Dr. Bandura 's Hypothesis

Albert Bandura’s results of the experiment sustained three of the four original predictions that were made. The first being that the children who were exposed to the aggressive model had the exact behavior they had observed when the adult was no longer in sight. Second, Bandura also foresaw that experimental children in the non-aggressive group would behave much less aggressive than those who were exposed to aggression. The results of the experiment indicated that while children of both genders in the non-aggressive group did exhibit less aggression than the control group, boys who had observed an opposite-sex model behave non-aggressively were more likely than those in the control group to engage in

Behaviorists argue that people are not born with a violent disposition; rather they learn to think and act violently as a result of their everyday experiences (Bandura, 1977). Albert Bandura (1977) states behavior is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning. This popular behavioral notion is known as the social learning theory. Bandura believes that humans are active information processors and think about the relationship between their behavior and its consequences. Studies of family life, for example, show that aggressive children often model the violent behaviors of their parents. In 1961, Bandura conducted the famous bobo doll experiment in which children observed the people around them behaving in various ways. The experiment involved exposing children to two different adult models; an aggressive model and a non-aggressive one. After observing the adults and their aggressive or non-aggressive behavior, the children were later allowed to play in a room with the Bobo doll by themselves. When they played with the doll by themselves, alone in a room, they began to imitate the actions they had previously observed by the adults. The children who had observed the adults aggressively playing with the doll imitated a similar aggressive behavior while playing with the doll alone. Those who observed the

By watching the video about Dr. Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment, it is clear that his hypothesis was that children who see aggressive behavior tend to be aggressive, while children who do not see aggressive behavior will probably not show an aggressive behavior (Research Methods Presentation). Bandura’s hypothesis was that “children can learn about aggressive behaviors by observing the action of others” (Durkin, 1995, pp. 405-406).

How much we do and feel are learned from other people. Albert Bandura researches further on how watching others influences our behavior. Bandura choice to study Aggression; watching violence reduces aggression. To figure out if it was true or not, Bandura experimented on young children ages 3-5 years old. This experiment was called the Bobo Doll Experiment; demonstrating how children learn through observation and imitation. The study showed that the young children imitated everything they had seen by the adult which they were kicking, hitting, and hammering it. In his study, what was most interesting is when the child imitated the adult of the same sex. Basically, the results of Bandura is based on what the children saw, is what they did.

4. How did your findings compare with other researchers? Mostly everybody’s findings were the same.

Psychologist Albert Bandura (1961) conducted an experiment studying children’s behaviour through Social Learning Theory, observational learning or modelling; He did this using a ‘BoBo doll’. The children were taken into a room with either an adult male or adult female role model and shown the bobo doll. The role model would then show aggression to the doll by punching it or knocking it down. Then the children were allowed to play with the doll.

Albert Bandura’s aim for this experiment was to do with how children perceive behaviour and how they may be influenced into recreating it. He wanted to show that when children witness aggressive behaviour, they would then imitate it when given the chance.

In 1961 Albert Bandura and two of his colleagues set out to find empirical evidence to support his Social Learning Theory, which is the "theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded and punished.” (Myers 162) The “Transmission of Aggression Through Imitation of Aggressive Models,” is more famously known as the Bobo doll study. The Bobo doll study tested children's susceptibility to aggressive tendencies by exposing them to adult models who exhibited aggressive behaviors and observing how the child expressed frustration later on away from the adult model.

How did you select this research study to analyze? That is, what search terms did you use? What database did you use? What was your rationale for selecting this particular study to analyze over the others identified in the search results? What is the full reference for the study in APA format?

Bandura preformed the experiment to prove that behaviors were learned through social imitation and copying, not through genetic factors. He was trying to prove that a child’s behavior would be learned from copying an adult’s behavior. The actual Bobo Doll was an inflatable toy that was five feet tall and it was supposed to come back up after being knocked over. Children were tested, because they have not learned as much on the rules of society. The children were between 3 to 6 years old. He his proposals were that children that see an adult in an aggressive behavior would be likely to react the same way, children that see an adult in a non-aggressive behavior would be more likely to act non-aggressive, children will copy the behaviors of the adult, and male children would be more aggressive than female children. To test the theory that boys would be more aggressive than females, he picked 34 females and 34 males. The control group consisted of 12 females and 12 males and would not be exposed to an adult. The second group, was exposed to the adults with aggressive behaviors. The third group was exposed to an adult with passive behaviors. To test the theory, a child was placed in a room with an adult with toys. The adults then attacked, verbally and physically, the toys in group 2. The third group’s adults peacefully played with the toys. The control group had no adult in the room present. After completing this part of the experiment, the students moved to another room filled with toys. The children were told they were not allowed to play with the toys, which was supposed to make the child angry. Results for the experiment include: the children exposed to adults with aggressive behaviors acted more violently, the boys also had more of an aggressive behavior, the children exposed to adults with non-aggressive behavior acted less violently. Based on the findings, the experiment proves that behaviors

The social learning theory was developed by psychologist, Albert Bandura in 1977. According to Bandura (2006) “the massive threats to human welfare are generally brought on by deliberate acts of principle rather than by unrestrained acts of impulse” (Bandura, 2006). Unlike theories by behaviorist such as Miller and Dollard (1941) and Skinner (1938), Bandura’s (1977) theory emphasized that behavior was influenced by environmental factors as well as psychological and cognitive factors (Wanberg, Timken, and Milkman, 2010). Research by Amir Abbassi and Dan Aslinia (2010) stated that “social learning theory is based on several assumptions which include vicariously learning aggression through observing” (Abbassi and Aslinia, 2010). The theory states that behavior is learned through the observation of others as through the direct experience of rewards and punishments (Fein, Kassin, and Markus, 2011). The general principle of the social learning theory declares that individuals can learn by observing the behavior of others and the outcomes of those behaviors (Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, 2012). Similarly, concluding from Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment (1961), Paul Levitt wrote individuals learn by observing others then replicating or modeling their behavior; “In short we imitate or become them by observational or vicarious learning; the

According to Bandura, Ross, & Ross (1961) aggression is cause from reward and punishment but yet through modeling and learning the behavior. To prove this, they set up an experiment to test aggression with a bobo doll. The researchers tested 72 children from ages 37 to 69 months with an average age of 52 months. The children were equal in sizes of boy to girl ratio. The children watched both a man and a female interact with the bobo doll. They both interact with the doll violently and non-violently. The group in the control group did not see anybody and just played in the room with the bobo doll on their own. The result showed that children that saw the violent attack on the bobo doll imitated the same when they saw the doll. Thus rendering that in fact children can learn aggression through modeling.

Bandura presented a study to observe if social behaviors (ex. aggression) can be educated by observation and imitation.

Bandura extensively studied modeling; he believed that children learn by watching. This applies to a variety of circumstances. For example, children learn how to behave in a social setting by watching the interactions of their peers. Children also learn through symbolic models, like stories and television. He also proposed the idea of no-model learning; a child can watch someone else do something and replicate it perfectly on their first try, without ever having been formally taught. In what seems to me like a natural progression of thought, Bandura next wondered that if children absorb what they are seeing effortlessly, how are they be affected by seeing negative things, such as violence or rough behavior?

Question 5: If Martinez is assigned to this study, what are the issues he should consider when selecting the research sample? What are your recommendations