Wednesday, 15 May 2013

Unit 2 - Learning Approach Studies


Studies will vary due to teacher preferences so sorry if these studies are not helpful for you.

Watson and Raynor (1920) ‘Little Albert’

Aims:

-          To demonstrate that classical conditioning could be used to create a fear response in a child to an harmless stimulus
-          To prove that classical conditioning can be used to account for human behaviour

Procedure:

-          Lab experiment
-          One participant, male infant, nine months of age, Albert Little, known as being emotionally stable
-          Was assessed on responses to many objects such as a white rate (neutral stimulus) in which he displayed not fear
-          He was presented with the rat again two months later and when he reached for it the researchers struck a four foot metal bar (unconditioned stimulus) right behind his ear, which frightened him, this was repeated twice a week and twice more 17 days later.

Results:

-          Throughout the trials Albert went from being suspicious of the rat to having a fear of the rat

Conclusion:

-          Shows that it is possible to artificially induce emotional responses through classical conditioning
-          Little Albert was to be deconditioned but was later adopted and his adoptive mother refused.

Remember when evaluating this study to talk about how Watson and Raynor break ethical guidelines such as Protection of Participants and Informed Consent.

If you need any more help please leave a comment below.

Bandura (1961) ‘Imitation of Aggressive Models’


Aims:

-          To see whether aggression could be acquired through modelling
-          Whether children were more likely to imitate same sex role models

Procedure:

-         72 Children, 36 boys and 36 Girls
-         Two conditions 1= aggressive adult model 2= Non aggressive adult model (there was also a control group with no model)
-          Each child spent ten minutes with the model
-          Other toys were in the room other than the bobo doll
-          Matched pairs were used, children were matched for aggression (this was asked by nurses rather than parents to reduce bias)
-          Observation was used with a one way mirror
-          Qualative data was collected (Use this when evaluating)

Results:

-          Children observed in the aggressive model condition were significantly more aggressive and mimicked exactly the model’s behaviour.
-          The effect was greater in boys; however girls were more likely to imitate verbal aggression.

Conclusion:

-          Observers had a greater tendency to imitate same sex models
-          Observation and imitation can account for the learning of specific acts  without reinforcement of either the model or observer.

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