Bandara, Ross and Ross (1963) Imitation of film-mediated aggressive models

Question 1

Why carry out the research?

Answer 1

The influence of the media in acting as model from which behaviour is imitated has not been subject to much research

Question 2

The purpose of the study was to determine the

Answer 2

extent to which film-mediated aggressive models may serve as an important source of imitative behaviour

Question 3

Hypothesis no. 1:

Answer 3

The more remote the media model was from reality, the weaker the tendancy would be for participants to imitate the behaviour of the model

Question 4

Hypothesis no. 2:

Answer 4

Males would be more imitative of aggressive behaviour than females since aggresion is generally considered female inappropriate behaviour

Question 5

Hypothesis no. 3:

Answer 5

Ppts who have high agg. anxiety would perform significantly less agg. imitative behaviour than those participants who display little anxiety over agg.

Question 6

Hypothesis no. 4:

Answer 6

Ppts who observed agg. models would display sig. more agg. when frustrated than participants who were frustrated but who had no prior exposure to models demonstrating agg

Question 7

How many participants?

Answer 7

48 boys and 48 girls from Stanford University Nursery school

Question 8

The age range between

Answer 8

35 to 69 months

Question 9

Who were the role models?

Answer 9

two adults, a female and a male, one female experimenter

Question 10

Participants were matched on

Answer 10

aggressiveness

Question 11

Participants were divided into 3 experimental groups and one control group

Answer 11

> one group observed real life aggressive models
second group observed same models on a film
third group shown a film with agg. cartoon character

Question 12

Each experimental group was further divided into males and females so that

Answer 12

half were exposed to same sex models whilst others were shown a model of the opposte sex

Question 13

Participants in human film aggression were put in a semi darkened room and a film was shown while the experimeneter left the room, the model

Answer 13

and behaviour shown in the movie was exactly the same as in the real life condition

Question 14

The film was shown for

Answer 14

10 mins

Question 15

In the cartoon film aggression condition the participant experienced the same conditions but before the experimenter left the room,

Answer 15

they walked over to the TV which was 3 ft from the table and said “I guess I’ll turn on the colour TV”

Question 16

The same aggressive behaviour with the BOBO doll was displayed by the cat in the

Answer 16

cartoon

Question 17

In all experimental conditions, when the observation stage was complete,

Answer 17

the experimenter entered the room and took the participant to the test room

Question 18

The situation with the toys and the observation was exactly the same as the orgional, inter rate reliability was

Answer 18

90

Question 19

Results demonstrate a significant difference in aggression scores between those who were exposed to aggressive models and those

Answer 19

in the control group

Question 20

Participants who viewed real life models and film mediated models did not

Answer 20

differ from each other in total aggressiveness but all three were signficantly higher than the control group

Question 21

Exposure to humans on film portaying aggressive behaviour was the most influential eliciting and

Answer 21

shaping behaviour

Question 22

Boys demonstrated significantly more imitative aggression than

Answer 22

girls

Question 23

Participants exposed to the male model showed more gun play than

Answer 23

those exposed to a female model

Question 24

The results provide evidence that exposure to filmed aggression heightens

Answer 24

aggressive reactions in children

Question 25

The results suggest that imitation can occur without

Answer 25

any reinforcers to the model or the observer

Question 26

It is questionnable as to whether the aggressive acts studied could actually be classed as genuine

Answer 26

aggressive responses that would actually be displayed in real life, reducing the validty of the findings

Question 27

Reliability is likely to be a strength of the experiments as researchers found the same high imitation of aggression in males more than females, aslo a

Answer 27

well documented procedure - all took place in semi carkened room which means it could be replicated with the chance of obtaining similar results

Question 28

Ecological validity is likely to be limited as setting was unfamiliar and they hadn’t met the experimenter therefore

Answer 28

their behaviour may not be an accurate respresentation of how they would behave in real life situations, this means we cannot generalise to other settings

Question 29

Validity is strengthened by obtaining high inter rater reliability of 90 which indicates that any subjectibe interpretation of the participants’ aggressive behaviour is likely to be

Answer 29

reduced as for 40% of the observations, more than one researcher independently agreed with the scores given

Question 30

All participants were randomly assigned to conditions based on their aggression scores, this increases the validity of the

Answer 30

findings as the existing amount of aggression each participant displayed was controlled for, meaning that it woud not have had an affect

Question 31

Generalisability is limited to children of the same age range of 35 to 69 months and culture of the USA, it is therefore likely that different results may be obtained when

Answer 31

using older or younger children as their verbal and motro ability is likely to be more or less developed, may have more or less of an understanding or morals, not representative of all ages