A-level psychology: Bandura's study

transmission of aggression

what was the aim of Bandura's study?

To investigate whether children can learn aggression through observation and imitation.

what method did bandura use?

controlled observation, lab experiment

where did the study take place?

Stanford University, Nursery School

what year did the study take place?

1961

what was the sample that Bandura used?

72 children aged 37-69 months, 36 boys and 36 girls

what happened before the study took place and why?

the teacher and the researcher had to rate all the children on their pre existing levels of aggression using. rating scales.

this was done to remove cofounding variables

what were the names of the 3 rooms?

modelling room, aggression arousal room, delayed imitation room

what happened in room 1?

the children were taken into a fake nursery room where they were left to play with potato prints and picture stickers for 10 minutes. After, the adult began to act aggressive towards a Bobo doll (kicked, punched and said things like "sock him in the nose"

what happened in room 2?

all the children were taken individually into the next room where they were allowed to play with nice toys, but after 2 minutes the toys were taken away and the children were told they were for the other children. this was meant to aggravate the child.

what happened in room 3?

the last room contained a Bobo dol, aggressive and non- aggressive toys, (mallet, dart gun, dolls and cars). the children were then observed through a one way mirror for 20 mins.

in the corner of the room there was a person shuffling papers and secretly watching also.

what area does bandura focus on?

developmental area

what is social learning theory?

when an individual observes and imitates the actions of others

how many groups were the children split into?

3 groups: one group observed an aggressive model, another observed a non- aggressive model and the last group were not exposed to any behaviour models

name the key findings that were collected at the end of the study?

boys showed more aggression than girls

boys imitated the male model than girls (physical and verbal)

girls imitated female models more than boys (for verbal)

the behaviour of the male model had greater influence

what were the 3 IVs in the study?

aggressive of non aggressive model

gender of the model

gender of the child

what was the DV in the study?

amount imitation and aggression shown by the child

what does Bandura’s study focus on?

transmission of aggression

what are 3 conclusions that were found in Bandura’s study?

children will imitate aggressive/ non aggressive behaviour displayed by adults

children can learn behaviour through observation and imitation

boys and girls are likely to learn verbal aggression from the same gender model

what were the results found in the study?

boys imitated more male model aggression than girls of verbal and physical aggression

girls imitated female models for verbal aggression and non imitative more than boys

boys produced more imitative physical aggression than girls

what are the ethical issues with Bandura’s study?

protection of participants- children were placed in a situation where they had to witness aggressive behaviour, this can lead to long term aggressive behaviour

lack of informed consent- young children cannot give informed consent

right to withdraw- participants had a lack of choice to withdraw from the study and were not allowed to leave the room

debriefing- children were not debriefed which could lead them to be confused about the event and have unresolved feelings

what are the weaknesses of Bandura?

lack of ecological validity- doesn’t represent real life situations

harder to generalise- done in an artificial lab setting

what are the practical application for Bandura?

can be used to understand how media violence can influence children’s behaviour

what debates can be used for Bandura’s study?

nature vs nurture- behaviour is learnt through observation and imitation linking to the influence of the environment (nurture)

freewill vs determinism- shows that individuals make choices about whether or not to imitate behaviour

what are the weaknesses of Bandura in relation to issues and debates?

deterministic- overemphasises the role of external factors and ignores individual differences