Bandura 1963

• What incident inspired Bandura's study on the imitative influence of film stimulation?

  Knife fight reenactment
• Bandura aimed to test the idea that watching filmed aggression might be cathartic
• Children in Bandura's study were exposed to either real, filmed, or cartoon aggressive role models.
• What naturally-varying IV did Bandura study in his experiment?

  Child's gender
• Bandura's study is considered both a lab experiment and a natural experiment.
• Types of aggressive actions recorded by Bandura's observers

  1️⃣ Verbal aggression

  2️⃣ Physical aggression

  3️⃣ Mallet aggression

  4️⃣ Gun-play aggression
• How many children were in Bandura's sample, and what age range were they?

  96 children, 3-5 years old
• Bandura added a condition where children watched a film of a female adult dressed as a cartoon cat.
• The Control group in Bandura's study carried out half as much aggression as the other groups.
• Which type of role model led to the most non-imitative aggression in Bandura's study?

  Cartoon model
• Bandura concluded that children imitate filmed aggression in the same way as live aggression.
• Bandura found that watching filmed violence is not cathartic
• Why was Bandura surprised by the imitation of the cartoon role model?

  Less realistic, more imitation
• Bandura's study provides evidence that exposure to filmed aggression heightens aggressive reactions in children.
• What were the aims of the study?

  To find out if children would become more aggressive if exposed to an aggressive role model in film or in a less-realistic cartoon compared to watching a live mode

  
  

  To test the popular idea that watching filmed aggression might be "cathartic" (making people calmer because it "vents" their aggressive feelings)
• What type of experiment was it?

  A lab experiment and a natural experiment and a matched pairs design.
• What was the sample?

  96 children, 48 boys and 48 girls, aged 3-5, recruited from Stanford University Nursery School (an opportunity sample).
• How many groups were there?

  There were 3 experimental groups with 24 children in each group and a control group of 24.
• What did the different aggression groups do?


  The real life group watched a human model being aggressive and the filmed aggression group watched the same model but this time being filmed. A third group watch a cartoon character being aggressive.
• What were the children rated based on?

  The children were rated for aggression by those in the nursery and the children in the groups were matched for aggression.
• What was the procudure for the real life one the same as?

  1961 experiment
• What did the participants in the film group do?

  They were in a darkened room and worked on potato prints while the film was playing 6 feet away from them. The models were the same as in the real life condition
• How was the cartoon model different?

  Instead on being on a TV there was a projector and a screen but it was mostly kept the same way. The cartoon showed the female model dressed as a black cat and she behaved as a cartoon cat would. There was artificial grass, flowers and this to make it look artificial. There was also cartoon music.
• Where was aggressive behaviour measured?

  It was measure in a different room and the children were made mildly aggressive before they went into the room to play. There was a one way mirror and the child was observed for 20 minutes and observations were in 5 second intervals. There was a high level of agreement between the two observers.
• What responses were recorded?

  Imitative aggression, partially imitative acts, mallet aggression, non-imitative aggression, aggressive gun play.
• What were the results>

  The Control group carried out half as much aggression as the other groups.

  
  

  There's no significant difference between live models and filmed or cartoon models.

  
  

  The cartoon produced more non-imitative aggression (100) but less imitative aggression (24) whereas the human models were the other way around.
• What were the conclusions of the study?

  Bandura concludes that children will imitate filmed aggression in the same way as live aggressive role models.

  
  

  Bandura also concludes that watching filmed violence is NOT cathartic. Instead of becoming less aggressive after watching aggressive film or cartoons, the children showed more aggression.

  
  

  The cartoon aggression seemed to weaken social inhibitions generally, because there was less imitative aggression but more non-imitative aggression in this condition.
• Reliability?


  Bandura's procedure is very reliable because it can be replicated - as Bandura did, replicating the study in '63 and '65. This was easy to do because of the standardised procedure (same script, same checklist categories, etc).

  
  

  Bandura also used two observers behind the one-way mirror. This creates inter-rater reliability because a behaviour had to be noted by both observers otherwise it didn't count.

  
  

  Finally, Bandura filmed the 1963 study and the films can be watched by anyone, which adds to the inter-rater reliability.
• Application?

  Bandura, Ross & Ross (1963a) has much more application to TV censorship. Bandura claims the study was inspired by a news story about a boy in San Francisco who was seriously hurt when his friends re-enacted a TV fight scene. The study suggests even cartoon violence (like Tom & Jerry) might be causing children to learn aggressive behaviour. This study is used to support censoring TV, films and video games aimed at children.

  
  

  Bandura, Ross & Ross (1961) can be applied to parenting and teaching styles. It suggests children observe and imitate adults, so if you want your children to grow up calm and well-behaved, you need to keep your temper and keep them away from aggressive role models. Calm role models seem to have a big effect, which might apply to "buddy" systems used in schools or prisons to help troubled students or prisoners learn from a role model.
• Validity?


  The main criticism of all Bandura's studies is that they lack validity. The children were put in a strange situation, exposed to some unusual adult behaviour and given toys to play with which encouraged them to act unnaturally. For example, a Bobo Doll is designed to be hit and knocked over (it bounces back upright); children would suppose the experimenters wanted them to play with the Bobo Doll in this way. This sort of behaviour is called demand characteristics, because the participants do the stuff they think the researchers demand of them.
• Ethics?

  There are many ethical issues with Bandura's studies. The major issue is harm and the wellbeing of participants. The children may have been distressed by the aggressive behaviour they witnessed and the aggressive behaviour they learned from the study may have stayed with them, going on to become a behavioural problem. Participants are supposed to leave a study in the same state they entered it, which may not have happened here. This is an example of what the BPS Code of Ethics calls "normalising unhelpful behaviours".
• What were the aims of Bandura in 1963?

  To see if a filmed model would have an impact on the aggression levels of a child. Would cartoon also have a similar effect?
• How many participants took part in the study?

  There were 48 girls and 48 boys, with a mean age of 52 months.
• How many groups were there?

  four
• What are the names of the groups?

  live aggression group

  the filmed realistic aggression group

  the cartoon aggression group

  the control group
• What happened in the live aggression group?

  The children watched a real life model being aggressive towards a Bobo Doll.
• What happened in the filmed realistic aggression?

  The children watched a film of the model being aggressive on screen.
• What happened in the cartoon condition?

  A model was dressed up as a black cat and was aggressive towards a Bobo Doll.
• What happened in the control group?

  They were not exposed to any aggressive content.
• What happened following the exposure to the model?

  The child was placed in a room with an experimenter and mild aggression was caused. Ten the children were allowed to play in a room full of toys including the Bobo doll and weapons.