Bandura et al

Aim

1. investigate whether children imitate aggression of a model in the absence of the model

2. investigate whether children are more likely to imitate the behavior of a same-sex model

Methodology

• experiment

• 72 children: aggressive model (female- 6 boys, 6 girls; male- 6 boys, 6 girls) , non-aggressive model (female- 6 boys, 6 girls; male- 6 boys, 6 girls) , 24 saw no model

Procedure

• initially taken to a room with attractive toys, told they could play, then when engaged told they toys were being reserved and they couldn’t play (inducing aggression arousal)

• taken to room w/ table, chair, tinker toys, mallet, and Bobo doll

• in the non-aggressive condition the model played with tinker toys and ignored doll

• in aggressive condition model focused on doll for 9 min, punched, hit with mallet, threw, kicked, verbally aggressive

• child then taken to game room and observed for 20 minutes

• game room contained same toys incl. doll, plus dart guns and non-aggressive toys

• behavioral checklist was used

Results

• participants were very likely to model aggression

• boys were more likely to imitate aggression esp. if model was male; girls more likely to imitate verbal aggression esp. if model was female

• non-aggressive group showed twice as much non-aggressive play

Strengths

• standardisation, inter-observer reliability- inter-rater reliability

• matched aggression level

• quantitative data

Weaknesses

• psychological distress (ethical)

• only 2 models, doesn’t guarantee children imitated solely because of sex

• main observer was also a model (subjective)

• not generalisable, not a mundane context and small sample