LEARNING THEORIES Bandura's original study

Question 1

what was the aim

Answer 1

to demonstrate that if children were witnessed to an aggressive role model, they would imitate the behaviour

Question 1

when did the study take place

Answer 1

1961

Question 2

what was the sample

Answer 2

• 36 boys, 36 girls
• around 4 year old
• opportunity sample from Stanford University’s nursery

Question 3

what was the procedure (stage 1 to 3)

Answer 3

• children matched on pre-existing aggression (assessed by teachers)
• stage 1= brought to an experiment room for 10 minutes and observed, had a child’s play corner and model sat in the opposite corner
  in aggressive role model condition, adult was aggressive towards Bobo
• stage 2= child subjected to mild aggression arousal - taken to a room with attractive toys, once playing with them the experiment took it away and that the children had to leave
• stage 3 = child taken to another room with aggressive and non-aggressive toys for 20 minutes, observed through a one-way mirror every 5 seconds

Question 4

what were the observed results

Answer 4

• aggressive model = more aggression
• boys more than girls
• girls = physical aggression when male model but verbal aggression when female role model
• boys= more aggressive wit male role model

Question 5

what were the quantitative results

Answer 5

girls = 5.5 aggressive acts copied if model was female
girls = 7.2 acts copied if model was male
boys = 25.8 aggressive acts when model was male

Question 6

what was the conclusion of the study

Answer 6

it supports Bandura’s Social Learning Theory

Question 7

positives of the study

Answer 7

controlled variables - pre-tested for aggression - the model influenced the children - internal validity
standardised procedure - same length of time in the rooms - reliability
useful application - danger of children viewing aggression on TV - leads to censorship

Question 8

negatives of the study

Answer 8

not representative to real life - model and child are strangers - kicking an inflatable doll - lacks ecological validity
qualitative data - comments from children - cannot be analysed objectively - leads to subjectivity
reductionist - doesn’t consider aggression being innate - falsely assume that aggression is due to imitation of role models