Bandura et al. (1961): Transmission of Aggression Through Imitation of Aggressive Models

Social Cognitive Theory: Supporting research

Reference: Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1961). Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63(3), 575

Albert Bandura was a Canadian-American psychologist, who contributed to several fields of Psychology. According to a 2002 survey Bandura was the fourth most cited psychologist of all time based on journal citations and introductory psychology textbook citations. He is most famous for his Social Learning Theory (later renamed Social Cognitive Theory) and research into observational learning of aggression. He was awarded the most prestigious science award for science in the US, the National Medal of Science, in 2016.

Transmission of Aggression Through Imitation of Aggressive Models

Bandura et al. published one of the most famous pieces of research in Psychology in 1961 on imitation of aggression in children. Prior to this research it was known that children readily imitated the aggressive behaviour of adult models in the presence of a model, but it was unclear as to whether children would also imitate behaviour when the model was absent.

Aims: Bandura et al.´s main aim was to see whether the aggressive behaviour exhibited by an adult model would be imitated by a child when the model was no longer present. They also wanted to see whether a non-aggressive adult model would have an inhibiting effect on a child´s later behaviour (in terms of aggression) and whether children would be more likely to imitate a same-sex model, than a model of the opposite sex.

Participants: 36 girls and 36 boys from Stanford University nursery, aged between 37-69 months (mean age: 52 months).

Experimental Design: There were eight experimental groups and one control group of 24 children. Half of the experimental groups viewed an aggressive model, while half viewed a non-aggressive model. Within these groups, half viewed a same-sex model and half viewed an opposite sex model. The conditions were as follows:

To ensure that the participants´ base levels of aggression were similar in each of the three main conditions, the children were rated on their prior aggression levels by a nursery school teacher and the experimenter on four five-point rating scales based on physical aggression, verbal aggression, aggression towards inanimate objects and inhibition of aggression and put into triplets. These same-sex triplets were then distributed across the three conditions.

Procedure: The participant was taken into an experimental room by the experimenter and shown how to create potato prints on paper. A model was then brought into the room in the experimental conditions. In the room there was a small table and chair, a tinker toy set, a mallet and a large inflated ´Bobo doll´. In the non-aggressive condition the model just played with the tinker toys quietly for ten minutes. However, in the aggressive condition the model spent one minute playing with the tinker toys before spending a further nine minutes behaving aggressively towards the Bobo doll. The model sat on the doll, punched it in the nose repeatedly, hit it with the mallet, threw it in the air and kicked it around the room. While performing these actions, the model also made verbally aggressive comments such as ¨Sock him in the nose¨, ¨Kick him¨, etc. as well as two neutral comments, such as ¨He sure is a tough fella!¨

Aggression arousal: All participants were then subjected to a mild aggression arousal situation to ensure they were primed for aggression in a similar way. They were taken into a second room with many attractive toys and allowed to play. As soon as they were engaged in play, the experimenter came into the room and told the child that these were the very best toys and for other children to play with. The child was then taken to the final experimental room feeling frustrated.

Test for delayed imitation: The final room included a wide variety of toys, including another Bobo doll and mallet. The toys were always placed in the same location for each trial. The participants were then allowed to play for 20 minutes whilst they were observed through a one-way mirror every 5 seconds using an observational checklist with fixed categories. For half of the trials there were two observers and their reliability for scoring the same was in the .90s.

Response categories:

1. Imitation of physical aggression: imitating the model´s aggressive actions.

2. Imitation of verbal aggression: repeating the model´s aggressive phrases.

3. Imitation of non-aggressive verbal responses: repeating the model´s non-aggressive phrases.

4. Mallet aggression: uses mallet aggressively on objects other than the Bobo doll.

5. Sits on Bobo Doll: sits on the doll but with no aggression.

Three non-imitative categories were also used:

1. Punches the Bobo Doll: punches the doll in a way in which the model did not.

2. Non-imitative verbal or physical aggression: exhibits aggressive behaviours which the model did not display.

3. Aggressive gun play: uses darts or a toy gun aggressively.

The number of non-aggressive behaviours, such as colouring in quietly, were also recorded.

Results

Complete imitation: Participants in the aggressive conditions were significantly likely to imitate the verbal and physical aggression of the adult model. One-third of participants in the aggressive condition also imitated the model´s non-aggressive remarks.

Partial imitation of model´s behaviour: Participants in the aggressive condition were significantly more likely to use the mallet aggressively in contexts other than the Bobo doll. This effect was more pronounced for girls.

Non-imitative aggression: Participants exposed to the aggressive model showed higher levels of aggressive behaviour overall.

Influence of sex of model: Boys were more likely to imitate physical aggression overall, especially if the model was male, while girls were more likely to imitate verbal aggression if the model was female, as well as show more non-imitative aggression. The male non-aggressive model also had a greater influence over the participants´ behaviour than the female non-aggressive model.

Non-aggressive behaviour: Participants in the non-aggressive condition spent more time playing gently with dolls than the other two conditions. They also spent twice as much time sitting quietly without engaging with any toys as the aggressive condition.

Conclusion: Children who view an aggressive adult are likely to reproduce the aggressive physical and verbal behaviours of the adult at a later point when the adult is no longer present. This effect is more pronounced when the adult model is of the same-sex as the child, with boys being more likely to imitate a male model than girls a female. Exposure to a non-aggressive model also has an inhibitory effect on a child´s later behaviour, as it decreases the probability of later aggressive behaviour even further.

Think! How does this research support social cognitive theory? What were the methodological strengths of this research? What are the real life implications, or possible applications, of the study´s findings?