The Bobo Doll Experiment

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

The study consisted of 36 boys and 36 girls from the Stanford University Nursery School, ages between 3 to 6 years old. The children were split into three groups based off their aggression judgment from teachers and parents. The first set of children were shown aggression by adults, both male and female, beating up a Bobo Doll. The second set of children ascertained an adult model who exhibit no aggression and the control group was not acquaint to any model. The first set of children were placed in a room with the Bobo Doll after 10 minutes of watching the adult model. The results showed that the first set of children who watched the aggressive model showed

In the Bobo doll experiment, the kids demonstrated behavior similar to what the saw. The hit the doll, hammered the doll, and kick the doll. Then the kids began to adopt different ways of attacking the doll, whether it was with a gun, smacking it with a ball, or hitting the tether ball which hit the Bobo doll. One possible implication of viewing violence when it comes to social learning is that violence might be a product of what they are taught. Like in the video, the kids saw an adult beating up a doll. In a way, the may think if the adult can do it, I can also beat up the doll. If the kid does not differentiate from what is appropriate from adult behavior, and kids behavior, they will copy behavior of authority. Another implication could

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.

During the aggressive model scenario, the adult would begin by playing with the toys for around one minute. Then the adult would begin to show aggression towards the Bobo doll. The aggressive adult would also verbally attack the Bobo doll shouting things like "Sock him," "Hit him down," "Kick him," or "Pow". After about 10 minutes, the experimenter came back into the room, dismissed the adult, and took the child into another playroom. The non-aggressive adult model simply played with the other toys for the entire 10 minute-period. In this situation, the Bobo doll was completely ignored by the model, then the child was taken out of the room. However children in the aggressive scenario showed much more imitation of of the adults physical and verbal

The Bobo Doll experiment also demonstrated that incentives can affect performance (Holy & Perry, 2012). Incentives can encourage behaviors to continue or be discouraged. At this educator’s program, students who have misbehave loose the privilege of using their favorite toy. After the child repeatedly loses privileges for the same misconduct, the child begins to learn that behavior have a consequence. Many early childhood educators can see that, after the child has learned cause and effect, the child minimizes the behavior to avoid losing privileges. As Holy & Perry (2012) states, this might explain why not all adolescents get influenced by the media's smoking advertisements. Adolescents avoid "bad behavior" because they have personal consequences

There have always been people saying that violent movies and video games harm children and make them more susceptible to display violent behavior. According to Albert Bandura’s Study called the “Bobo Doll Experiment” this is true. Through this experiment and a few other’s Bandura came up with the Social Learning Theory. The Social Learning Theory is the theory that Bandura used to describe a way of learning through observation or direct instructions.

In 1961, psychologist Albert Bandura came up with the Social Learning Theory which stated that children learn social behavior, such as aggression, and alter their own through the process of observational learning- observing someone else’s behavior. To test this theory, he created the Bobo Doll Experiment. During this test, three groups of 24 children were places in different rooms with different environments. In one room, 24 children were exposed to non-aggressive behavior towards a bobo doll. In the second room, the children were exposed to aggressive behavior towards the doll. The third room served as the control group; The 24 children in that room were simply taught to ignore the doll. The results showed that the children who witnessed the violent behavior quickly picked up on it and began to act the same towards the doll. Those 24 children made more immitative aggressive responses than those in the non-aggressive and control groups (McLeod 2011). This famous experiement credits many psychologists who believe genetics has nothing to do with criminal

In the Bobo Doll Experiment conducted by Bandura in 1961, researchers wanted to know if social behaviors could be learned by observation. The experiment mainly consisted on showing, to a certain number of kids, a video that included violence. By doing this, they could later conclude how children learn aggression through observation. They took 36 girls and 36 boys and randomly assigned them into groups. The participants were from 3 to 6 years old. It is important to point out that the researchers did some testing to the participants before performing the experiment. They observed how aggressive the participants were before the experiment took place to have information on their daily behavior. The procedure consists of having three different groups: one called aggressive model, another called non-aggressive model and another one called control condition.

In 1961 the famous Bobo doll experiment was conducted to investigate social behaviors that are acquired by reinforcement techniques. The experiment itself consisted of a modeling methods which tested 36 boys and 36 girls between the ages 3 to 6. The method used in the Bobo doll experiment was controlled by the physical researchers. The experiment itself was divided by aggressive, non-aggressive and a control models, while the children played the researches recorded the children’s behavior every 5 seconds for 20 minutes. The end conclusion of the Bobo dolls experiment is that children learn social behavior such as aggression through the process of observation learning by watching the behavior of another person.

When looking at observational ratings of aggressive behaviour, it showed that there was a greater influence from environmental factors rather than genetic contribution. Disputing research to the claim that aggression caused by genetics is a replication of Bandura et al.’s Bobo doll study. Twin pairs were encouraged to act aggressively towards the doll by being exposed to an adult model who acted aggressively towards it. Researchers found no

A Bobo doll is a 5 foot tall inflatable and is made of soft durable vinyl or plastic. It is most often pained to look like a clown with a weighted bottom so if it were to get hit it would go down and come right back up to upright position. The purpose of this experiment was to “study children behavior after they observed the model get rewarded, punished or experience no consequence for beating up the doll.” The experiment showed that people learn by being rewarded but punished to through observational learning.(Britannica, 2014)

The desire of the participants to please or behave for adults based on rewards is another concern with Bandura et al. (1961) findings. According to Ferguson (2010), children’s innate desire to please their elders may have been a major influence in participant’s adopting aggressive conduct towards the Bobo Doll. Given the children were aware of the adult’s expectation to punch or push the Bobo Doll back, it was reported the children’s motivation to comply with this expectation was as a key influence in deciding the outcome of their behaviour and hence their aggressive conduct. Ferguson also discussed that aggression is distinctly different to violence. He explained the intention of the Bobo Doll to bounce back, conveyed the impression to the test subjects that it was going to hit them and thus, producing their survival instincts to ignite and respond by hitting the doll. Ferguson’s view suggested that participants were acting on survival instinct rather than aggression undermines Bandura et al. (1961) historical findings and hence illustrated that fundamentally, acknowledging various causes for the basis of aggression amongst children is essential.

Albert Bandura, a renowned psychologist, studied how some behaviors are learned through imitation. He calls this the social learning theory. It is exemplified in his classic experiment called the ‘Bobo’ Doll Experiment. The children participating in the experiment were individually shown into a room with toys and then played with them for 10 minutes while “either, 1) 24 children (12 girls and 12 boys) watched a male or female model behaving aggressively toward a toy called a “Bobo Doll”. The adults attacked the Bobo doll in a distinctive manner, either punching or kicking and in some cases using a hammer. 2) Another 24 children were exposed to a non-aggressive model who played in a quiet and subdued manner for 10 minutes. 3) The final 24 children were used as a control group and were not exposed to any model at all” (McLeod, 2011). In order to study whether these three situations had a different effect on the children, the experimenter subjected all the children to “mild aggression arousal” (McLeod, 2011) by taking each child separately to a room with toys. Once the child began to play with the toys, the experimenter “told the child that these were the experimenter’s best toys and she had decided to reserve them for the other children” (McLeod, 2011). The experimenter then brought the child into the next room, which had some aggressive toys, such as a toy hammer, and some non-aggressive toys. For twenty minutes the child’s

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