Albert Bandura Theory

Bandera believed that behavior could be shaped through observing and imitating behavior. He hypothesized that nonaggressive models would have a less violent effect on the kids (vice versa for aggressive models), women models would have a greater effect on the girl kids (same with men and boys), and boys in general would be more violent than girls. In this study, his main goal was to discover whether imitative learning would generalize to settings in which the bobo doll was not present with the child. Bandera used 36 girls and 36 boys (aged 3-6), which he split into three groups, one control group, one group seeing aggressive models, and the final group watching the nonaggressive models.

Many children are victims of violence; this violence may be physical, or emotional, direct or indirect. In certain situations, the child’s experience

The room was also equipped with a one-way window so the child could be observed without their acknowledgement. The experiment showed that the consequences in the films that the children observed in the ending, created a different outcome. The children who witnessed the film were the adult was rewarded was most likely to repeat or imitate the aggressive behavior toward the Bobo doll. In the situation of the other children who watched the adult being punished for their aggressive behavior, the children were less likely to recreate the aggressive behavior towards the Bobo doll. After the findings Bandura added to the experiment. The children who watched any of the three films were asked to recreate what the adult did in the film. Each imitation the child recreated correctly, they were rewarded with candy and stickers. Virtually all the children were capable of recreating all actions, aggressive or non-aggressive. The different variations of the films the children watched had no impact on them. In conclusion to Bandura’s experiment, you are capable of imitating any behavior, aggressive or non-aggressive, but you are more likely to imitate if there is expectation of any type of reward.

Throughout this course, we have explored a vast amount of theories, however, Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory (SLT) has been the one that intrigued me the most. Bandura’s SLT “strongly emphasized the importance of observational learning and cognitive variables in explaining human behavior (Powell, Honey, & Symbaluk 2017).” According to our readings Bandura agrees with the behaviorist learning theories of classical and operant conditioning, he proposes that the SLT is a result of both person and situation, which does not have the same effect from either component on their own (Powell, Honey, & Symbaluk 2017). One of his most well-known studies involves a bobo doll. In which Bandura demonstrates that when someone observes violent behavior it increases the chances of violence of the spectator, and

Violent media has been proven time and time again over the past 60 years to cause increased aggression in children and young adults. The long term and short term exposure to violent media has been shown to cause “increased feelings of hostility, expectations that others will behave aggressively, desensitization to the pain of others, and increased likelihood of interacting and responding to others with violence” (Committee on Public Education). One of the most famous experiments done on the subject was done in 1961 by the psychologist Albert Bandura at Stanford University. In this experiment children between the ages of three and six were put in a playroom containing a many activities and toys (Cherry). One of those toys was a bobo doll; a 5 foot tall inflatable doll. An adult would enter and either play with the child from a complete ten minutes, the control group, or at some point during those ten minutes begin beating up the doll, the experimental group. They would also say things such as “pow” and “he keeps coming back for more” while attacking it (Cherry).

The experiment found that the children, who were exposed to adults acting aggressively towards a doll, were largely inclined to also behave violently towards the doll, compared to those who were not exposed to adult violence (Demers,2011). According to Bandura, children learn behaviour by repeating what they see adults do (Conradie and Golding, 2013). Ridgway himself grew up in a dysfunctional home environment, where he witnessed and was subjected to both physical and emotional abuse from his mother (Hickey, 2010:24). According to the social learning theory, as Ridgway had observed “faulty behaviour” (Weatherby, 2009:5) exhibited by his mother, he himself would be more likely to demonstrate the same sort of violent behaviour. Additionally, the social learning theory may also give us an insight into why Ridgway targeted prostitutes, perhaps prostitutes were his objects of hate because they symbolized his

Violent Media: Young Minds being Affected In today's society the media is very influential on children. Children at a young age are learning so many different things, for instance violence. When children are watching very mature content they learn about violence and become very aggressive.

Bandura’s findings and his social learning theory help explain this correlation. The American Academy of Pediatrics decided to explore if this correlation can be scientifically exhibited in research studies. They discovered that media does indeed influence children because of the ideas founded by Bandura’s theory. A child can learn aggressive behaviors by imitating others, including those who are portrayed in the media. This is because children younger than eight years have difficulty being able to distinguish reality from fantasy (Media Violence, 2009).

There are three core concepts in social learning, first learning through observation, mental state is essential part of the process and the theory also recognises that just because something is learnt doesn’t mean it will result in a change in behaviour.(cited in Burns 1995)Positive reinforcement is far more effective than negative reinforcement. Bandura believed that observation and direct reinforcement could

Practically since the beginning of television many, parents, teachers, legislators and mental health professionals have desired to grasp the impact of television programs, mainly on children. Mainly on the concern has been the portrayal of violence, predominantly given by psychologist Albert Bandura's work in the 1970s on social learning and the tendency of children to imitate what they see. In general,” the more aggressive the people or films that children observe, the more aggressive the children act. Learning by watching and imitating others, rather than through one's own personal experiences, is called social learning. Later research has shown that viewing violent acts on TV and in the movies affects people in other negative ways: (1) It

Considering Albert Bandura’s findings, explain whether you think childhood exposure to violent media is problematic and why you hold that opinion.

Albert Bandura (1977), the originator of social learning theory, focused his research on the process of how people learn through observation. Social Learning stems from a cognitive and behavioral theory model. This is demonstrated through the well-known Bobo Doll experiment. The experiment entailed a child observing an adult being aggressive towards the Bobo Doll (Pavlov et al., 1961). The results indicated that children imitated the observed behaviors of being aggressive towards the doll (Pavlov et al., 1961).

Albert Bandura, a 20th century American pszchologist, proposed a very important and probably the most influential theory of development and learning. He believed that: “Most human behaviour is learned observationally through modelling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviours are performed, and on later occasions

Children view violence in different ways when they watch it on television, whether it is cartoons or a type of drama and action programming. After children have watched these television shows, they may have interpreted the meaning into a negative behavior. It could influence them by becoming aggressive, afraid of the world that surrounds them, or it may lead to confusion. When it is said that children may become confused because their parents teach that violence is wrong. When they view someone in a “superhero” position participating in violence, they may see that as it is all right for the simple fact the good person does the action. According to the American Academy of Children and Adolescent Psychiatry, “the impact of TV violence may be immediately evident in the child's behavior or may surface years later (AACAP, 2011).”

In the book Critique of Violence ,author Walter describes Violence as "The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, male development, or deprivation .The violence that is portrayed in the media has been debated for decades ,and it has rose a question about how does it influence the youth?. From movies to video games society has been accustom to seeing violence in their everyday entertainment. Since children are easy to be influence by their environment, it is safe to say that violence in the media can and will contribute to violent behavior.