Developmental Approach - Bandura et al 1961- Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models
The Behaviourist Perspective
All behaviour is learned and shaped by the environment
Operant Conditioning
Social Learning Theory (SLT)
Classical conditioning
Skinner
Observe and copy behaviour
Imitation
Vicarious Reinforcement
Observational learning
automatically learn behaviour by being exposed without need for reinforcement
involves copying whole units of behaviour
seeing another person being reinforced then likely to produce the same behaviour yourself
Core Study
72 children between 3y1m and 5y9m
pretested - physical aggression, verbal aggression, aggression to wards inanimate objects, aggression inhibition
independent variables - behaviour, sex of child, sex of model
Non-aggressive Condition = 24
Aggressive Condition = 24
6 girls + female model
6 boys + female model
6 boys + male model
6 girls + male model
6 boys + female model
6 girls + female model
6 Boys + male model
6 girsl + male model
Control Group = 24
6 girls + male model
6 girls + female model
6 boys + femal model
6 boys + male model
matched into 3s - one into each group
called Matched Pairs
Procedure
Played with stickers with 1 adult Room 1 -
'Model' sits at other table
adult leaves room
Agressive Model
Non-aggressive Model
played with all the toys not the BoBo doll toy
aggressive behaviour towards BoBo doll toy #
Room 2 - New exciting toys Play for 10 minutes
Told toys now for other children only not them
Room 3 - BoBo toy and other toys - Observed for 20 minutes
Control - no model #
Response measures when observing
Imitative verbal aggression - 'pow' 'sock him in the nose'
Imitative non-aggression - talking about doll
Imitation of physical aggression - punching doll
Partially imitative responses
Hitting other toys but not BoBo doll
sitting on BoBo doll but not aggressively
Non imitiative aggressive responses
Non-imitative physical agression
Non-imitative verbal agression
Aggressive gun play
Controls - children macthed on pre-existing agressio, same toys for each child, models did standard behaviour each time
Results
- children in aggressive model made more aggressive responses than in non-aggressive or control condition
- Girls in aggressive condition showed more physical aggression if the model was male. and more verbal aggression if model female
- boys more physically aggressive than girls but same in verbal aggression
- Boys more likley ti imitate same sex model than girls
Conclusions
Findings support Bandura's Social Learning Theory
Children learn social behaviour such as aggression through the process of observation learning
Children more likely to learn from same sex models
Boys are more physically aggressive than girls and more likely to engage in imitating physical aggression, although girls are seen to be verbally aggressive. Possibly due to socialisation