Social Cognitive Theory: Bandura's approach extends Behaviorism by suggesting that people are shaped by life experiences.
Vicarious Reinforcement: Learning through observation, not just rewards/punishment. If we see others rewarded, we imitate behavior to gain similar rewards.
Study Aims
Investigate if children learn aggressive behavior by observing adults.
Use the study to discuss social cognitive theory, ethics, and research methods.
Predictions
Children exposed to aggressive models will imitate aggressive acts.
Children are likely to imitate same-sex models more than opposite-sex models.
Procedure
Participants: 72 children (36 boys, 36 girls) aged 37-69 months, mean age 52 months.
Role Models: 1 male, 1 female.
Experimental Conditions:
Control group
Aggressive model exposure
Passive model exposure
Group Division: By gender and model's gender.
8 experimental conditions based on child and model gender, and model aggressiveness.
Pre-testing: Children rated on aggression in everyday behavior using 5-point scales.
Reliability: High inter-rater reliability (r = 0.89).
Stages of Experiment:
Stage 1: Child plays in a room; model shows aggression towards Bobo or behaves passively.
Stage 2: "Mild aggression arousal" with reserved toys.
Stage 3: Child plays in a room with aggressive and non-aggressive toys; behavior observed.
Observation Measures:
Imitative physical/verbal aggression
Non-imitative aggression
Results
Children exposed to aggressive models showed more aggression than those exposed to non-aggressive models.
Boys exhibited more aggression than girls.
Boys imitated male models more; girls showed physical aggression with male models but verbal with female models.
Gender effects were reversed in punching Bobo.
Evaluation
Design: Matched pairs design controlled for initial aggression levels.
Sample Limitations: Small size, all from Stanford community, limiting generalizability.
Ethical Concerns: Exposure to aggression, potential long-term psychological effects.
Ecological Validity: Artificial setting, not typical for children to be left alone with strangers, limiting real-world application.