The development area Bandura et al 1961 Imitation

The development area Bandura et al. (1961) Imitation of aggressive models OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Behaviourism proposes the view that we are all born a blank slate, and that everything we do, think or feel has been learnt since we were born. Behaviours are learnt through: Classical conditioning Operant conditioning Social learning theory What methods of learning can you think of? [insert 13_01 c] OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Social learning theory (SLT) SLT suggests that we observe and copy those who we see. The more we spend time around someone, the more likely we are to become like them. In pairs, write down examples of behaviours that you think are learnt through SLT. Who are you likely to learn behaviours from? OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Why is this study relevant? OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Columbine High School shooting Dylan Klebold Eric Harris OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area What happened? 13 dead Killed themselves after Recorded tapes explaining their reasons OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 24 injured Planted bombs to go off but they didn’t 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Murder of Jamie Bulger OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Does watching an aggressive model reduce your own aggression (catharsis), or does it increase your own aggression? OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Bandura video OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Background • Behaviourists suggest that all behaviours can be explained in terms of learning from the environment. • Bandura developed the concept of social learning theory based on behaviourist principles. Social learning theory is the name given to the claim that people can learn through observation and then subsequently imitate the observed behaviours. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Key terms Imitation – Copying behaviour that you have observed. Bobo doll – An inflatable toy with a weighted bottom. When hit, it bounces back up. Inter-rater reliability – The consistency between observers. When multiple observers watch the same event, IRR is how much they agree on what they have seen. Scored between 0 and 1. To demonstrate IRR it is a good idea to watch a video and ask the class to count the number of times something happens. Then see if they all agree. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Hypotheses • Hypothesis 1: ‘Subjects exposed to aggressive models would reproduce aggressive acts resembling those of their models. ’ • Hypothesis 2: ‘Observation of non-aggressive models would have a generalised inhibiting effect on the subjects’ subsequent behaviour. ’ • Hypothesis 3: Participants would ‘imitate the behaviour of a same-sex model to a greater degree than a model of the opposite sex’. • Hypothesis 4: ‘Boys should be more pre-disposed than girls toward imitating aggression. ’ OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Research method • What research method does Bandura use? Explain your answer. • Bandura uses a laboratory experiment because the study has independent variables (condition, gender of child, gender of model), dependent variables (measures of aggressive behaviours in stage 3), and controls (for example the time spent in each room). • The study is also a snapshot study as it takes place over a short period of time (in fact each child is in the study for only 32 minutes). OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area 72 boys and girls from Stanford University Nursery school Aggressive condition 24 children observed an adult being aggressive to a Bobo doll OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 Non-aggressive condition 24 children observed an adult playing and ignoring a Bobo doll Control group 24 participants 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Children in the aggressive and non-aggressive conditions were divided by gender of themselves and the role model Aggressive condition (24 children) Six boys with same-sex role model OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 Six boys with opposite-sex role model Six girls with same-sex role model Six girls with opposite-sex role model 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Non-aggressive condition (24 children) 6 boys with same-sex role model OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 6 boys with opposite-sex role model 6 girls with same-sex role model 6 girls with opposite-sex role model 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Sample method Would you allow your child to take part? If not, why not? OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Pre-testing and matching The experimenter and the child’s nursery school teacher rated the children on four levels before the experiment started: • • Physical aggression Verbal aggression Aggression towards inanimate objects Aggression inhibition OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Pre-testing and matching • Each of these was rated on a 5 -point scale. • The high correlation of these ratings at r=0. 89 shows high inter-rater reliability, as the two observers recorded the same behaviours. • On the basis of these scores, the children were then matched into threes. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Experimental design What are three designs that we know? 1. Independent measures 2. Repeated measures 3. Matched pairs Which one applies to Bandura? Bandura’s study was matched pairs. