A / AS Psychology.. Key Studies
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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
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The THREE CONDITIONS
Non aggressive condition
Aggressive condition
Control condition
Bandura Ross & Ross
The BOBO doll study
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Non aggressive condition
and
Aggressive condition
There were male and female role
models
• 12 children in each
Bandura Ross & Ross
The BOBO doll study
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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
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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 nonimitative (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