Complete Study notes summary on Cambridge A-Levels Psychology chapter 4: learning approach. This includes studies such as: - Bandura et al. - Saavedra & Silverman - Pepperberg
Personally found this super helpful for my exams, and I got A* for A2 Psychology.
Learning Approach
● How people receive, process, and retail knowledge during learning
Bandura et al. (aggression) (1961)
Background
● Social learning is the concept of learning a new behavior by observing a role
model and imitates later in the absence of that model
● Children copy adults
● Assumptions
○ Boys and girls should be more likely to imitate same-sex models
○ They should differ in the readiness with imitating aggression, with boys
doing so more readily as this is seen as a more masculine-type behavior
(the experiment was done during the 1960s, more possible gender
stereotypes)
Aim
● To investigate whether a child would learn aggression by observing a model and
reproduce this behavior in the absence of the model
● To find out whether the model’s gender affected the result
Hypothesis
1. Observed aggressive behavior will be imitated, so children seeing aggressive
models will be more aggressive than those seeing a non-aggressive model or no
model
2. Observed non-aggressive behavior will be imitated, so children seeing
non-aggressive models will be less aggressive than those seeing no model
3. Children are more likely to copy a same-sex model
4. Boys will be more likely to copy aggression than girls
Method
● Laboratory experiment
○ Laboratory setting
○ Fully controlled
, ● Independent group design
○ Split into separate levels of the IV
○ Underwent different experimental conditions (either having an aggressive,
non-aggressive or no model)
● Involved matched pairs
○ As children were matched based on their previously rated levels of
aggression
Independent variables
● Model types
○ Aggressive / non-aggressive / no model
● Model gender
○ Same gender as child / different gender
● Learner gender
○ Whether the child was a boy or a girl
Dependent variables
● The behavior (learning) displayed by the children
○ Measured by controlled observation and recorded
Sample
● 72 children
○ Mean age 4.3
○ 36 girls and boys each
○ Opportunity sampling
○ From same university nursery
, Procedure
● Prior to the study, the experimenter and the children’s teacher observed them in
their nursery to rate each child’s level of aggression
○ 5 point scale, based on:
■ Physical aggression
■ Verbal aggression
■ Aggression to inanimate objects
■ Aggression inhibition (anxiety)
● High inter-rater reliability between their ratings
○ r=0.89 (high correlation)
● The children were split into 3 main groups: (each matched in aggression level)
○ With aggressive model (24)
■ Female model - 6 girls 6 boys
■ Male model - 6 girls 6 boys
○ With non-aggressive (24)
■ Female model - 6 girls 6 boys
■ Male model - 6 girls 6 boys
○ Control group (with no model) (24)
● Stage 1: observation room
○ 10 mins in room
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