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area IVs and DVs IVs: • The behaviour of the model – aggressive or not • The gender of the child • The gender of the model Conditions: • Aggressive male model • Aggressive female model • Non-aggressive female model • No model OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Procedure • Group 1: Observed an aggressive model • Group 2: Observed a non-aggressive model • Control group: no exposure to any model Groups 1 and 2 were each subdivided into four groups: • Boys watching a male model • Boys watching female model • Girls watching a male model Footage OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Procedure – Stage 1 10 minutes in total. • In stage 1 the child is sitting in a corner playing with toys (for example, making potato prints). • An adult (the model) is then brought into the room. • If in the aggressive condition, the model would (after a minute of quiet play) start to attack the Bobo doll. • If in the non-aggressive condition, the adult would quietly play with the toys. • Children in the control condition were not exposed to a model. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 Child Adult 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Procedure – Stage 2 2 minutes. Children move from stage 1 to stage 2. All children were taken into this room. Mild aggression arousal stage: • Allowed to play with attractive toys for 2 minutes, then told the toys were the experimenter’s best toys, and reserved for the other boys and girls to play with. • Told they could play with any of the toys in the next room. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Procedure – Stage 3 20 minutes. Toys in this room include a 3 ft Bobo doll (aggressive toy) and trucks (non-aggressive toy). The children were observed for 20 minutes through a one-way mirror at 5 -second intervals: • Imitative behaviour – Direct copy of the model’s behaviour. • Partially imitative behaviour – Similar but not exact copy of the model’s behaviour. • Non-imitative aggressive behaviour – General aggressive behaviour. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Observation • The observation was carried out behind the one-way mirror by the male model (is there any issue with this? ). • On half of the trials, the children were also observed by a second independent observer. • Inter-rater reliability was found to be high, in the 90 s. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Controls What was kept the same for all participants? OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Mean number of imitative physical aggressive acts Girls Boys Aggressive female model 5. 5 12. 4 Aggressive male model 7. 2 25. 8 Non-aggressive female model 2. 5 0. 2 Non-aggressive male model 0 1. 5 Control 1. 2 2. 0 What data do you need to know to have evidence for each of the four hypotheses? OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Mean number of imitative verbal aggressive acts Girls Boys Aggressive female model 13. 7 4. 3 Aggressive male model 2. 0 12. 7 Non-aggressive female model 0. 3 1. 1 Non-aggressive male model 0 0 Control 0. 7 1. 7 What data do you need to know to have evidence for each of the four hypotheses? OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Qualitative results This is a selection of quotes from the participants: • ‘Al’s a good socker, he beat up Bobo. I want to sock like Al. ’ • ‘That man is a strong fighter, he punched and he could hit Bobo right down to the floor. ’ • ‘“Punch your nose. ” He’s a good fighter like Daddy. ’ OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Conclusions • The findings support the social learning theory. • In other words, children learn social behaviours (both aggressive and nonaggressive) through observation learning (watching the behaviour of others). This supports SLT. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Activity Read the article on your Activity sheet. Write to the police, advising them on the possible causes. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Evaluation Validity • • How does the pre-test affect validity? A lot of the study revolves around physical aggression towards a Bobo doll. How does this link to validity? Ethics • • Reliability • • What about the study was like the children’s everyday real life? What wasn’t like their everyday real life? Is the inter-rater reliability for the pre-test and in • room 3 high or low? Is the procedure standardised? Is the sample size big enough to find a consistent effect? Think about the total and the number in Other each specific group. • Who could use the Is there any short- or long-term harm? Was consent gained? If yes, who was it gained from? OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 Ecological validity • results from this study? Does this study fit in the nature side or the nurture side of the debate? 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Links to debates • Nature or nurture – What caused the behaviour? Is there evidence to support both sides of the argument? • How is the study useful? Try to think of specific examples. • Did the children choose to behave in the way they did or was it determined by external factors? OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Links to areas/perspectives • Bandura’s study falls within the developmental area because it is investigating how the environment that a child is placed in can affect their behaviour. By observing individuals (the model) the behaviour of the child is changed, altering their development. • The study also comes under the behaviourist perspective. This is due to it looking at how environmental factors can lead to learning. Social learning theory is one of the main theories in the behaviourist perspective. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The development area Links to key themes • The key theme of this study is external influences on children’s behaviour. This study shows that the environment plays a very important role in a child’s development. • What a child hears and sees has an affect on their behaviour. The external influence in this case is the model’s behaviour. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited