VCAA Psychology How is scientific inquiry used to investigate mental processes and psychological functioning?

Social learning theory is a theory of learning where behaviours are learnt through observation of others' interaction with the environment.

The process of observational learning described by Bandura involves attention, which must be paid to the behaviour and the features of it recognised. Retention of a memory of the behaviour must occur. Reproduction of the behaviour relies on the capacity of the individual to be able to replicate it. Motivation is also needed in order to enhance the likelihood of a behaviour being reproduced, which is where they believe the behaviour will have a desirable result. Reinforcement increases motivation; this can be vicarious, by seeing someone else rewarded for the behaviour.

The aim of Bandura, Ross and Ross' (1961) study was to determine whether children could learn aggressive behaviours through observation. The participants were split into three conditions: one group observed adults attacking a Bobo doll, the second group observed adults playing in a calm way and ignoring the Bobo doll, and the third group were not exposed to a model. All the children were exposed to a mild aggression arousal stage where they were taken individually into a room with toys but were told that they were reserved for other children. The children were finally individually taken into a room with a choice of aggressive and non-aggressive toys and left for 20 minutes, with their behaviour observed and recorded. The findings were that children in the aggressive condition engaged in more aggressive behaviour than those in the non-aggressive or control conditions, and that children were more likely to imitate the behaviour when the model had been of the same gender.

Applying this to Nick, he paid attention to the behaviour of Nicholas the Destroyer in his video game. Nick remembered the behaviours in the game, retaining the memory. Nick had the physical capacity to replicate the behaviours. Nick was motivated by seeing the behaviour as positive in the game. Nick may have experienced reinforcement vicariously by seeing the character rewarded in the game.

Nick's behaviour changed but Stacy's did not because a behaviour is more likely to be repeated when the learner identifies with the model. Nick had the same gender and name as the character, making him more likely to identify with the character than Stacy.

The ethical guidelines and practices related to human participants in research include protection from harm, where researchers must protect participants from experiencing any physiological or psychological harm as a result of the research. Informed consent requires that participants must be made aware of the procedure and purpose of the research and give their consent to this. Withdrawal rights mean participants have the right to remove themselves from research at any time. Deception dictates that participants in research should not be misled about the purpose of an experiment unless absolutely necessary. Confidentiality requires that researchers should not supply any information gathered from participants to anyone else without the consent of the participants and must take steps to ensure this information is kept secure. Privacy means researchers must ensure that they refrain from unnecessary intrusion into the private lives of participants and collect only information that directly relates to the research. Voluntary participation ensures participants should only engage in the research of their own will and be free from any pressure or coercion. Debriefing means participants have the right to be fully informed about what has occurred in the research at its conclusion, including the results.

Ethical concerns associated with Bandura, Ross and Ross' experiment are that

• researchers failed to protect the children from harm, as the aim of the experiment was for the children to learn aggressive behaviours and the children were exposed to aggression in the experiment.
• researchers failed to maintain the participants' confidentiality, as the research was filmed and has been made publicly available.
• voluntary participation may also have been undermined by using students from a nursery school, as in a school setting it is likely that participants would feel pressured to participate.

The second, as it used manipulated variables and used a research design.

It does not use experimental methods, does not involve manipulation of variables, and does not establish groups for comparison.

It uses casual observations, does not follow a repeatable method, and does not involve formal logical reasoning.

The hypothesis should include:

• identify population
• manipulate independent variable
• state dependent variable
• state direction of dependent variable
• how dependent variable is measured

Any 2 of:

• Informed consent was breached as children cannot consent and no information was given before asking for consent.
• The role of the experimenter was breached as they could have caused harm by trying to make the children aggressive.
• Participants' rights were breached as the children did not have the right to withdraw or participate voluntarily.

• Identify a research issue or problem to investigate
• Formulate a hypothesis
• Choose a research design

Bert should ensure the magpies are the same ones that visit his yard each day.

Bert is looking for a change in friendship level, which is a subjective experience and will be difficult to measure in birds.

Bert will have to decide how he will conduct his study with regard to timeframes, feeding protocols, and how he will manage extraneous and confounding variables.

Bert will need to ensure that his procedure and data collection tool are likely to generate the same results under the same conditions.

There are low levels of validity.

This is because (any 2 of the following):

• there are significant differences between studies, resulting in low concurrent validity
• Bert wanted to compare magpie behaviour towards himself and a young female.
• Bert has not developed a sufficient theoretical basis for his research design, leading to low construct validity
• he will have difficulty drawing a conclusion.
• in a naturalistic setting, there is likely to be a high number of extraneous or confounding variables.