Bandura

Generalisability

(AO1)
- Sample of 72 children aged 3-5
- Equally split between 36 males and 36 females
- Divided into eight experimental groups of 6 children, with the remaining 24 forming a control group

(AO3)
- Sample was proportional to the population as gender split
- cannot apply results to other ages/adults
- Sample was all taken from the same nursery, sample is also not large enough to be generalised to children worldwide

Reliability

(AO1)

• 1) Room 1, full of toys but children are unable to touch them (10 minutes) 

  - In aggression condition, an adult will come in an exhibit extreme aggression towards the Bobo doll, in non-aggressive condition the adult will play normally with the other toys and does not touch the Bobo doll 

• 2) Room 2 was designed to anger the children, and included better toys e.g. a fire engine. The child is told that these were ‘the experimenter’s best toys’ and was asked not to play with any of the toys 

• 3) Moved back into the original room for 20 minutes, and told that they could play with the toys.

(AO3)

• Standardised procedure, easily replicable. Control over all variables, documenting the toys in each room (in the second room there were better toys, including a fire truck and colourful spinning top) The physical aggression was accompanied by set verbal aggression with phrases like ‘hit him down’ and ‘kick him.’ 

• Interrater reliability increased as two researchers were used to do the time sampling

Application

(AO1)
- Watching an aggressive role model has a greater impact in boys than girls, particularly when observing a same sex model 
- Children exposed to an aggressive role model displayed significantly more direct imitation than children exposed to the non-aggressive model, for example using the same phrases and tools as the adult model (novel aggression also observed) 

(AO3)
- Huge positive influences on society, imitation of positive behaviour by increasing the prevalence of positive role models in society.
- The watershed, guidance and screening of TV programmes before 9pm (children are vulnerable)

Validity

(AO1)
- This study shows that not all behaviour is shaped by reward and punishment. Some behaviour is learnt through observation which can later be reproduced.  
- Observing aggressive behaviour may weaken social inhibitors, particularly if the behaviour is performed by adults and observed by children, as in most cases children look towards adults as role models and those who know right. 

(AO3)
- Children were matched on the basis of their pre-existing aggressiveness, rated by an experimenter and a nursery schoolteacher, increases validity
- Time sampling every 5 seconds is based off of observations, therefore subject to bias but also difficult to carry out as information can be missed. However the observation was covert (behind a one-way mirror) so child was unaware being watched, therefore reduces chances of demand characteristics/social desirability bias - increases validity of findings

Ethics

(AO1)
Protection from harm is the BPS guideline stating that participants must leave the experiment in the same mental state with which they entered, and no harm (physical, mental or emotional) can be constituted

(AO3)
Unethical to expose children to aggressive behaviour, reports that some of the children were disturbed or confused by this. There is a risk of encouraging children to act aggressively, and them exhibiting these aggressive behaviours outside of the study