07. Bandura 1965 Flashcards
What was Bandura’s 1965 aims?
-To see whether children will copy an aggressive model shown in a film clip.
-To see whether the model being punished, rewarded or having no consequences for this behaviour affects the children’s desire to imitate the aggressive behaviour.
-To see how many of the aggressive behaviours the child will imitate when given rewards.
What was Bandura’s 1965 independent variable?
The observed consequence for the model.
What was Bandura’s 1965 dependent variable.
Aggression in the children.
What was Bandura’s 1965 sample?
-33 boys and 33 girls from Stanford Nursery School (some of them had been included before in Bandura’s research on the Bobo doll).
-Age range 42 to 71 months.
-Mean age 51 months.
Describe Bandura’s 1965 experimental groups.
Children were randomly divided (not matched on aggression) into 3 experimental groups:
1. Model rewarded for aggressive behaviour.
2. Model punished for aggressive behaviour.
3. Aggressive model with no reward or punishment.
-All groups saw an aggressive model who was always male.
-11 participants in each group.
Describe Bandura’s 1965 procedure.
-The children were lead into a room by the researcher (no arousal phase after initial play time).
-They were told they could go into a surprise playroom, where they would wait for experimenter whilst they dealt with some business.
-In the room was a TV showing a 5 minute long programme.
-The model (always male) in the programme was exhibiting aggressive behaviour.
-Depending on the condition the model was either punished, rewarded or no response.
-All condition inculding the control saw an aggressive, male model.
Describe the TV programme.
-The male model walked up to the Bobo doll and told him to ‘clear the way’.
-Model stared at the doll and then showed 4 distinctive aggressive behaviours, along with verbal statements.
-Bandura used new verbal phrases such as ‘sockeroo stay down’, as some of the children had been in previous experiments and they wanted to check if the language specific to the 1965 study was being imitated.
-At the end the model was either rewarded or punished.
Describe the model rewarded condition.
A second adult walked up to the model with a soft drink and some sweets. The adult also said that the model was a ‘strong champion’ deserving of ‘considerable threats’ whilst the model ate the reward, the adult continued to positively reinforce the aggressive behaviour.
Describe the model punished condition.
A second adult walked up to the model shaking his finger at the model saying ‘You big bully, you quit picking in that clown, I won’t tolerate it’. As the model drew back he tripped and fell. The second adult sat on the model and hit him with a rolled up newspaper, reminding him of how bad he was. The model ran off crying and the second adult saying, ‘If I catch you doing that again, you big bully, I’ll give you a spanking, you quit acting that way’.
Describe the model no consequence condition.
No second adult was shown and there was no consequence for the aggressive male model.
Describe how the children were observed.
After 10 minutes of observation (was 20 in original study) the following occurred to measure the effect of vicarious reinforcement:
-After the learning phase the children were taken into another room and told that for each physical or verbal imitative behaviour they reproduced they would be given a drink of juice or a sticker.
-If they described the behaviour they were encouraged to demonstrate the behaviour (positive incentive, this is a direct reinforcement).
-Children were observed for a further 10 minutes after this incentive was offered.
What were Bandura’s 1965 results?
-Children who saw the role model received rewards or no consequence for the aggressive behaviour were more likely to copy it.
-Children who saw the model punished copied the aggressive behaviour less.
-When they were given a positive incentive the number of imitative responses increased in all conditions.
-After being offered the positive incentive, girls were almost as physically aggressive as the boys.
What did Bandura’s 1965 study conclude?
-Children do learn through vicarious reinforcement.
-However, direct reinforcement will override vicarious learning.
