AO3

• It is a more complete explanation of human behavior than conditioning as it takes into account cognitive factors in learning. However it does not take into account free will and moral values.
• The participants were young children, older children and adults might not have imitated the aggressive behavior as they have more developed moral values.
• Demand characteristics in Bandura’s experiment

  • Study may lack internal validity, due to not entirely investigating the effect of aggressive role models because the Bobo doll is specifically designed to be hit. The study may also lack mundane realism because it may not represent or measure how children would be aggressive in day-to-day situations, perhaps towards objects or people that are not meant to be struck. Therefore, participants may have deliberately acted more aggressively towards the doll in order to please the experimenter. This reduces the generalisability of the findings.
• + Acknowledges the role of human cognition = Human cognitive and decision-making processes may be considered as more complex than that of animals. SLT has the advantage, over behaviourism, that it recognises the role of mediational processes as the conscious and cognitive insight that humans have into their behaviour. Therefore, SLT may be a better explanation of human behaviour, compared to behaviourism.