Aim: Investigate imitation of agression based on principles of social learning theory
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Hypotheses
Hypotheses
Children expose dto agressive adult, will behave agressive in the absence of model
Children exposed to non agressive model, will show less agressive behaviour
Children imitate same-sex model more
Boys more predisposed to imtate agressive model than girls
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Participants
Participants
72 children between 37 months and 69 months
All attend stanford univeristy
Equal numbers of boys and girls
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Method
Method
Lab experiment
Children exposed to: agressive model of same sex, agressive model of oppposite sex, non agressive model of same sex, non agressive model of opposite sex, no model
IV: sex of child, sex of model, behaviour of medl
DV: behaviour of the child
Experiment in 3 stages:
children exposed to adult models
Mild agression aroused as children seen attractive toys but told they could not play with them
Observation of delayed imitation = obsevers measured the: imitative physics agression, imitative verbal agression and responses
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Results
Results
Agressive model group = reproduced a lot of physical agresion while non agressive condtion showed non of this behaviour
Children in agressive condition = copied models non-agressive verbal responses
Children more likely to imitate same sex model
Children shocked at final role model showing physical and verbal agression
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Conclusions
Conclusions
Supports ideas of social learning theory as children imitate behaviour of others with the absence of reward or reinforcement
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Evaluation
Evaluation
Strengths
establishes cause and effect relationship
precise control of vairables
standardized = increases replicability
Limitations
low in ecological validity
Unethical
Sample bias = university of stanford nursery, mostly upper middle class white children attended
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