Social Cognitive Theory

Social Cognitive Theory (SCT)

the process by which social influences can affect people and y doing so, affect thoughts, feelings, and behaviours

attention

actively watching

retention

remembering

reproduction

physical and mental ability

reinforcement

vicarious, intrinsic, extrinsic rewards

motivation

incentive

Bandura, Ross and Ross (1961) - Aim

To demonstrate that if children are passive witnesses to aggressive behaviour displayed by an adult, they will imitate the behaviour when given the opportunity

Bandura, Ross and Ross - Method

36 boys and 36 girls (mean age of 52 months); true lab, matched pairs design, convenience sampling

Bandura, Ross and Ross - Procedure

• Experimental conditions of same sez model and aggressive, opposite and aggressive, same and passive, opposite and passive

• Children were pre-tested for aggression towards inanimate objects on a 5 point rating scale and matched based on levels of aggression

• Tested individually in stages

  • Stage 1: experimental room with toys in one corner, and blocks, mallet and Bobo doll in the other corner

    • Passive: model played with blocks quietly, ignoring Bobo

    • Aggressive: model was physically and verbally aggressive to Bobo

  • Stage 2: mild aggressive arousal

    • Children were taken to a room with attractive toys and then told the toys were reserved for other children

  • Stage 3: new room with variety of toys, non-aggressive and aggressive (Bobo and mallet)

• Recorded three measures of imitations

  • Physical aggression

  • Verbal aggression

  • Passive verbal

Bandura, Ross and Ross - Results

• Children imitated model behaviours

• Boys were more aggressive than girls

• Boys in aggressive condition showed more aggression if the model was male

• Girls in aggressive condition showed more physical aggression if model was male, more verbal if model was female

Bandura, Ross and Ross - Conclusion

Children who observed the aggressive model made more imitative aggressive acts

Bandura, Ross and Ross - Link

• Supports SCT by demonstrating that children can learn behaviour through observing a model, without having to experience direct reinforcement themselves

• Greater aggression shown by children exposed to aggressive model demonstrates modelling that is observationally learned, rather than simply reflecting a general increase in aggression

• Explained through the process of attention - children attending the model

• Imitation demonstrates retention because SCT proposes that behaviour has to be mentally represented and remembered

• Children’s performance of behaviour demonstrates reproduction, being able to translate the mental representation into similar actions