4.1.8 bandura 1961

Question 1

state the aims of bandura’s 1961 study

Answer 1

• to see whether aggressive behaviour can be acquired through the observation of aggressive role models
• to see if children were more likely to copy the aggressive behaviours of adults of the same sex
• to see if boys were more likely to copy the aggressive behaviours than girls

Question 2

state the type of experiment bandura used in his 1961 study

Answer 2

lab experiment

Question 3

state the sample used in bandura’s 1961 study

Answer 3

36 boys and 36 girls (72 in total)

Question 4

state the independent and dependent variables in bandura’s 1961 study

Answer 4

DV - level of aggression the child displayed

IVs - modelling of aggression, sex of model and same/different sex model and observer

Question 5

how was aggression controlled in bandura’s 1961 study?

(potential confounding variable)

Answer 5

• by ensuring that each group contained equally aggressive children
• ratings of children were determined beforehand by an experimenter who knew the children well and one of the children’s teachers, and used to match the children

Question 6

what were the three conditions that children were randomly allocated to in bandura’s 1961 study

Answer 6

• aggression group - observed an aggressive adult model (male or female) punching, kicking and shouting at a large inflatable ‘bobo’ doll
• non-aggression group - non-aggressive role model assembling mechanical toys
• control group - no model was present while the children were playing

Question 7

describe the procedure of bandura’s 1961 study

also used in 1963 and 1965 study

Answer 7

• 1 - the children were brought into a room with an observation window and allowed to play toys (with or without model present)
• 2 - the children were then taken to another room where all the children were deliberately frustrated by being shown toys and told they were for other children (if they weren’t frustrated they would not have the ‘urge’ to be aggressive later)
• 3 - children were taken into a playroom containing a range of toys including an inflatable bobo doll. their behaviour was observed through a one-way mirror by the male role model (i.e covert). a second observer was present for half of the participants to determine inter-rater reliability

Question 8

how often were the children observed (1961)?

Answer 8

at 5 second intervals for 20 minutes

Question 9

describe the results of bandura’s 1961 study

Answer 9

• children who witnessed the aggressive model were more likely to completely or partially imitate the aggression
• children who had observed non-aggressive behaviour or had not observed an adult displayed much less aggression (none in 70% cases)
• boys were more likely to imitate aggression shown by a same-sex model than an opposite sex-model and more likely overall to imitate physical aggression (though not verbal aggression)

Question 10

describe the conclusions of bandura’s 1961 study

Answer 10

• social behaviour (aggression) can be acquired by imitation of models
• imitation is more likely when the modelled behaviour is gender-typical (e.g. physical aggression in males) and when the model and observer are of the same gender

Question 11

bandura 1961 - generalisability

Answer 11

P - Low

E - Used a sample of 72 children from Stanford Nursery (36 boys and 36 girls)

T - This sample does not represent how adults would observe and imitate behaviour of their role models due to being significantly different in context to the role models of children

Question 12

bandura 1961 - reliability

Answer 12

P - high reliability

E - there were standardised procedures such as observing all the children at 5 second intervals for 20 minutes. all children experienced the toy room that they could not play in to eliminate mild aggression arousal

T - therefore, the study can be easily replicated to check for consistency

Question 13

bandura 1961 - inter-rater reliability

Answer 13

P - High inter-rater reliability

E - Included 2 observers who agreed 89% of the time

T - Therefore this removes subjectivity and makes the results objective

Question 14

bandura 1961 - application

Answer 14

P - Application to parenting and teaching styles

E- it suggests children observe and imitate adults, this can help parenting by behaving around a child they way you would want them to behave; such as not shouting at them for doing something wrong as they will likely shout back

T- Therefore beneficial to society as we can ensure that children do not grow up being aggressive

Question 15

bandura 1961 - validity

Answer 15

P - Low ecological validity

E - The experiment was conducted in an artificial environment and the situation in which aggression was measured - playing with a doll - is quite different from the typical situation in which the children might have displayed aggressive behaviour towards someone

E - Therefore doesn’t represent how children would observe and imitate (aggressive) behaviour in real life, cannot be generalised

Question 16

bandura 1961 - ethics

Answer 16

P - A weakness is that there are ethical issues as protection of participants was not upheld

E - For example, the children were deliberately encouraged to be aggressive with no talk of removing that aggression.

T - Therefore, children may have been aggressive after the study as there was no pro social model of how to calm down