Bandura 1961

• what was his aim?

  to see children would imitate behaviour when there was an aggressive model, a non aggressive model and nobody modelling behaviour
• what were his hypothesis?

  1. children exposed to aggressive model will imitate aggressive acts similar to model
  2. children exposed to non-aggressive model will reproduce less aggressive acts
  3. children will imitate the behaviour of the same sex to a greater degree of opposite sex
  4. boys will be more predisposed that girls to imitating aggression.
• how many experimental groups were there?

  8
• how many participants were there?

  36 boys and 36 girls
• how old were the participants?

  3 to 5 years old
• how many participants were in each group?

  6 children in each group
• what is the study experimental design?

  matched pairs
• what were the independent variables?

  1. aggressive and non aggressive behaviour modelled
  2. sex of the adult model
  3. sex of the child
• what happened in stage 1?

  • experimenter led single child into the room
  • demonstrated how they could play with the potato prints and pictures provided
  • after child settled an adult model was escorted into room where there was tinker toy set, chair, mallet, inflatable bobo doll
• what happened in the non aggressive conditions in stage 1?

  model played quietly with their tinker toys in a subdued manor ignoring the bobo doll
• what happened in the aggressive condition?

  adult model acted aggressively to the bobo doll in a very specific way - used novel aggression acts and language, sitting on the doll, hitting it in the face.

  • after the experimenter took the child into a different 'games room'
• what was the aggression arousal in stage 2?

  before being put in the room with a bobo doll the child was given some toys, but they were told they couldnt play with them as they were special toys.

  this was to frustrate the children - get them all in the same emotional state
• what were examples of some toys the child had?

  locomotive, jet plane, fire engine, cradle, bobo doll
• what was stage 3 about?

  delayed imitation
• what happened in stage 3?

  child taken to a new room with toys they could play withy any of. there was a variety of non aggressive and aggressive toys to play with including the bobo doll.

  child was observed for 20 minutes - one way mirror

  observations noted at 5 second intervals
• how many second intervals were the stage 3 observations noted at

  5 seconds
• how many observations were made per child?

  240 per child
• what type of toys were in stage 3?

  3ft bobo doll, mallet, two dart guns, tether ball, tea set, crayons and paper
• what typed of aggression did they measure the children for?

  physical , verbal and non aggressive verbal
• what were some results?

  • children in the aggressive model made more aggressive responses than the children in the non-aggressive condition
  • boys were more likely to imitate aggressive behaviour than girls
  • boys in the aggressive model showed more aggressive responses if the model was the same sex
• what was the generalisability?

  good - male and female children and models findings not restrictive to gender

  bad - children aged 3 to 5 years old. older children and adults may have a different observation of aggression
• what was the reliability of the experiment?

  good external reliability - highly standardised procedure possible to replicate. 1963 &65 found similar results

  highly standardised procedure - good internal reliability same female and male models use in all the groups, same aggressive behaviour demonstrated
• what was the validity of the study?

  bad - study lacks ecological validity

  bad - demand characteristics - child could have imitated the model thinking that is what they had to do

  bad - internal validity behaviour observed better described as play rather than aggression.

  conclusion

  control of variables equals good reliability on the findings but poor validity
• what is the application?

  education and parenting - if children see adults behave aggressively they are likely to imitate the behaviour - suggesting censorship of violent media
• what are the ethics ?

  informed consent as they are 3 and 5 years old - parents gave consent

  protection of participants exposing children to a procedure that was expected to create aggression.