Bandura's does not reduce complex behaviours, such as aggression in children, down to a simplistic level.
considers complex interaction between the environment and cognitive factors,
-eg imitation occurs only after a series of mediation processes have taken place.
more holistic- using both behavioural and cognitive principles when explaining human behaviour
however it is not fully holistic as it ignores biologoical factors
Bandura's research relies heavily on the use of laboratory experiments which used standardised procedures making them reliable.
Same toys
Same room
Same Bobo doll
High levels of control minimised extraneous variables
-children's parents completed a questionnaire beforehand assessing the child's baseline aggression
eliminated participant variables.
-This means the approach is capable of making valid cause and effect statements about the relationship between observation and imitation of role models.
Hormonal factors,like testosterone:
May explain aggressive behaviour as they found consistently boys were more aggressive this is an important influence on behaviour is not accounted for in SL. It Does not take differences in gender into account(beta bias)
on the end of valid cause and effect - however there has been an issue with causality on example is through young people learning deviantattitudes through peers
suggested there is a predisposition- those who already possess deviant attitudes may seek out people similar