The Bobo Doll Experiment and Learning Through Modeling.
The Bobo Doll Experiment and Learning Through Modeling.
The Dr. Albert Bandura’s hypothesis was that children’s aggressive behavior is learned through observing and imitating others. Like many other behaviorists, Dr. Bandura believed that aggression is learned through behavioral modeling process, rather than inherited through genetic factors. He positioned that modeling processes toward nurture extreme on a nature-nurture continuum. The exposure to an aggressive behavior through TV, PC games and environment increases tendency towards violence in children. Dr. Bandura followed a scientific method to design an experiment to prove his hypothesis that children would copy adult’s behavior.
Dr. Bandura conducted a typical experiment with simulated targets to test his hypothesis. The experiment was designed to establish or to prove the causality. The dependent and independent variables are easy to identify in the Bobo doll experiment. During the experiment two groups of children were studied. There was the experimental group, which got a particular treatment and the control group, which did not. The purpose of the experiment is to find out whether an independent variable affects the dependent variable.
The dependent variable (DV) in the experiment was a learning through modeling and copying of the behavior by observing a role model performing a particular acts. The object of interest was novel aggressive acts, not simple punching the doll. The independent variables (IV) of the experiment include the aggressive acts performed by a role model, inflated doll and other toys to play with, so a child could choose to play aggressively or non-aggressively. Dr. Bandura predicted that a child would copy aggressive styles of behavior by watching adults performing acts of aggression. He divided 3-6 years old kids of both sex into two groups: experimental and control groups. The experimental group watched filmed adults performing novel aggressive acts toward an inflated doll,
The Dr. Albert Bandura’s hypothesis was that children’s aggressive behavior is learned through observing and imitating others. Like many other behaviorists, Dr. Bandura believed that aggression is learned through behavioral modeling process, rather than inherited through genetic factors. He positioned that modeling processes toward nurture extreme on a nature-nurture continuum. The exposure to an aggressive behavior through TV, PC games and environment increases tendency towards violence in children. Dr. Bandura followed a scientific method to design an experiment to prove his hypothesis that children would copy adult’s behavior.
Dr. Bandura conducted a typical experiment with simulated targets to test his hypothesis. The experiment was designed to establish or to prove the causality. The dependent and independent variables are easy to identify in the Bobo doll experiment. During the experiment two groups of children were studied. There was the experimental group, which got a particular treatment and the control group, which did not. The purpose of the experiment is to find out whether an independent variable affects the dependent variable.
The dependent variable (DV) in the experiment was a learning through modeling and copying of the behavior by observing a role model performing a particular acts. The object of interest was novel aggressive acts, not simple punching the doll. The independent variables (IV) of the experiment include the aggressive acts performed by a role model, inflated doll and other toys to play with, so a child could choose to play aggressively or non-aggressively. Dr. Bandura predicted that a child would copy aggressive styles of behavior by watching adults performing acts of aggression. He divided 3-6 years old kids of both sex into two groups: experimental and control groups. The experimental group watched filmed adults performing novel aggressive acts toward an inflated doll,
References: Berger, K. S. (2011). The developing person through the life span. (8 ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Durkin, K. (1995). Developmental social psychology: From infancy to old age. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishing. Blackboard. (2012). Retrieved from http://learn.vccs.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=/webapps/blackboard/execute/launcher?type=Course&id=_468569_1&url=