Bobo Doll Studies

Albert Bandura created the bobo doll experiment in 1961, the aim of this experiment was to show that if children where witnesses to aggressive displays by an adult of some sort they would imitate this behaviour when given an opportunity. The tested group contained 36 young girls and 36 young boys all aged between 4 and 5 years which was then divided into 3 groups of 24 – the aggressive condition, the non aggressive condition and the control group. The first group involved the children watching aggressive models, where the children where then subdivided by sex of the role model they were exposed to. The second group

Bandura suggested children learn from watching adults – referred to as ‘Bobo doll experiment’. Three groups of children watched a film of a variation in behaviour in adults towards a doll.

A consistent approach to behaviour helps pupils learn right from wrong and to appreciate that rules exist for the good of everyone.

Another point, perhaps the weakest of the study, is methodological shortcomings. Inflated Bobo doll, is primarily designed to be hit down and bounce back up, so basically its purpose is being hit, therefore when the children hit the doll, it didn’t necessarily mean that they were imitating their role models. This contradictory argument is supported by Kniverton and Stephenson found in 1970. On the other hand, bearing all these limitations in mind, “we can deduce that the role model did indeed have a genuine effect on the child’s observed reaction and imitation because all variables other than the independent variable were well and tightly controlled.” This finding is really useful, not purely because it supports the theory of learning through observation, but mainly it demonstrates usefulness of explaining real world situations, such as the influence of TV and actors on children (this is also applicable to further development of social cognitive theory). Probably the biggest strength of this theory is its high face validity. The idea that children would imitate other’s behaviour is highly probable, because we see it every day. But although there are some really strong supporting arguments, that children actually imitate the behaviour, it

​Walk into any home with toddlers, and you will no doubt be able to tell whether the child is a boy or a girl by a quick peek into the playroom. Trucks, trains, planes, and baseballs will scream boy; while a room full of pink and frilly dolls and stuffed animals have little girl written all over it. Judith Elaine Blakemore, professor of psychology and associate dean of Arts and Sciences for Faculty Development at Indiana University and Jeffrey Trawick-Smith, professor at Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, Connecticut, did a research study about the impact of specific toys on play. They found that,

Children model their own behaviour on others and if adults can effectively communicate and exchange age or developmental appropriate information with children this can encourage them to behave in acceptable ways. Frustration at their own inability to communicate effectively can lead to behavioural problems.

In the first stage of the experiment, children were brought to the experimental room by the controller and the model, who was in the hallway outside the room and was invited to come in and join in the game. The room was set up for playing and the activities were selected because they had high interest for nursery school children. One area was arranged was a child’s play area, where there was a table and chair, potato prints and stickers. After settling the child in its corner the adult model was brought to the other side of the room where there was a small table, chair, tinker-toy set, a mallet and a big inflatable Bobo doll. After the model was seated the experimenter left the experimental room (Diessner, 2008).

The Bobo Doll Experiment was a study on aggression conducted by Albert Bandura at Stanford University in 1961 because there was a lot of debate about whether a child’s social development was due to genetics, environment factors, or social learning from others around them. The purpose of the study was to give credit to Bandura’s claim that children behavior can be acquired by observation and imitation of a trusted adult role model. The experiment was performed by a team of researchers who physically and verbally mistreated a 3- and 5-foot painted cartoon clown doll, that is designed to sit back upright when knocked down, in front of preschool-age children, which led the children to later copy the behavior of the adults by attacking the doll in the same fashion.

Children need to know that not all people will be kind to them, but not all people will bring harm to them either. They need to know that it is okay to speak up, and if someone is making them do something that they are not comfortable with, they need the confidence to say no.

and the other children. Children are quick to imitate the aggression when the object is a doll,

The types of toys children play with can affect how they develop. Toys can help or hinder a child’s development in intelligence, social skills and personality. Certain characteristics may be genetically entwined in a human being, but some characteristics and behaviors can be learned, from parents, surroundings, and the toys with which a youngster plays. Elise Moore, author of “How Do Toys Aid Development”, stated “if play is the work of the child, toys are the child’s tools” (Moore, 2).

How did the abstained infant affect the result in data collected? And was there any difference in data compared to the studies reported prior to this? Future research that might be needed to complete to answer these question is the need to use living persons rather than puppets. Or the use of cartoon shows and video games to see how infant choices are affected. The finding of this topic is fundamental to understanding how parent babies are influenced in the environment. Just like the Bobo Doll experiment, it is important that parents know that children are born to choose positive behavior over negative ones and that the environment is what influences future behavior. Education can further tech children to imitate good behavior via third party action while reinforcing the good behavior and punishing the unwanted

Bandura started a research with Dorrie and Sheila Ross on children toward inflatable plastic Bobo doll in 1961. The research is named The Bobo Doll Experiment. 72 children from preschool were selected and three conditions were applied in this experiment. 24 children were allocated to one of the three conditions. Besides, half of the children in same condition were been exposed to same sex models, and the other half observed the models with opposite

The Bobo Doll was an inflatable toy, that resembles the average size of a young child. The doll, was weighted on the bottom, holding it in an upright position, so that when knocked over it would return to an

In the Bobo Doll experiment conducted by Albert Bandura, researchers were interested in testing children’s behavior in response to their exposure to violence. This study was constructed with 72 children, 36 boys and 36 girls from Stanford University Nursery School. Before the study began, each child was individually scored on his or her level of aggression towards others, as rated by the experimenter and the child’s teacher. Then the children were separated into groups based on a similar score of aggression. The children were separated into three groups of 24 children. The three groups allowed the experimenter to create the conditions used to test the children’s response to violence, which was the independent variable, as it affects the children’s aggressive behavior, the dependent variable. The first group of subjects was the aggressive model group, where the subjects were presented in a