Bandura 1965 Bobo doll experiment with vicarious reinforcement and punishment

What was the aim?

To consider whether reinforcement and punishment of an aggressive model would influence the aggression displayed by observers in response to frustration

How many boys and girls were there and how old were they?

33 boys and 33 girls aged from 42 to 71 months

What was the independent variable?

Observed consequence for model

What was the dependent variable?

Aggression in the children

What was involved in all three of the conditions?

Watching a film of an adult aggressing towards a Bobo doll

What was the model rewarded condition?

Children saw second adult praise model for aggression and give them chocolate and a drink

What was the model punished condition?

Second adult scolded model and spanked them with a rolled up magazine

What was the no consequence condition?

Model was neither reinforced or punished

What happened afterwards?

The children were deliberately frustrated then taken into a playroom

What was the key difference in this study?

All three groups were later offered attractive rewards to aggress towards the doll

What were the findings?

children in the model punished group were significantly less aggressive than the other groups

How did introducing the promise of a reward change the results?

increased all the scores significantly and wiped out the differences

What was the conclusion?

Vicarious punishment reduces imitated aggression however reinforcement has a more powerful influence on aggression

How were some of the extraneous variables controlled?

Children were matched for aggression, individually observed to avoid imitation of other kids

Comment on the internal validity.

Good because extraneous variables were controlled

What did Grant Noble (1975) report that one child said?

'look Mummy there's the doll we have to hit'

Comment on the demand characteristics.

Elements of procedure could've cued children as to how they were expected to behave