Bandura Flashcards
What were the independent variables in Bandura’s study?
- Behaviour of the model (aggressive/non-aggressive)
- Sex of the model
- Sex of child
What was the aim in Bandura’s study?
Investigate observational learning of aggression, specifically, to see whether children would reproduce aggressive behaviour when the model was no longer present, and look at gender differences in learning of aggression
What were the dependant variables in Bandura’s study?
Recordings of sex and type of aggression viewed: imitative physical /imitative verbal / non imitative physical
What controls were in Bandura’s study?
- A control group of 12 boys and 12 girls did not see a model display any behaviour, aggressive or otherwise
- Children were rated on aggression levels from 0-5 by an experimenter and teacher. All groups for 8 conditions were carefully matched so aggression difference wasn’t a confounding variable
- Observers were ‘blind’ did not know what condition the child was in
What was the method used for Bandura’s study?
Laboratory experiment with independent measures design
What was the procedure in Bandura’s study?
3 steps:
- Modelling the behaviour. each child was bought individually into a play room and invited to join in a game, this lasted for ten minutes. In first two conditions there was an additional adult present in the room. In the aggressive condition this model was aggressive towards a 5ft bobo doll, kicking hitting and bashing it with a hammer, as well as saying aggressive things as ‘kick him … Pow … Sock him on the nose’ in the non aggressive condition the model simply assembled toys no touching the bobo doll, in the control there was no additional adult.
- Aggression arousal. In order to annoy the child and increase chance of aggressive behaviour, all children were taken into a play room with attractive toys such as a dolls house after playing for 2 minutes they were told to leave as they were ‘the very best toys’ for other children.
- Testing for delayed imitation. Children were taken into another room with a smaller bobo doll in it and observed playing for 20 minutes, one experimenter sat I. The corner doing paper work and two more observers watched through a two way mirror, the observers were unaware of which condition the child was in, stopping bias. They recorded the three types of aggression.
What were the results for Bandura’s study?
Significant differences in levels of imitative aggression between the aggressive condition and the other two, for physical and verbal.
What was the conclusions for Bandura’s experiments?
- Witnessing an aggressive model can be enough to produce aggression by an observer.
- children selectively imitate gender specific behaviour, boys are more likely to imitate physical aggression, girls are more likely to imitate verbal aggression
What is observational learning?
Learning by observing and imitating behaviours
What hypothesis were tested in Bandura’s study?
- Participants exposed to an aggressive model would be more likely to reproduce similar aggression than those exposed to a non-aggressive model or no model at all
- Participants exposed to a non-aggressive model would be less aggressive than those who did not see a model
- Participants would imitate aggression modelled by a same-sex adult more than that modelled by an opposite-sex assault
- Boys would be more incline than girls to imitate aggression
In Bandura’s study what ethical issues were raised?
- children cannot give informed consent
* slight distress caused, may have last effect on behaviour
What participants were involved in Bandura’s study?
72 children 36 male 36 female, all from nursery school of Stanford university. Ages ranged from 37 - 69 months (3-5.75). Mean age was 52 months (4y4m) there were 8 conditions all were matched for their children’s aggression. 12 boys and 12 girls saw an aggressive model, 6 boys and 6 girls saw this from a same sax model while the rest didn’t. 12 boys and 12 girls saw a non aggressive model, 6 boys and 6 girls saw a same sex model while the other half didn’t. A control group of 12 boys and 12 girls saw no model.
What was the participant design for Bandura’s study?
Opportunistic sampling, from Stanford university nursery school
Matched pairs, 51 of 72 children were rated on aggression levels from 0-5 by an experimenter and teacher. All groups for 8 conditions were carefully matched so aggression difference wasn’t a confounding variable, independent measures design was used as different groups did different levels of the independent variables
