Bandura 1961

• Bandura et al wanted to investigate whether aggression could be acquired through modelling and see if children were more likely to imitate same – sex models
• It was a laboratory experiment with an independent groups design.
• 72 children aged 3 to 6 years (36 boys and 36 girls) were selected from the nursery at Stanford university. The children were placed into one of three conditions each consisting of 24 children (12 boys and 12 girls)
• Two groups were exposed to adult models who behaved in either aggressive or non – aggressive ways. A control group did not see any model.
• In the non-aggressive condition, the adult assembled toys for 10 mins and ignored the Bobo doll
• In the aggressive condition this lasted one minute before the model attacked the Bobo doll
• The doll was sat on, punched, and hit on the head with a mallet. This was consistently performed 3 times over 9 minutes accompanied by aggressive comments
• All pts were then deliberately annoyed by being shown a room full of attractive toys they were not allowed to play with
• They were then moved to another room containing both aggressive e.g. mallet and non-aggressive toys and observed for 20 mins through a one-way mirror
• Particular attention was paid to imitative aggression (direct copying of role model’s action), partial imitation (using bobo doll to hit another toy), non – imitative aggression, and aggressive gunplay
• Children exposed to aggressive models imitated their exact behaviours and were significantly more aggressive than those in the non – aggressive condition
• Boys were more likely to imitate an aggressive model than girls.Girls imitated more verbal aggression, Boys imitated more physical aggression