8 pages in behavioral Psychology
Summer99
working2.docxA). Work up a 250-300 word abstract on the below experiments (the Bobo doll and the one I propose)
Utilizing the below references and three other scholarly sources, B). Introduce a brief overview of the topic on aggression in children between the Bobo doll experiment and my experiment, I would like to conduct an observational experiment in order to observe children playing with a bobo doll after watching cartoons such as The Power Rangers, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Last Air Bender to assess if the children would play more aggressively with the doll after watching the cartoons of karate type actions of the characters. I would have Utilize three groups also, however, I would choose a group of girls to watch the programs, a group of boys to watch the programs, and a mixed group of girls and boys as my control group that would watch programs such as The Care Bears, My Little Pony, and an educational program as well, on an animal population. My predictions would be that the children would still punch, hit, kick, and yell at the bobo doll that watched the aggressive programs while the children that did not would be much less inclined to participate in any form of violence that watched the control programs. It is a variation on Al Bandura’s experiment in that I would not utilize any adults to expose the children to violence but instead utilize favored children’s programs which already have the violence in the form of the children’s heroes doing the actual hitting, kicking, and yelling. 2 pages
C). Statement of the problem: an analysis of the components of the research question (why is this research question currently relevant within the field of social psychology?) a discussion of the important concepts contained within the research question; and an operational definition of the variables to be reviewed 2 pages.
D). A literature review summarizing the background information, with a focus on previous studies that addressed the question. 3 pages
(What I have that you can utilize within the above pages)
Al Bandura’s experiment with the bobo doll was an experiment that was utilized to find out if children learn aggression through observation from adult models. After exposing the children to two separate adults; one aggressive and the other non-aggressive, the children were placed in a room without the adults and were observed in order to conclude if they would emulate the behaviors they had witnessed with the adults. Bandura’s predictions were that the children that were with the aggressive adult would be more aggressive, even without the adult present. The children amongst the less aggressive adults would also be less aggressive, and that the children would be more likely to emulate women if they were girls and men if they were boys, no matter if they were aggressive or not. There were three groups of children, two witnessed aggressive and non-aggressive acts towards the doll while half saw a same sex adult, the other witnessed the opposite sex model and then there was a control group who witnessed no adult interaction. After being exasperated to help achieve the chance of aggression, the children were placed in a room with a one way mirror and observed for twenty minutes. The findings were close to Bandura’s predictions, the children exposed to the aggressive adults did imitate the behavior of the aggressive adults, physically and verbally, compared to the control group. Which was greater for the boys compared to the girls, though the girls were more verbally aggressive than he predicted.
(McLeod, 2011)
Research Question. Will children exposed to violent karate type programming be more inclined to become aggressive with a bob doll than children who are only exposed to Caring and soothing characters who teach children to care and share about the other children and their items of toys and such that they may play with.
Scholarly articles For Focus. I have found several articles which can help me focus my research on my own observational experiment. They are:
Bandura, A., Ross, D. & Ross, S.A. (1961). The original study which could help me structure my own experiment for optimal results. Drewes, A. A. (2008). Which will help me with some research into aggression and how I might apply it into my own experiment and final paper. McLeod, S. A. which will help me focus on the correct types of scenarios, experimental questions, and types of results I hope to achieve in a factual and structured format for my audience which will read my experiment.
Observational Investigation Outline. My own observational investigation would look something like this: My Abstract would outline my paper for my audience. My Introduction would allow me to inform my audience of my observational experiment question and any predictions I have as to how the experiment will turn out. I would then discuss the methods that I used to carry out the experiment as well as how I utilized the participants and the programs in my question. I would then move on to the results of my experiment along with any information that was utilized in the method as far as grouping of the participants and how they reacted. I would then provide my conclusions about the experiment and include any limitations that I could think of, and with that I would finish with any references that I had in helping me with my paper structure, information for my introduction, method, results, and conclusion.
Conclusion. The observational study that I will perform will coincide with Bandura’s 1961 experiment with the Bobo doll but it will also utilize more modern methods of aggression transmission to the children in order to decide if there is a correlation between children violent programming involving karate or not
Bandura, A., Ross, D. & Ross, S.A. (1961).Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63, 575-82.
Shuttleworth, M. (Mar 26, 2008). Bobo Doll Experiment. Retrieved Jan 26, 2015 from Explorable.com: https://explorable.com/bobo-doll-experiment
McLeod, S. A. (2011). Bobo Doll Experiment. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/bobo-doll.html
