The Four Elements Of Observational Learning

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

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.

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

Observational learning is another simple behavioral training technique. It’s as simple as its name, you learn by watching others. For example, let’s say you are trying to learn to balance a book on your head. You’ve been watching your parent do it and you try it out as well by imitating their behaviors that you previously observed. That’s a basic example of learning by observation. This helps us better understand human behavior in this way: it tells us that humans observe other behavior and try to imitate it in order to achieve the same, or a similar effect. That is another basic aspect of human behaviors that also occurs on a daily basis.

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).

Observational learning is simply learning by observing the behavior of other people called models (Bandura 1997,1986,1989 2000,2006). Bandura sees observational learning as one of the most important mechanism through which humans behavior changes. Cady watched how “the plastics”acted and that is why she eventually became one. This type of learning is more cognitive than conditioning because people have to pay attention to how the person acted at a particular time and make mental pictures to use them later on.

Is a learning that occurs as a function of seeing, retaining, and in the case of imitation learning, replicating novel behavior executed by other people. It allows learning without any direct change to behavior; because of this, it has been used as an argument against strict behavior. Observational learning can also produce new behaviors, and either increase or decrease the frequency with which a previously learned behavior is demonstrated. In order for observational learning to occur, the observer must pay attention to an action, remember the observed behavior, also be able to replicate the behavior, and motivated to produce the behavior. For example, seeing a professional soccer player play soccer may motivate an observer to play soccer or other

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 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.

The Bobo doll experiment was the collective name of experiment conducted by Albert Bandura in 1961 and 1963 when children’s behaviors after watching a violence video. This experiment done in children. Albert Bandura made a video of children who used to more violence video. Instated out of 100% of people, 60% boys are more aggressive comparison to girls, because boys play more aggressive and dramatic games than a girl. According to the research, Albert found that both girls and boys who watched the older people, “how they play and beat the doll”. In our country we believe that, we learn from our siblings, if brother and sister are nice and good than small child also good. Children learn what they saw and lots of kids spend more quality time

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

In this experiment, children were first shown a video of an adult hitting, assaulting, punching and kicking the Bobo doll. Then they were brought into a room and left alone with nothing, no toys but a Bobo doll. Later, the children were seen to imitate the actions of the adult in the video, inflicting violence onto the doll. For observational learning to happen, there must be a motivation for people to perform the action. In this case, the children were left with no toys but the Bobo doll. Additionally, they must also observe the actions, retain the memory to be able to reproduce, imitate and repeat the actions carried out by the adult in the video.

     Observational learning occurs when a person or an animal uses observation of another’s actions and their consequences to guide their own future actions. The person being observed is referred to as a model. For this reason observational learning is also referred to as modeling. Observational learning involves four stages, attention, retention, reproduction and motivation-reinforcement. Attention is when the learner observers the actions of the model (The higher the status of the model the more attention the learner will pay and the closer their imitations will be to the models actions). Retention is when the learner retains in their memory what they have just observed. Reproduction is when the learner will reproduce or imitate the actions of the model that they have just observed. Reproduction is when the learner reproduces or imitates what they have just observed. Motivation-reinforcement can come in various ways. External reinforcement, through praise for doing something well, self-reinforcement, through the

A. Basic Concepts 1. Observational LearningThe Social Learning Theory says that people canlearn by watching other people perform the behavior. Observational learningexplains the nature of children to learn behaviors by watching the behaviorof the people around them, and eventually, imitating them. With the ―Bobo Doll‖ experiment(s) , Bandura included an adult who is tasked to actaggressively toward a Bobo Doll while the children observe him. Later,Bandura let the children play inside a room with the Bobo Doll.