AS level Psychology The Core Studies The developmental approach

1. AS level PsychologyThe Core Studies The developmental approach Behaviourist & Social Learning perspective

2. AS Psychology • Developmental Psychology • Bandura, Ross and Ross (1961)

3. Bandura, Ross & RossThe Bobo Doll Study

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

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

6. Getting started: 1 List two behaviours you think a child might learn by observing other people 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 First IV • Non aggressive condition • Aggressive condition • Control condition

11. Bandura, Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study Second IV • Children observed either a • MALE or FEMALE role model • 12 children in each

12. Bandura, Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study Third IV • Gender of the child • Child was male or female

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

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 • The matching process • To ensure that each group contained equally aggressive children they were 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 taken one at a time • Phase one of the experiment • Modelling the behaviour phase

19. 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 so that they were equally likely to display any aggressive behaviour they had learned

20. Bandura, Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • What happened then? • Phase three of the experiment • The OBSERVATION phase • Child left alone in play room to which a ‘mini’ Bobo and mallet had been added

21. Bandura, Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • What was observed? • The criteria • Imitative aggression • Non-imitative aggression • both physical & verbal • e.g. hitting Bobo with mallet

22. Bandura, Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • Who observed? • More than one observer • How long for? • For 20 minutes in 5 second time samples • 240 observation samples for each child

23. Bandura, Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • Examples of behaviour observed

24. 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

25. Bandura, Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study The results • IMITATION - the children in the NON- aggressive condition imitated very few of the modelled behaviour • 70% had zero scores

26. Bandura, Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study The results • NON-IMITATION • the children in the aggressive condition displayed more non-imitative (non-copied) aggressive behaviour

27. 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

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

29. Bandura, Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study GENDER RESULTS • Boys more aggressive after watching MALE aggressive model • Girls more aggressive after watching FEMALE aggressive model

30. Bandura, Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study The conclusion • Learning can take place by observation • Children more likely to learn from same sex models

31. Bandura, Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study The conclusion • Bandura suggested Freud’s theory of identification may be used to explain how learning took place • Thinking point: Which of Freud’s stages might these children have been in?

32. Bandura, Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • Consider: BPS guidelines – Was this study ethical? • What are the issues? • If not ethical WHY not?

33. Bandura, Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • Methodology • Does this study have ecological validity? • If not ecologically valid - why not?

34. Bandura, Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • The participants • To whom can we generalise the findings?

35. Bandura, Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • The debate about whether children learn aggressive behaviour from watching violence on TV • How might watching TV differ from the experience of the children in the Bandura experiment?

36. Bandura, Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • There were four predictions (hypotheses) in this • MATCHED SUBJECTS experiment • What were they?

37. Bandura, Ross & Ross The BOBO doll study • Now complete your assignment on Bandura, Ross and Ross