Download - A / AS Psychology.. Key Studies Developmental Psychology Key study Bandura, Ross and Ross (1961)
A / AS Psychology.. Key Studies
• Developmental Psychology
• Key study
• Bandura, Ross and Ross (1961)
Bandura, Ross & Ross
The Bobo Doll Study
The Question
The nature - nurture debate
Do children learn behaviour from the behaviour they see around
them?
Specifically…….
• Can aggressive behaviour be learned by observation?
• NB: This was the study that triggered the TV violence debate
Before we begin…….
• 1 List two behaviours you think might be learned by
watching others
• 2 List two behaviours you think could not be learned in this way
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• The participants
• 72 children (Stanford University nursery school)
• 36 boys & 36 girls• age range 37 months - 69 months
• Mean age 52 months
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• TWO adult ‘role models’
one male and one female
and a female experimenter
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• Method - an experiment
• there were three conditions
• 24 children in each condition
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• The THREE CONDITIONS
• Non aggressive condition
• Aggressive condition
• Control condition
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• Non aggressive condition
• and
• Aggressive condition
• There were male and female role models
• 12 children in each
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• Thus
• 6 boys saw aggressive male
• 6 boys saw non-aggressive male
• 6 boys saw aggressive female
• 6 boys saw non-aggressive female
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• Thus
• 6 girls saw aggressive female
• 6 girls saw non-aggressive female
• 6 girls saw aggressive male
• 6 girls saw non-aggressive male
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• Level 1 Independent Variable (IV)
aggressive or non-aggressive role model
• Level 2 Independent variable (IV)
Same sex or opposite sex role model
• Level 3 Independent variable…?
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• Write a TESTABLE two-tailed hypothesis for the study
• Write a TESTABLE one-tailed hypothesis for the study
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• In order to ensure that each group contained equally aggressive children they were all rated for aggression before the experiment
• rated on -• physical aggression, verbal aggression• aggression to inanimate objects• aggression inhibition (self control)
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• What happened then?
• Children were taken one at a time to a separate part of the building by the female experimenter for…
• Phase one of the experiment
• Modelling the behaviour phase
Observation phase
• The child was sat in one corner of the room. The child was encouraged to play with toys – potato printing and tinker toys.
• The model was sat in another corner. The model also played with toys. Either in a subdued way or aggressively depending on the experimental condition.
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• What happened then?
• Phase two of the experiment
• The AROUSAL phase
• This was necessary to provoke the children
The children were intentionally upset
• In phase 2 the child was taken into a separate room laid out with a wonderful array of brand new toys.
• Once the child had started to play with the toys they were told they had to stop…as these toys were intended for other children.
• This upset many of the children
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• What happened then?
• Phase three of the experiment• The OBSERVATION phase
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• What was observed?
• Imitative aggression – i.e. what was copied.
• Non-imitative aggression – i.e. what the child made up themselves
• Physical & verbal agression.
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• The results
• IMITATION - the children in the aggressive condition imitated many of the modelled physical and verbal aggressive behaviours
• they also imitated non-aggressive behaviours
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• The children in the NON- aggressive condition imitated very few of the modelled behaviour.
• 70% had zero scores.
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• The children in the aggressive condition displayed MUCH more non-imitative (non-copied) aggressive behaviour – in other words they just played a lot more aggressively!
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• The results
• NON-AGGRESSIVE CONDITION
• the children in the non-aggressive condition spent more time playing with the toys (dolls etc) also more time doing nothing
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• GENDER RESULTS
• Boys imitated more physical aggression (but not verbal)
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• Boys were more aggressive after watching the MALE aggressive model
• Girls were more aggressive after watching the FEMALE aggressive model
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• Bandura et al concluded that…
• Learning can take place by
observation• no classical or operant conditioning
was required!
• Also that children are more likely to learn from same sex models!
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• Bandura suggested that Freud’s theory of identification may be used to explain how learning took place.
• The child first identifies with the same sex role model and then copies their behaviour.
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• Thinking about BPS guidelines
• WAS THIS STUDY ETHICAL?
• What are the issues?
• If not ethical WHY not?
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• Thinking about methodology
• Does this study have ecological validity?
• If not ecologically valid - why not?
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• Thinking about the participants
• To whom can we generalise the findings?
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• This study started the debate about children learning aggressive behaviour from watching violence on TV.
• How might watching TV differ from the experience of the children in the Bandura experiment?
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
• There were four predictions
• (hypotheses) in this MATCHED participants laboratory experiment that used an independent measures design
• Make sure you know what they were?
Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study
The end