Evaluation and Criticism of Bandura's Social Learning Theory
Studies who show children imitate violent behaviour seen on television are consistent with social learning theory.
Anderson and Gill carried out two experiments.
The first showed that young men who are usually aggressive may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of repeated exposure to violent games. It was found that students who reported playing more violent video games in school engaged in more aggressive behaviour.
The second showed that everybody can become temporarily more aggressive after even a brief exposure to violent games. In the first study 227 college students were asked to rate their level of aggression. In the second study, 210 college students played either a violent (Manhunt) or non-violent video game (Myst). A short time later, the students who played the violent video were found to be more aggressive than those who had played the non-violent game. This was measured experimentally by recording the length of time the volunteers "punished" an opponent.
I have replicated Eron et al’s study in which young children were measured on their aggression levels.
Abstract
The main aim of my experiment was to see if the participant’s aggression levels (as shown by the questionnaire) it would correlate with their film preference. If the participant scored high on their questionnaire, it could be assumed that their film preference would fall in the violent section. An opportunistic sample was taken, as a student walked past us in the college corridor they were asked if they would like to participate in out study, approximately 20 people were asked with 2 students declining. Closed questionnaire method was used. The participants of the study were all Havering Sixth Form students aged 16-19. To resolve gender generalisation problems, 9 boys and 9 girls were used. I found that a person’s aggression level does actually reflect whether they would enjoy a violent film more, perhaps due to a hostile nature. It could therefore be concluded that the average student aged 16-19, if of an aggressive nature; they would prefer to watch a violent/aggressive film.
Aims/Hypothesis formulation
Eron (1982), Huesman, and Lagerspit measured the amount of television watched as well as levels of aggression in young children. The same individuals were measured again some years later.
They found that amount of television watched correlated to the amount of convictions that the individuals had received by the age of 30. This could suggest that television caused aggression.
However, it could also suggest that certain income groups with limited opportunities for recreation were also more likely to be involved in crime. There was also evidence which suggested that children who were aggressive tended to watch violent programs later on in life. This suggests that aggressive children will watch violent programs, rather than violent programs make individuals aggressive.
Method
Design
The method I am going to used is a closed questionnaire. I will be using two questionnaires in order to get my results. One advantage of a closed questionnaire is that a lot of data can be collected in a short time, it gives quantative data which can be difficult to analyse thus taking a long time to do so. I am going to use a correlation design as this allows for a direct link between both questionnaires. My co-variables will be levels of aggression and violent film preference.
Procedural Controls
In order for participants not to feel under pressure or lie on their questionnaire, they were allowed to take the questionnaire to complete in their own time; however this had to be handed in the next day.
Ethical Controls
The ethical procedures I used were Informed Consent and Debriefing, participants were approached randomly the psychology block corridor and asked if they minded taking part in the study. The questionnaire was explained fully to them and they were also notified that all of their results would remain confidential. In addition to this no names were to be used.
Apparatus/Materials
The only apparatus I used were stationary equipment and the use of Microsoft word and excel for the statistical graphs. Two questionnaires were used, one measured aggression score and the other film preference. An example of this is shown in the appendix.
Sample
My target population are students attending Havering Sixth Form college aged 16-19. The sampling method I used was research design methods. 9 males and 9 females were used in order to combat gender bias.
Procedure
Participants did not complete the questionnaire on the spot, they were allowed to take it home to complete in their own time. I added up the scores of the questions from 18 participants, they had to answer 20 questions then choose from the 18 films which they enjoyed best, if they answered “A” then they would receive 1 point for low-aggression, if they answered “B” then they would receive 5 points for high-aggression, finally if they answered “C” then they would get 2 points for mid-aggression. After collection the results I then moved on to the film preference. Films were divided into categories of aggressive and non aggressive. Films were divided into sub-categories of whether they approved – very strongly, strongly, moderately, weakly and very weakly. For example if the selected “Saw” and very strongly approved, they would score a 5 for aggression, scoring system was reversed for the non aggressive films e.g. “Finding Nemo” if they very strongly approved of this they would score 1 for aggression. Researchers in the group were James Bates, Gillian Wright and I.
Discussion
Results
As the graph shows, in most cases as the participant’s questionnaire aggression score rises, the film preference tends to rise also in terms of aggression; there are some cases in which the two lines cross. An explanation of this would be that the person’s aggression score may not actually affect the types of film.
Spearman’s Rank Correlation Test
The spearman’s rank correlation test showed that I could accept my hypothesis and reject the null hypothesis.