- S – Bandura, Ross & Ross (1961) – children do copy aggression, vicarious reinforcement, watched an adult play aggressively with a Bobo doll, child would also repeat the same thing as the role model was not punished – children learn through observation
- S – Boesch (1991) – chimp mothers actively teach their young how to open nuts with stone tools – chimps can learn through observation
- S – Johnson (2002) – those who watch more than 3 hours of TV at 14 commit 5 times as many aggressive acts at age 16 or 22 – children may imitate aggression seen on TV through observation
- S – Boyatzis (1995) – increase in violent play immediately after children watched Power Rangers – children may imitate aggression seen on TV through observation
- C – difficult to test for observational learning – behaviour is often not exhibited immediately – may be imitated a while after the learning has taken place
- C – does not account for individual differences – does not explain why some children who have seen violent media never copy it – maybe some people are naturally more aggressive, cannot conclude fully that it is the exposure to violence that causes this behaviour
- C – correlations – cannot establish cause and effect – may be other factors affecting the imitation of the behaviour such as an aggressive nature
- D – different explanations – biological approach explains aggression in terms of brain differences and neurotransmitters/hormones – nature also plays a role
- A – real life applications – therapy – treatments for OCD with the use of role models
- A – real life applications – media violence might be contributing in some degree to violence in society – watershed and age certificates on films and video games
- + – ‘cycle of violence’ – if you have been the victim of physical abuse as a child, you are more likely to be an abusive parent than if you haven’t – increases the chance that you will be abusive in later life
- + – evidence from real life – people imitating aggressive acts seen in media – Columbine High School massacre, two students influenced by violent video games
