura

Question 1

what was the aim of the study ?

Answer 1

the aim of the study was to demonstrate that learning can occur through simple observation of a model and that imitated behaviour can be observed in the absence of that model

Question 2

what was the design of the study ?

Answer 2

this study was a laboratory experiment it also used a matched paired design and an observational technique. the children were matched in terms of aggressiveness

Question 3

what were the IV and DV in this experiment

Answer 3

the independent variable was aggressive or non aggressive model, gender of the model or gender of the child. The dependant variable was the imitation of aggressive acts/behaviour observed in the playroom

Question 4

what sampling technique did they use?

Answer 4

This study used opportunity sample of American children from Stanford university nursery

Question 5

what were the samples characteristics?

Answer 5

36 boys and 36 girls participated the ages were between 3-5 years old

Question 6

how was the different levels of aggressiveness controlled ?

Answer 6

the extraneous variable was controlled by ensuring each group contained equally aggressive children. aggressiveness ratings of the children were determined beforehand by an experimenter who knew the children well and one of the children’s teacher they were rated 4 5 point rating scales (physical , verbal aggression , aggression towards inanimate objects and aggressive inhabitation)

Question 7

what gender were the models ?

Answer 7

there was both a male and female model plus a female experimenter

Question 8

how many times were the children tested?

Answer 8

the children only participated in one condition there was an aggressive model , a non aggressive model or a control condition( no model)

Question 9

what materials were used?

Answer 9

there was a variety of toys including aggressive toys (mallet and dart gun) and non aggressive toys (tea set toys cars and a doll) there was also a Bobo doll which is an inflatable doll 5 feet high there a weight at the bottom which means when its knocked over it will pop back up

Question 10

how many phases of the procedure was there and what were they called?

Answer 10

there was 3 phase. phase 1:modelling phase 2:aggression arousal and phase 3:tested for delayed imitation

Question 11

how where the participants spilt in to groups?

Answer 11

group 1 observed an aggressive model group 2 observed a non aggressive model group 3 was the control group who didn’t observe a model. These groups were then subdivided in to 4 groups where some of the children watched the same sex model and the other children watched the opposite sex model

Question 12

what happened in phase 1 modelling ?

Answer 12

each child was taken one by one in to a room the experimenter seated them at a small table in the corner and encouraged the child to design a picture using stickers and potato prints once the child was settled the experimenter brought the model into the room at the opposite corner witch a small table toy set a mallet and a Bob doll the experimenter then left the room

Question 13

what happened in phase 1 aggressive model?

Answer 13

the model spent the first 5 minutes playing quietly but then turned to the bobo doll an then spent the rest of the time being aggressive towards it this included specific acts which might be imitated towards it later like sitting on the doll punching it on its nose and hitting i on the head with the mallet throwing the doll and kicking it there was also standardised comments such as ‘hit him down ‘‘pow’ and ‘he keeps coming back for more’

Question 14

what happened in phase 1 non aggressive model and the control group ?

Answer 14

the model assembled the tinker toys in a calm manner and ignored the bobo doll
the control group didn’t take part in this stage
after 10 minutes the experimenter re entered and took the children to a different room

Question 15

why was the child provoked in phase 2?

Answer 15

before testing for levels of aggression it was necessary the children were provoked this was done because observing aggressive behaviour may reduce the probability of behaving aggressively this would make it less likely that a child who observed an aggressive model would behave aggressively. it was also done because the children who watched the non aggressive model might be prevented from acting aggressive because of what they observed . It was also believed that it would make the child frustrated which would mean the child would more likely act aggressive

Question 16

what happened in phase 2 ?

Answer 16

The children were taken into another room with attractive toys ( fire engine plane and doll set) the child was allowed to play with these toys but after 2 minutes the experimenter decide to reserve the toy for the other children the experimenter and child them moved in to another room

Question 17

what happened in phase 3 ?

Answer 17

the third room containd a varity of toys. aggressive toys that could be used to express aggression 9 mallet ,dart gun ,bobo doll, tether ball) and non aggressive toys( tea set , crayons, dolls , cars plastic animals )
the toys were arranged in a fixed order for each session
the experimenter sat quietly in the corner working while the child played for 2 minutes

Question 18

how where the children observed?

Answer 18

the child was observed though a one way mirror by the male model. A second observer was shown half of the children and recorded his observations independently the allowed interrater reliability to be calculated.

Question 19

what were the observers recording ?

Answer 19

the observers recorder what the children were doing every 5 seconds this meant there was 240 observations ( this is time sampling) responses were recorded in categories

imitate aggression: physical, any specific acts which were imitated and verbal ‘ any phrases limited eg.’pow’

partially imitative: mallet aggression :uses mallet on toys other than bobo doll , sits on bobo doll but doesn’t act aggressively

non-imitative response : punches bobo doll ( slaps strikes pushes the doll) non imitative physical and verbal aggression ( aggressive acts toward other toys and saying hostile things)

non aggressive verbal responses: ‘he keeps coming back for more’

Question 20

what were the findings of the experiment?

Answer 20

children in the aggressive model imitated aggressive behaviour
children on non aggressive model imitated non aggressive behaviour
the imitated behaviour was in the absences
boys were more physically aggressive than girls
boys with the same sex model imitated to a greater degree
male model had a larger influence than female model
children can learn behaviour through observation and imitation
boys showed on average 25.8 acts of aggression and girls on average showed 7.2 acts of aggression