Students, Citizens, And All People Alike

The fundamentals of the social learning theory significantly describe offenders and their criminal behavior which is learned based on observation and imitation. A researcher by the name of Albert Bandura along with coworkers tested the social learning theory with several experiments on children and their imitation of aggression based on what they saw and were exposed to. Bandura’s focus was to prove that human behavior such as aggression is learned through social imitations and copying the actions of others. Walters (1966) gives details about the Bobo doll experiment and explains its purpose related to learning a violent behavior based on observation. In the experiment, the tested subjects were children of both sexes, ranging from the ages of three to six years. Some of the children were exposed to a non-aggressive adult, while the other children were placed in a room with an aggressive adult who would both physically and verbally attack the Bobo doll. The control group in the experiment was not exposed to any adult. During the second phase of the experiment, the children were left in a room by themselves with the toys, and watched to see if they would demonstrate the aggressive behavior like that of which they observed adults doing earlier. Walter (1966) describes the results as “children who had been exposed to an aggressive model showed more imitative physical and verbal

The final phase of this process is the motivation for the behavior. In Bandura’s experiment the children observed an adult praised for behaving badly, and this is enough, under Bandura’s theory, to cement those actions into a repeatable response by the child at a later stage. Bandura believes this theory also supports the rise in the number of aggressive teens in high crime areas (Isom, 1998).

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

On the other hand, it is possible to say that the children were manipulated into responding aggressively towards the BoBo Doll as they were teased and may have become frustrated because they could not touch the toys even though they had to watch the role models playing however it is not actually stated how long the children remained aggressive for. The experiment can be said to be unethical and morally wrong because the children were trained to be aggressive, as they were probably not used to watching adults behave some immaturely. Also as the experiment was preformed in a laboratory it therefore lacks eco-logical validity, as it may not have real life consequences. Another study that supports the Social Learning Theories of aggression is Patterson et al (1989).

Human behaviors are learned emotion through interaction with each other. A child’s brain is like a sponge. It absorbs the behavior of its surroundings. Serial killer’s treatment and view of other people is a learned behavior through interaction with others in society. The Bobo doll experiment conducted by Albert Bandura in 1961-1963 at Stanford University shows how children’s behavior depends on adults that are around them. In the experiment, adults acted aggressively to the Bobo doll and the study was on how the children will react to it after they saw the adults’ interaction with the doll. Bandura conducted the experiment on two models where one of the models contained children exposed to the aggressive act performed by the adult on the Bobo doll. The other model contained children who saw adults act in a pleasant way to the doll. The result of this experiment showed that children exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to act physically aggressive than those who were not (McLeod). This study proved the social learning theory which basically states that children learn behaviors from

The first stage of the experiment is called modeling. In this stage the children were individually shown into a room where they would sit in one corner and pay with potato prints and pictures and the adult sat in the other corner with a mallet and the Bobo doll. In the first group, 24 children would watch a male or female adult abuse the doll both physically (kicked, punched, threw, and hit with different objects) and verbally (made aggressive and non-aggressive statements). In the second group, 24 children were exposed to adult who played quietly in the corner with the toys but avoiding the Bobo doll. The third group, 24 children were not exposed to neither an aggressive or non-aggressive adult. After 10 minutes went by, the adult in both groups left the

For instance, the case of the “Green River Killer” (Hickey, 2010:24) may offer another possible explanation for what caused Jack the Ripper to become a serial killer. Gary Ridgway is America’s most notorious serial killer (Hickey, 2010), he “holds the record for the most serial murder convictions in the history of the United States” (Hickey, 2010:24). Ridgway is responsible for the deaths of 48 women (Hickey, 2010). Like Jack the Ripper, Ridgway selected prostitutes as his intended victims (Paley, 1995).

Do you believe that human behavior is inherited through genetic factors or learned through social imitation? According to Albert Bandura,conducted an examination to investigate if social behaviors can be seized by observation and imitation. They set up an experiment called “The Bobo Doll Experiment” to test their hypothesis. A Bobo Doll is an inflatable toy, usually with the design of a clown. The doll has weight at the bottom so it may remain standing; for example, when you punch the doll it’ll go down but then the weight will lift it back up.

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).

He affirmedthat these children imitated the aggressive behavior toward the doll, whichthey had observed earlier. After his studies, Bandura was able to determine 3 basic models of observational learning, which include: a. A Live Model, which includes an actual person performing abehavior.b. A Verbal Instruction Model, which involves telling of details anddescriptions of a behavior.c. A Symbolic Model, which includes either a real or fictional characterdemonstrating the behavior via movies, books, television, radio,online media and other media sources.2.

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

During one of Bandura’s experiments, he used a “Bobo Doll”. If the kids saw an adult attack the doll they would also. If they saw an adult play nicely with the doll, then the children tended to do the same. This represents modeling after people, and mimicking.

Today’s society is heavily influenced by television. The violence disrupts a child’s learning process and can alter the moral beliefs that an older person has. Children view more violence on Saturday mornings than any other time. The cartoons aimed at little children influence youngsters to mimic violent acts because their parents do not fully explain the effects of the stunts. It is pathetic that in such a technology based society, such a simple thing as television can have a negative effect on people.

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.