Bandura's Observational Study

both groups of children were allowed in the room with the Bobo doll, and all of the children imitated what they had seen their particular adult do. Those who had witnessed and observed the adult being violent were themselves, like that towards the doll. It was then that Bandura identified three basic models of observational learning:
1. A live model, which involves an individual demonstrating or acting out a particular behaviour.
2. A verbal instructional model, which involves descriptions and explanations of a particular behaviour.
3. A symbolic model, which involves real or fictional characters displaying behaviours in books, television programmes, films or online media.
This just shows that observational learning is not just watching another person engage in a certain activity (like they did in the Bobo Doll Experiment). We can also learn by other things, such as hearing verbal instructions whilst listening to a podcast, or reading, watching or hearing the actions of characters in books and films.
This concept says that just observing someone else carrying out a particular action is not always enough to lead to that behaviour being learnt – their own mental state and motivation plays a part too. Bandura said that external, environmental reinforcement was not the only factor to influence learning and behaviour (which is something that many other theorists’ believed at the time). Bandura said that intrinsic reinforcement was a factor too. Intrinsic reinforcement is when a person behaves in a particular way because of the way that it makes them feel inside – it’s like an internal reward. They will feel emotions and feelings such as pride, satisfaction and accomplishment. Ultimately, this is the sort of reinforcement which would motivate someone to learn and adopt a particular