The Developmental Area

The key idea is that there is no single explanation for human behaviour. Instead, it focuses on how behaviour develops throughout our human life – from the cradle to the grave. It acknowledges that you may be influenced by situations. However, acknowledges more that this impact (of the situation), and the behaviours, will continue outwit the original situation.

Key terms:

StrengthsWeaknesses

Year 1 studies:

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Bandura (1961) Transmission of aggression

Area:

Theme:

Background:

The Columbine High School shooting. The murder of Jamie Bulger. What was reported as the main influencing factor(s) which caused the perpetrators to conduct these horrible actions?

This introduced the key question: Does watching an aggressive model reduce your own aggressionor does it increase your own aggression?

Behaviourism is a psychological perspective (we will learn this later in the year). In summary, behaviourists believe that all behaviour can be explained as a result of the immediate environment. Bandura introduced the Social Learning Theory. This claims that people learn behaviour through observation and show their learning through the immediate imitation.

Key terms:

Imitation – to copy a behaviour you have just observed

Bobo doll – an inflatable toy which is weighted at the bottom. When hit, the doll bounces back up

Inter-rater reliability –

Aim

Bandura wanted to research whether children would imitate aggressive behaviour displayed by a ‘model’. Specifically, would they imitate this aggressive behaviour when the ‘model’ is absent

Hypotheses

Hypothesis 1: ‘Subjects exposed to aggressive models would reproduce aggressive acts resembling those of their models.’

Hypothesis 2: ‘Observation of non-aggressive models would display a generalised inhibiting effect on the subjects’ subsequent behaviour’ (their normal behaviour)

Hypothesis 3: Participants would ‘imitate the behaviour of a same-sex model to a greater degree than a model of the opposite sex’.

Hypothesis 4: ‘Boys should be more pre-disposed than girls toward imitating aggression.’

Method

Laboratory experiment – What level of control is there? What type of relationship does this allow for?

Independent Variables (IV)

· Condition (Aggressive or non-aggressive or control group – no model)

· Gender of child (male or female)

· Gender of model (male or female)

Dependent Variables (DV)

· Measure of aggression

Snapshot study – takes place over a short period of time. Each child is studied for 32 minutes.

Sample

72 boys and girls from Stanford University Nursery - Consider the influence of the university

24 children are allocated to each condition (aggressive, non-aggressive, control)

Within each condition is the following:

· 6 boys with same sex model

· 6 boys with opposite sex model

· 6 girls with same sex model

· 6 girls with opposite sex model

Pre-testing and matching

The experimenter and the children’s nursery school teacher rated the children on four levels before the experiment started

1. Physical aggression

2. Verbal aggression

3. Aggression towards inanimate objects

4. Aggression inhibition

There was 0.89 correlation between ratings (High inter rater reliability)

Based on scores, children were matched into the threes. Matched pairs design

Procedure

Stage 1 (10 minutes)

Child plays alone in room 1 making potato prints. An adult (the model) enters the room.

· If in aggressive condition – the model will start to attack the Bobo doll

· If in non-aggressive condition – the model will play quietly with other toys

· If in control condition – no model enters the room

Stage 2 (2 minutes)

Child is taken into room 2.

Mild aggression arousal stage

· Children is allowed to play with attractive (fancy) toys for two minutes. They were told these are the experimenters best toys and only reserved for the best boys and best girls.

· The child is told they are not either of those so are now not allowed to play with the toys.

· They are told they can play with any other toy in room 1

· Why do they do this?

Stage 3 (20 minutes)

The child is brought back into room 1. In this room are aggressive toys (3ft bobo doll) and trucks (non-aggressive toy).

For 20 minutes the child is observed at 5 second intervals. During which they are observed on their:

· Imitative behaviour – Direct copy of the model’s behaviour (Punching, kicking, throwing in air)

· Partially imitative behaviour – Similar but not exact copy of the model’s behaviour (sits on bobo doll)

· Non-imitative aggressive behaviour – General aggressive behaviour (Pretends to shoot bobo doll – this behaviour is not shown by model)

The observation is carried out behind a one-way mirror by the male model

· What issues are there with this?

· On half of the trials, the children are observed by a second observer. Inter rater reliability was high.

Results – quantitative

Hypothesis 1: ‘Subjects exposed to aggressive models would reproduce aggressive acts resembling those of their models.’ Was this found to be true?

Hypothesis 2: ‘Observation of non-aggressive models would display a generalised inhibiting effect on the subjects’ subsequent behaviour’ (their normal behaviour). Was this found to be true?

Hypothesis 3: Participants would ‘imitate the behaviour of a same-sex model to a greater degree than a model of the opposite sex’. Was this found to be true?

Hypothesis 4: ‘Boys should be more pre-disposed than girls toward imitating aggression.’ Was this found to be true?

Results – qualitative

This is a selection of quotes from the participants:

· ‘Al’s a good socker, he beat up Bobo. I want to sock like Al.’

· ‘That man is a strong fighter, he punched and punched and he could hit Bobo right down to the floor.’

· ‘“Punch your nose.” He’s a good fighter like Daddy.’

Consider – Is this language children would use? Would there be any form of bias?

Conclusions

· The findings support the social learning theory.

· In other words, children learn social behaviours (both aggressive and non-aggressive) through observation learning (watching the behaviour of others)

Evaluation

Research method

Type of data

Ethical guidelines

Validity

Reliability

Sampling bias

Practical applications

Ethnocentrism

Questions

1. Explain how the developmental area would explain behaviour [3 marks]

2. Describe how individual differences in levels of aggression were controlled for in this study. [4 marks]

3. Identify the independent variables. [3 marks]

4. Identify the dependent variables [3 marks]

5. Outline how the behaviour of the model was manipulated. [2 marks]

6. In the first stage of the experiment by Bandura, Ross and Ross children were exposed to either an aggressive or non-aggressive model. Explain what happened in the second stage. [4 marks]

7. Outline two finding from this study. [2 marks]

8. Explain what these findings mean [2 marks]

9. Describe two ways in which the sex of the model influenced the childrens behaviour. (4 marks)

10. Outline one strength of the study [2 marks]

11. Outline one weakness [2 marks]

12. Identify the practical applications of this study [2 marks]