A / AS Psychology.. Key Studies

1. A / AS Psychology.. Key Studies • Developmental Psychology • Key study • Bandura, Ross and Ross (1961)

2. Bandura, Ross & Ross The Bobo Doll Study

4. The Question The nature - nurture debate Do children learn behaviour from the behaviour they see around them?

5. Specifically……. • Can aggressive behaviour be learned by observation? • NB: This was the study that triggered the TV violence debate

6. 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

7. 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

8. Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • TWO adult ‘role models’ • one male and one female • and a female experimenter

9. Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • Method - an experiment • there were three conditions • 24 children in each condition

10. Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • The THREE CONDITIONS • Non aggressive condition • Aggressive condition • Control condition

12. Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • Non aggressive condition • and • Aggressive condition • There were male and female role models • 12 children in each

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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…?

16. 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

17. 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)

18. 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

19. 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.

21. 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

22. 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

23. Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • What happened then? • Phase three of the experiment • The OBSERVATION phase

24. 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.

28. 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

30. 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.

31. 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!

32. 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

33. Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • GENDER RESULTS • Boys imitated more physical aggression (but not verbal)

34. 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

36. 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!

37. 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.

38. Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • Thinking about BPS guidelines • WAS THIS STUDY ETHICAL? • What are the issues? • If not ethical WHY not?

39. Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • Thinking about methodology • Does this study have ecological validity? • If not ecologically valid - why not?

40. Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • Thinking about the participants • To whom can we generalise the findings?

41. 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?

42. 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?

43. Bandura Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study The end