bandura's tests (1961,63,65)

Question 1

briefly describe what 1961 test was about

Answer 1

watched aggression, non aggression. control group. girls were verbally aggressive, boys were physically aggressive

Question 2

briefly describe what 1963 test was about

Answer 2

real life, human filmed aggression, cartoon aggression and a control group, the filmed aggression led to much more aggression than in the control

Question 3

briefly describe what 1965 test was about

Answer 3

model rewarded, model punished, no consequences, model reward gives more aggression than if model punished but direct rewards for participant wipes out that difference

Question 4

what was the aim of the 1961 study

Answer 4

to see whether young children will imitate behaviour they have seen

Question 5

what was the hypotheses of the 1963 study

Answer 5

children shown aggressive model will show more imitative aggressive behaviour than those shown non aggressive or no models
children shown non aggressive models will show less aggressive behaviour than those shown aggressive or no models
children would imitate behaviour of same sex model more than opposite sex with boys showing more imitative behaviour than girls especially with male aggressive models

Question 6

what was the procedure of 1961 study

Answer 6

72 children aged 3-5 years were matched on aggression before it started - some groups watched aggressive and some non aggressive behaviour, control group watched neither
lab experiment at stanford uni. 8 experimental groups in 4 conditions plus control group
6 boys and 6 girls in each condition
1) children played in a room when an adult model entered and acted either aggressively or non aggressively
2) children were then put in a slightly aggressive mood by being told they could not play with certain toys
3) then behaviour observed with access to a Bobo doll and child was observed
4) child was observed playing with the toys for 20 minutes through a one way mirror
5) the observes record three measures of imitation including = physical
verbal
non agressive verbal responses

Question 7

what were the results of the 1961 study

Answer 7

children in non aggressive conditions showed almost no aggression (70%)
those that watched aggressive models showed physical and verbal aggression imitating model
boys showed nearly x2 imitative aggression than girls
girls showed similar levels of physical and verbal aggression while boys showed more physical aggression than verbal aggression
similar amounts of verbal aggression modelled by boys and girls
boys were more influenced by their same sex model than girls
boys were 2/3x more likely to be influenced by the male than the female
male intimidated more than female in boys and girls

Question 8

conclusion of 1961 study

Answer 8

children watching adults behaving aggressive are more likely to imitate aggression so observational learning does take place
children also imitated non aggressive behaviour which led to less aggression
a male adults showing aggression is copied more than a female adult
girls are more verbally aggressive

Question 9

strengths of 1961 study

Answer 9

• controlled experiment with cause and effect conclusions
• high reliability because of inter rated observations by judges. one judge did not know which condition a child has been in so bias was reduced
• practical application of TV viewing

Question 10

weaknesses of 1961 study

Answer 10

• limited sample, not valid because not natural
• children may have thought they had to hit the doll
• ethical issues of children observing verbal and physical aggressive acts and repeating them. how these were dealt with was not explained
• deliberately made the children frustrated which may not happen after watching normal tv

Question 11

aim of 1963 study

Answer 11

build on previous studies and see if aggression on film would be imitated as it had been when live models were used.

Question 12

what was the procedure of 1963 study

Answer 12

48 boys and 48 girls at stanford uni from 3-6 years old
matched for aggression within groups with male and female model and female experimenter
three experimental groups (24 kids) and control group
1) the real life aggression group watched a human model being aggressive and the film group watched the same model but filmed. the third group watched a cartoon character being aggressive
2) divided into boys and girls and also different gender model so that some watched a same sex models and other didn’t. after watching the aggression (or not) the children went somewhere else and the amount of aggression in their behaviour was noted
3) aggressive behaviour was measured and children were made mildly aggressive before they went to play. had the same play materials as the 1961 study and behaviour was recorded by observers being a one way mirror. observation lasted 20 mins and observations took place at 5 second interval so each ppt had 240 responses
4) recorded responses were; imitative responses
partially imitative aggression
mallet aggression
non imitative aggression
aggressive gun play
non aggressive

Question 13

results of 1963 study

Answer 13

real life - 83
human film - 92
cartoon - 99
control group - 54
control group aggression is nearly half that of the cartoon aggression and lower than the real life and filmed
exposing participant to models displaying aggression increases the likelihood that there will be aggression displayed

Question 14

conclusion of the 1963 study

Answer 14

observing filmed aggression will lead to aggressive acts in children
those watching filmed or cartoon aggression showed more aggression than the control group
reject the theory that watching violence is cathartic
88% of real life and human film and 79% of cartoon showed imitative aggression

Question 15

strengths of the 1963 study

Answer 15

• use of two observers and checking that they agreed in their findings gives reliability. as some results were from 1961 here they had inter observer reliability the results are consistent
• three conditions are all the same other than the IV control condition also which shows aggression levels with no affect. gives scientific credibility and cause and effect
• results have a practical application as suggests violence on TV is likely to be modelled

Question 16

weaknesses of the 1963 study

Answer 16

• validity in an artificial setting where they were observed. no parents for negative reinforcement and they received no punishment so may not known that what they were doing was wrong
• generalisability all from same nursery so not all children may behave this way but no evidence to say that all children would not use observational learning

Question 17

what was the aim of the 1965 study

Answer 17

children watched a filmed model showing new and physical and verbal aggression
to see if the consequences to the model would affect whether children performed imitative acts

Question 18

what was the procedure of the 1965 study

Answer 18

33 boys and 33 girls from 3-6 years old
3 conditions - models rewards, punished and no consequences
11 boys and 11 girls in each
1) children watched TV. four aggressive responses were new. Bobo doll was still the same but adult sized
2) in the model rewarded conditioned another adult came into the room with sweets and soft drinks and told the model he was a strong champion with superb aggressive performance.
3) the model punished condition the other person came in and shook a finger at the model and called him a big bully and hit him with a rolled up newspaper
4) in the no consequences there was nothing afterwards
5) after watching it the children were taken to a different room and watched playing. observation lasted 10 minutes with behaviour recorded every 5 seconds
6) two observers so inter observe reliability
7) after 10 minutes the children were brought juice and stickers. they were told if they reproduced the physical and verbal aggression they would get stickers and more juice. this is positive incentive condition

Question 19

what were the results of the 1965 study

Answer 19

with positive incentive the number of imitative responses was higher in all conditions and higher in all conditions and higher for both boys and girls
when there was no incentive for the boys the lowest imitative acts was in the punished conditions
in all three conditions in the no incentive conditions the boys showed most imitative acts
when the model was punished with no incentive the imitation was the lowest

Question 20

what was the conclusions of the 1965 study

Answer 20

many variables involved in whether learning by observation is acquired or performed (whether model is rewarded, punished or no consequences)
strong effect according to whether the person is motivated to imitate what they have seen through being rewarded
the gender differences before the incentive was introduced compared with the lower number of gender differences suggests that girls were reluctant to show the observed behaviour

Question 21

what were the strengths of the 1965 study

Answer 21

• controlled experiment cause and effect conclusions can be drawn. scientific credibility can be seen because of the controls
• reliability as controls and standardised procedure and because there were 2 observes with inter observer reliability

Question 22

what were the weaknesses of the 1965 study

Answer 22

• question over validity. variables tat weren’t controlled such as which acts had been previously observed and individual differences in each child
• real life aspects was not clear so even with reliability if there is no validity then results are not useful
• lack of generalisability from the sample to the target population. bias from their culture of the children being used to nursery