Psychology Bandura et al.
Aggression
• Title:
• Transmission of Aggression Through Imitation of Aggressive Models
• Year: 1961
Psychology being investigated
• Social Learning Theory: Social behaviour is learned primarily b observing and imitating others.
It is “learning by proxy”. The four components to it are:
• Attention: Observers must pay attention to behaviour of the model. The model must have
some feature that attracts the observer.
• Retention: Observers must store the behaviour in their long-term memory so that the
information can be used again (when the observer wants to imitate the behaviour).
• Reproduction: Observers must feel capable of imitating the retained, observed behaviour.
• Motivation: If observers experience vicarious reinforcement, they are more likely to imitate the
behaviour. This is when the model has been rewarded for performing the observed behaviour,
so is less likely to imitate it.
Background
• Learning behaviour by imitating others is called observational learning.
• Several studies had demonstrated that children are in uence by witnessing adult behaviour in
the same situation and in the presence of the adult who modelled the behaviour.
• This study is concerned with learning gender-speci c behaviours.
Aims
• Overall aim: To investigate observational learning of aggression.
• Speci c aims:
• To see whether children would reproduce aggressive behaviour when the model was no longer
present.
• To look for gender di erences in the learning of aggression.
Procedure
• Research Method: Laboratory experiment and Observations
• Experimental Design: Independent groups, matched pairs design
• IV:
• 1) Behaviour of the model - aggressive or non-aggressive
• 2) Sex of the model
• 3) Sex of the child
• DV: Amount of behaviour observed in 8 categories
• Sample: 72 participants; 36 boys and 26 girls from the Stanford University Nursery School.
Their ages ranged form 37 months to 69 months with a mean age of 52 moths. 2 adults, a male
and a female served as the role models in the experiment. One female experimenter conducted
the study for all 72 participants.
• Sampling Technique: Opportunity Sampling
• Participants were divided into 8 experimental groups or 6 children each and one control gourd
consisting 24 participants who watched no model.
• Children in each condition were matched for their levels of physical aggression, verbal
aggression, aggression towards inanimate objects and aggressive inhibition.
• 51 participants were rated independently on a four ve-point rating scale by the experimenter
and a nursery teacher. A very good agreement of 0.89 was achieved.
fi ff fi fl
Aggression
• Title:
• Transmission of Aggression Through Imitation of Aggressive Models
• Year: 1961
Psychology being investigated
• Social Learning Theory: Social behaviour is learned primarily b observing and imitating others.
It is “learning by proxy”. The four components to it are:
• Attention: Observers must pay attention to behaviour of the model. The model must have
some feature that attracts the observer.
• Retention: Observers must store the behaviour in their long-term memory so that the
information can be used again (when the observer wants to imitate the behaviour).
• Reproduction: Observers must feel capable of imitating the retained, observed behaviour.
• Motivation: If observers experience vicarious reinforcement, they are more likely to imitate the
behaviour. This is when the model has been rewarded for performing the observed behaviour,
so is less likely to imitate it.
Background
• Learning behaviour by imitating others is called observational learning.
• Several studies had demonstrated that children are in uence by witnessing adult behaviour in
the same situation and in the presence of the adult who modelled the behaviour.
• This study is concerned with learning gender-speci c behaviours.
Aims
• Overall aim: To investigate observational learning of aggression.
• Speci c aims:
• To see whether children would reproduce aggressive behaviour when the model was no longer
present.
• To look for gender di erences in the learning of aggression.
Procedure
• Research Method: Laboratory experiment and Observations
• Experimental Design: Independent groups, matched pairs design
• IV:
• 1) Behaviour of the model - aggressive or non-aggressive
• 2) Sex of the model
• 3) Sex of the child
• DV: Amount of behaviour observed in 8 categories
• Sample: 72 participants; 36 boys and 26 girls from the Stanford University Nursery School.
Their ages ranged form 37 months to 69 months with a mean age of 52 moths. 2 adults, a male
and a female served as the role models in the experiment. One female experimenter conducted
the study for all 72 participants.
• Sampling Technique: Opportunity Sampling
• Participants were divided into 8 experimental groups or 6 children each and one control gourd
consisting 24 participants who watched no model.
• Children in each condition were matched for their levels of physical aggression, verbal
aggression, aggression towards inanimate objects and aggressive inhibition.
• 51 participants were rated independently on a four ve-point rating scale by the experimenter
and a nursery teacher. A very good agreement of 0.89 was achieved.
fi ff fi fl
