the developmental area Flashcards
(60 cards)
this area is interested in psychological processes of what?
development
what is the key theme of the developmental area?
external influences on children’s behaviour
give examples of how the developmental area believe we may learn behaviour?
- reinforcement (behaviourism)
- watching other people (social learning theory)
THE CLASSIC STUDY
BANDURA ET AL
1961
explain the background of Bandura’s study
previous research has shown that children will readily imitate behaviour demonstrated by an adult model if the model remains present, however, Bandura wanted to study what behaviour would be displayed by an individual if the model is absent
what were the 4 hypothesis for Bandura’s study?
- children shown aggressive models will show significantly more imitative aggressive behaviour, resembling their models, than those shown a non-aggressive model or no model
- children shown non-aggressive models will show significantly less aggressive behaviour than those shown aggressive models
- boys will show significantly more imitative aggression than girls
- children will imitate same-sex model behaviour to a greater degree than oppo-site-sex behaviour
what theory is Bandura’s study based on?
social learning theory
what was Bandura’s sample
72 children, 36 boys and 36 girls, mean age of 4 years and 4 months, from Stanford University Nursery School
Bandura’s participants were ‘matched’ in this study, how? and why?
they were matched on pre-rated / pre-existing aggressive levels, to be able to control whether aggressiveness was already present, or learnt through the study. they were rated on 4x five-point rating scales by both the experimenter and the nursery teacher - inter-rater reliability
what research method did Bandura use?
a laboratory experiment + a controlled observation
what experimental design did Bandura use?
matched pairs design
what sampling technique did Bandura use?
opportunity
what were the IVs of Bandura’s study?
- whether the child witnessed an aggressive or non-aggressive adult model (the control group was not exposed to any model)
- the sex of the model (male or female)
- the sex of the child (boy or girl)
what was the DV of Bandura’s study?
the amount of imitative behaviour and aggression shown by the child in phase 3, measured by the experimenter and a second researcher who observed through a one-way mirror - inter rater reliability
explain Bandura’s groups
each child only participated in either one of the experimental conditions
i.e., boy + male aggressive/non-aggressive model; girl + male aggressive/non-aggressive model: boy + female aggressive/non-aggressive model; girl + female aggressive/non-aggres-sive model;
control group (no model) or the control group (no model).
explain phase 1 of Bandura’s study
children in the experimental conditions were individually taken into a room and sat at a table to play with potato prints and picture stickers for 10 minutes whilst:
- the aggressive model began by assembling a tinker toy set but after about a minute turned to a Bobo doll and spent the remainder of the
period physically and verbally aggressing it using a standardised procedure.
- the non-aggressive model assembled the tinker toys in a quiet subdued manner, t tally ignoring the Bobo doll
- The control group did not participate in Phase
explain phase 2 of Bandura’s study
all the children were then taken to a second room, and subjected to mild agression arousal. initially they were allowed to play with some very attractive toys but after about two minutes the experimenter took the toys away saying they were reserved for other children, however they were able to play with any of the toys in the next room.
explain phase 3 of Bandura’s study
children were then taken individually into a third room (called the anteroom) which contained both aggressive and non-aggressive toys e.g.. 3ft high Bobo doll, a mallet, dart guns and non-
aggressive toys e.g., tea set, cars, dolls. they were observed through a one-way mirror for 20 minutes, every 5 seconds (time sampling), whilst observers recorded behaviour (with inter-scorer reliabilities of 0.90 product-moment coefficients) in the following categories:
- imitative aggression (physical, verbal and non-aggressive speech)
- partially imitative aggression.
- non-imitative physical and verbal aggression
- non-aggressive behaviour.
what are they key findings of Bandura’s study
- children in the aggressive condition showed significantly more imitation of physical and verbal aggressive behaviour and non-aggressive verbal responses than children in the non-aggressive or control conditions
- children in the non-aggressive condition showed very little aggression, although results were not always significantly less than the control group
- boys imitated male models more than girls for physical and verbal aggression and also gun play
- girls imitated female models more than boys for verbal imitative aggression and non-imitative aggression
- the behaviour of the male model exerted greater influence than the female model
- boys produced more imitative physical aggression than girls
what are some possible conclusions of Bandura’s study?
- children will imitate aggressive/non-aggressive behaviours displayed by adult models, even if the model is not present
- behaviour modelled by male adults has a greater influence on children’s behaviour than behaviour modelled by a female adult
- children can learn behaviour through observation and imitation
evaluate Bandura’s research method
S
- high level of control over extraneous variables e.g. bandura was able to use a highly controlled environment to conduct his study
W
- high levels of demand characteristics, the children may have guessed what the experimenter wanted them to act/behave, changing their behaviour
evaluate the validity of Bandura’s study
S
- internal validity is high, because other variables are controlled meaning it measures what it is supposed to (the aggression of the children)
W
- ecological validity is low, due to it being conducted in a lab experiment, as it is an artificial environment = not true to life = children are not often placed in a room to imitate aggressive behaviour
evaluate the reliability of Bandura’s study
S
- inter-rater reliability was high (0.9) from the two observers
- a standardised procedure was used to attack the bobo doll (both physical and verbally)
evaluate the sampling bias of Bandura’s study
S
- reasonably large sample - 72 children
= fairly representative of the target population
W
- the children were all from the same area of the US, and same school, meaning they may not be representative of the target population
