Key Study: Bandura, Ross & Ross (1961)
Aim: To investigate observational learning in children when confronted with an aggressive adult role model
Participants: 72 children (mean age = 4 years, 36 males and 36 females) who attended Stanford University day nursery in California, USA. The children had been rated as to their level of aggression by nursery staff to produce a matched pairs design to ensure that there were equal numbers of same-level aggressive children across in each condition
Procedure: The procedure consisted of three distinct phases:
- Phase 1: each child was taken to an experimental room where they observed either an aggressive or a non-aggressive adult or no adult at all (see conditions below). Each session lasted around 10 minutes. The aggressive condition involved the model performing distinctive aggressive behaviours towards a Bobo doll (a large doll that swings on a weighted base) repeated 3 times (this was done to measure direct imitation) e.g. punching, kicking etc.
- Phase 2: the child was then taken to a room full of attractive toys. They were then told that the toys were meant for another child and that they had to leave the room
- Phase 3: The child was then taken to a third room filled with aggressive and non‐aggressive toys, including a Bobo doll where they were left to play for 20 minutes while the researchers observed them from behind a one-way mirror. Specific examples of physical and verbal aggression were measured by the observers (direct imitation plus generalised non-imitative aggressive behaviour)
There were 3 conditions to the experiment:
- Aggressive model – the model behaved aggressively towards the Bobo doll
- Non‐aggressive model – the model behaved in a non-aggressive way
- Control group - no model was present
There was an equal number of times in which a same sex model or opposite sex model was observed per condition
Results: Children in the aggressive condition produced more directly imitative acts of aggression towards the Bobo doll e.g. punching, kicking, hitting it with a toy hammer.
This imitation was not seen in the non-aggressive or control conditions.
There was more same-sex imitation of aggressive behaviour and boys overall showed more physical aggression than girls
Conclusion: Aggression can be the result of observational learning experienced in one setting and carried over to a different setting
Evaluation of Bandura, Ross & Ross (1961)
Strengths
- The use of a matched pairs design controlled for the potential confounding variable of individual differences in aggression
- The findings of this study highlighted the importance of children’s TV viewing being restricted to content suitable for their age as it was thought that watching violence on TV might encourage further imitative violence in real-life situations
Weaknesses
- Children observe violent, aggressive behaviour in natural settings, often involving adults they know well which makes this procedure lack ecological validity
- There are ethical considerations which were not adhered to when this study was conducted – particularly protection of participants from harm – which means that the procedure could not be replicated today
Key terms:
- Observational learning
- Role models
- Matched pairs design