Core Studies - Bandura (Aggression) Flashcards
What is the key theme in this study
External influences on children’s behaviour
What is the aim
Investigate whether children will imitate specific acts of aggression as well as the impact of same sex models
What is the background
The social learning theory suggest that learning occurs with indirect rewards - people observe role models and imitate their behaviour
Behaviour is learned directly through classical and operant conditioning
What was the method and design
Laboratory experiment
Matched participants design so participants took part I’m one condition but matched based on aggression
What were the 3 independent variables
Whether the child witnessed the aggressive or non aggressive model
The sex of the model
The sex of the child
What are the 4 dependent variables
Imitative aggressive behaviour
Partially imitate aggressive behaviour
Non aggressive behaviour
Non imitative aggression
How was the behaviour of the children recorded
The male model or the second researcher through one way mirror at 5 second intervals
4 features of the sample
72 children 36 male and female
All from Stanford University nursery school
Opportunity sample
Aged between 37 months and 69 months mean age 52 months
What happened before the experiment
The participants were matched by having their nursery teacher and an Experimenter rate them for aggressiveness on 4 , 5 point scales
Participants arranged in triplets based on results and then randomly allocated to one of the 3 groups
What is phase 1
Describe the procedure of phase 1
Exposure to model
Children individually taken into a room and sat at table to play with potato prints and stickers
Aggressive mode assembled tinker toy set and then turned to a bobo doll and then spent remainder of time physically and verbally assaulting doll using standardised
procedure (10 minutes)
Non aggressive model assembled the tinker toys in a subdued manner and totally ignored doll
Control group didn’t participate in this phase
What is phase 2
Describe the procedure of phase 2
Mild aggression arousal
Children taken individually to another room and subjected to mild aggression arousal
Allowed to play with very attractive toys and after 2 minutes told that they were reserved for other children so taken from them
They were told the can play with toys in the next room
What is phase 3
Describe phase 3
Delayed imitation
Children taken to a separate room with a bobo dol
2 observers watched the children through a one way mirror and tallied behaviours shown every 5 seconds for 20 minutes
Experimenter in room with children
It was a time sample and structured observation
What are 2 quantitative results
Aggressive model mean aggression score of 13.7 while those with non aggressive model had mean aggression of 6.7
Across all conditions boys showed more aggressive responses with male role model mean aggression score was 22 with female it was 12.4
What are 2 qualitative responses
That’s not a way for a lady to behave
She was acting like a man
That man is strong
What are 3 conclusions
Observation and imitation are important influences on children’s behaviour
Male models had greater influence on children’s behaviour
The degree to which behaviour is deemed appropriate for that sex by society influences the extent to which it is imitated
