Bandura’s Research (2)

Bandura’s Research - Aims and Procedure

• Bandura (1961) set up the following study to investigate social learning theory (SLT) in terms of whether children would imitate an aggressive role model

• Aims:

  • To investigate the effect of observed aggression on children's behaviour 

  • To investigate the effect of same-sex modelling on children's aggressive behaviour

• Procedure:

  • 72 participants took part in the study

    • 36 girls

    • 36 boys

    • Aged between 37-69 months 

  • The children were taken from the Stanford University nursery

  • Bandura asked the nursery staff to rate each child's aggression before the experiment

  • Bandura used the nursery staff's aggression ratings to devise a matched pairs experimental design so that each conditionof the independent variable would comprise an equal balance of aggressive children e.g.

    • a high-aggression child in one condition would be matched with a high-aggression child in another condition

  • An adult male or female model was observed per condition (the models were not known to the children) with a large inflatable doll named Bobo

  • There were three conditions of the independent variable:

    • Aggressive model – The model behaved aggressively towards the Bobo doll, using pre-determined, standardised behaviours e.g. hitting Bobo with a toy hammer

    • Non‐aggressive model – The model behaved in a non-aggressive way

    • Control group - No model was present

  • There was an equal number of times in which a same-sex model or opposite-sex model was used per condition

  • Each child observed the behaviour of the model for 10 minutes (aggressive or non-aggressive depending on the condition)

  • After this period of observation, each child was taken down a corridor and to another room

  • Each child was told that they could not play with the toys in the new room as they were being saved for other children (the aggression arousal phase, to ensure a baseline across conditions)

  • Each child was then taken to a room containing a Bobo Doll, aggressive toys such as a mallet and a dart gun and non-aggressive toys such as farm toys and crayons

  • The participants were observed  in the Bobo Doll room using a one - way mirror for a duration of 20 minutes

Bandura’s Research - Findings and conclusion

• Findings:

  • Children who had observed aggressive behaviour were more likely to be aggressive towards the Bobo doll

  • Boys were more physically aggressive

  • Girls were more verbally aggressive

  • Children were more likely to imitate the behaviour of the same-sex role model

• Conclusion:

  • Aggression can be learned via the mechanisms of SLT

  • Imitation of aggression can occur after only a single exposureto the aggressive act

  • Aggression may be observed in one setting and imitated in a different setting

Strength 1 Evaluation of Bandura’s research

• Bandura used a well-controlled, standardised procedure across several phases

  • This means that the study could be replicated easily

  • Repeated replication of a study means that the results can be checked for consistency across time and using different samples

  • The above observations mean that the study has good reliability

Strength 2 Evaluation of Bandura’s research

• The results of Bandura's study fuelled much debate as to children's exposure to the depiction of violence on television

  • This means that his study has good external validity as it can be applied to settings and behaviours beyond the experimental space itself

Limitation 1 Evaluation of Bandura’s research

• Children do not 'learn' aggression in lab conditions; real-life violence is generally observed in familiar settings involving familiar adults

  • This makes Bandura's study less ecologically valid than research conducted in the field would be

Limitation 2 Evaluation of Bandura’s research

• There are numerous ethical issues with this study

  • Asking nursery workers to rate children's aggression is intrusiveand may have encouraged bias

  • Some of the children were exposed to an aggressive adult which may have alarmed and distressed them

  • The aggression arousal phase may have upset the children

  • The children in the aggressive condition may have gone on to use similar aggression outside of the experiment