negatives

• animal studies are used a lot for behaviourism research

  • can be considered unethical bc an animal cant consent
  • generalisability/external validity is low bc animals and humans are different
  • different species have different capacities for learning
• Proof that genetics influences behaviour too but behaviourism says only reflexes are inate
• ignores the role of emotion, personality and the importance of internal mental processes
• cant explain all human behaviour
• we can also learn by observation not just consequence and association
• Little albert study is very unethical so cant be reproduced, has low ecological validity bc its in a lab
• Not everyone develops phobias after a negative experience with something- conditioning doesnt explain this
• slt is reductionist- it ignores genetic factors
• Banduras research

  • low ecological validity
  • The main limitation is that there are no controls, as they didn't have a group where the child saw someone not hitting the doll but still acted aggressively towards it
  • limited sample size
  • ethical problems- it encouraged violent behaviour in kids
  • bobo dolls are MEANT for aggressive play
  • the children were shown how to play with the doll so this may be obedience not SLT
  • ignores genetic influences
• it is difficult to conclude whether or not observational learning has taken place
• Bandura's Bobo doll experiment has low external validity because it only looked at one type of aggression (physical) and didn't look at other types such as verbal aggression.
• Bandura's Bobo doll experiment had low internal validity due to the lack of control over extraneous variables, which could have influenced the results.
• Bandura's Bobo doll experiment was conducted on young children who might not fully understand what was happening, making their responses less reliable.
• Bandura's Bobo doll experiment did not consider alternative explanations for the observed behavior, such as imitation or social facilitation.