BANDURA, ROSS & ROSS (1961) TRANSMISSION OF

AGGRESSION THROUGH IMITATION OF AGGRESSIVE

MODELS

TOPICS TO LEARN ABOUT:

• NATURE – NURTURE DEBATE

• INNATE/BIOLOGICAL THEORIES

• SOCIAL LEARNING THEORIES

Some Questions;

1. What behaviours do you think you have learned by

watching others?

2. Why do you think we have a 9.pm “watershed” for

television programmes?

Do you agree with this?

• The Nature – Nurture Debate:

* Psychologists argue about how much aggressive

behaviour is learned and how much is to due to

biological factors.

* What do you think?

What causes aggression/violence?

1. Hobbes (1651) – We are ‘naturally’ born as ‘brutal

savages’.

2. Freud (1930) – Aggression as an instinctive

force. Thanatos, the death force.

1. Lorenz (1950) – Aggression as innate. Inevitable

build-up of aggression in all species until something

happens to trigger release.

But, little evidence to support this.

Innate/Biological Theories of Aggression.

4. Dollard et al (1939) ‘Frustration-Aggression

Hypothesis’

Aggression more likely when we are frustrated in

efforts to achieve a goal of some kind.

Any problems with this theory?

5. Biological Factors – hormone levels,

chromosomes, brain abnormalities. Eg;

Testosterone in boys; studies show consistently

more aggression in boys – more impatient,

irritable. (But, what about hormone levels in

females??!)

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORIES

(BEHAVIOURISM)

In contrast to innate theories, SLT implies that

aggression can be learnt by the process of

conditioning.

• SLT was developed from Behaviourist Psychology.

Research here refers to two types of conditioning:

1. Classical Conditioning – when an association

between a stimulus and a response is developed.

Pavlov (1927); experiments with dogs.

Bell associated with food salivation

• Case of ‘Little Albert’: Watson & Raynor (1920)

White rat (& other white fluffy

Objects) associated with loud noise

produced fear.

• Operant Conditioning - when a response to a stimulus

is developed by some kind of reinforcement (eg; reward,

praise). Skinner (1938) – Experiments with rats.

Some everyday examples…?

Social Learning Theory (Bandura)

This is an offshoot of behaviourism. It recognizes how

behaviour is not only learned by reinforcement, but

also from watching and imitating others.

S.L.T explains how behaviour can be learnt

by ‘modelling’;

Observation + imitation = learning of

behaviour (eg; aggression)

What other types of behaviour

could be learned in this way?

BEHAVOURIST THEORIES OF LEARNING

Behaviourism is an important approach in psychology

and can be applied to many areas (in addition to

explaining aggression). Refer to your text and notes:

explain and give example to illustrate the following

behaviourist theories. (try to include diagrams).

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:

(Key words: association, conditioned response)

OPERANT CONDITIONING:

(Key words; positive reinforcement, negative

reinforcement)

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY:

(Key words; modelling, imitation