Bandura, Ross and Ross

Aim: To investigate whether exposure to a real life aggressive model increases aggression in children.

Procedure: The design was a lab experiment in which they used 72 children;36 boys and 36 girls aged between ages 3 and 5. The participants were divided into 8 experimental groups of 6 children, with the remaining 24 children forming the control group.

The children in the experimental groups watched an aggressive or non-aggressive role model of the same or opposite sex to themselves.

The children in all groups were matched for physical and verbal aggression from ratings made by the experimenter and a nursery school teacher.

The children were brought in individually into a room by the experimenter, who then invited the model to come in. The experimenter then left the room. The child could only watch the model and overheard the experimenter tell the model that it was 'their' play area and that the child had no access…