Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models - Bandura, A., Ross, D. and Ross, S.A. (1961)
Have you ever had a hero? Someone you tried to be like, imitated and copied? Even if you never called them your hero, you are probably observing and sometimes copying the behaviour of many of the people around you. Friends, parents, celebrities, even (if there really isn't anyone else to look at) teachers! Albert Bandura showed how important imitation could be as a way of learning new behaviours.
Bandura's model adds an extra element to the stimulus-response design of the original behaviourist theories. This is a cognitive element, which is why SLT is often said to bridge the gap between behaviourism and cognitivism.
The extra element is modelling, or observational learning. If we watch other people, and then reproduce their behaviour (as we clearly do), Bandura saw that we would need to be able to have a memory of the action, as well as other skills like decision making for when to display the action. These are cognitive skills that early behaviourists ignored (or denied even existed!) Bandura's theory has had a major impact on the public's understanding of how children learn from their parents; and it continues to shape people's ideas on education policy, childcare, video game and film ratings and many other things. |
1961 - Year of the CopycatThe SPS website puts the Bandura study into beautiful historical context:
"1961 was a year for copycats. The Cold War heated up a notch, when the Russians responded to previous American hydrogen bomb tests by detonating their own massive bombs in test ranges. The Berlin Wall was built overnight and American and Russian tanks glared at each other across the German border. When American citizens weren't building fallout shelters in their back gardens they were watching tit-for-tat gang violence in the year's big movie, West Side Story. Not all the imitation was aggressive: the Russians put Yuri Gagarin into space and the Americans followed with Alan Shepard a month later." |
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10 3 72 6 20 aggressive female half imitating male model nice toys non one-way mirror physical reinforcement same-sex verbal |
Assignment 1 - Fill the gaps...Use the words/numbers on the left to fill in the gaps in the text below in this Uniview test:
Bandura et al (1961) The aims were to find out whether children learn aggression by _____________ adult models and if so whether they are more likely to learn from _____________ models. Bandura et al tested this using _____ boys and girls aged _____ to _____. They were divided up into groups by model (_____________ / _____________ - aggressive / no _____________). In groups seeing a model, _____________ of each group were female, half were male and in each of these groups, half of the children saw a same-sex and half an opposite-sex model. The non-aggressive model played with Tinker toys for _____ minutes, the aggressive model for one minute then attacked the Bobo doll (physically and verbally). The children were then deliberately annoyed by being shown a room with _____________ then told they were for other children. The children were then taken to another room with a _____________. This room contained toys including a Bobo doll and they were observed for _____ minutes. Those children who saw aggressive models imitated them, showing more physical and _____________ aggression than those watching non-aggressive models (more so in boys – especially for _____________ aggression - than in girls). Also, boys were more likely to imitate a _____________ model and girls a _____________ model, though less so. Bandura et al. concluded that observing aggression without _____________ results in imitative learning, especially for same-sex models. |
Assignment 2 - Alternative study - what if Bandura used a questionnaire?
Bandura collected his results using observers. An alternative method might have been to give all the children in his experiment a questionnaire to assess their views of the model's behaviour.
1. Describe the use of questionnaires in Psychology. (5)
2. How could he have conducted an experiment with a similar aim, but using a questionnaire?
Write a description of the study, including the who, what, where and how. (10)
2. What would the advantages and disadvantages of such a design be, compared to the original?
Evaluate this new study in methodological and ethical terms.(10)
Submit your study through the form on the home page
1. Describe the use of questionnaires in Psychology. (5)
2. How could he have conducted an experiment with a similar aim, but using a questionnaire?
Write a description of the study, including the who, what, where and how. (10)
2. What would the advantages and disadvantages of such a design be, compared to the original?
Evaluate this new study in methodological and ethical terms.(10)
Submit your study through the form on the home page
RevisionWatch the video and then fill in the summary sheet below in as much detail as you can from memory.
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ExtensionThis is an interesting and accessible article:
Kirsh SJ (2006) Cartoon violence and aggression in youth. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 11: 547–57. The free full text is available here. |