Bobo Doll Experiment Essay
The Bobo doll experiment shows that children observes the people around them behaving in various ways (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961). Bandura (1977) stated that “Social learning theory assumes that modelling influences produce learning principally through their informative functions and that observers acquire manly symbolic representations of modelled activities rather than specific stimulus-response associations.”
According to the McLeod (2016), the observed individuals are called models. In the modern day society, children are surrounded by all kinds of models that influence them during their growth such as parents, TV characters, teachers and peers of the same age group. From these models, their behaviours are observed and imitated, e.g. …show more content…
Therefore, it is more likely to imitate behaviour modelled by people of the same sex. Second, the child will imitate the behaviour of the people around him/her. If the child imitates the model’s behaviour and he/she are given rewards, the child would most likely to continue performing the behaviour. Vice versa if the child imitates a bad behaviour and were punished for imitating, the child would most like not repeat the same. For example, if parent sees a little girl consoling her teddy bear and says “what a kind girl you are”, this is rewarding for the child and makes it more likely that she will repeat the behavior. Her behavior has been reinforced (i.e. strengthened).
Reinforcement can be external or internal and can be positive or negative. If a child wants approval from parents or peers, this approval is an external reinforcement, but feeling happy about being approved of is an internal reinforcement. A child will behave in a way which it believes will earn approval because they desires approval. Positive (or negative) reinforcement will have little impact if the reinforcement offered externally does not match with an individual's needs. Reinforcement can be positive or negative, but the important factor is that it will usually lead to a change in a person's
According to the McLeod (2016), the observed individuals are called models. In the modern day society, children are surrounded by all kinds of models that influence them during their growth such as parents, TV characters, teachers and peers of the same age group. From these models, their behaviours are observed and imitated, e.g. …show more content…
Therefore, it is more likely to imitate behaviour modelled by people of the same sex. Second, the child will imitate the behaviour of the people around him/her. If the child imitates the model’s behaviour and he/she are given rewards, the child would most likely to continue performing the behaviour. Vice versa if the child imitates a bad behaviour and were punished for imitating, the child would most like not repeat the same. For example, if parent sees a little girl consoling her teddy bear and says “what a kind girl you are”, this is rewarding for the child and makes it more likely that she will repeat the behavior. Her behavior has been reinforced (i.e. strengthened).
Reinforcement can be external or internal and can be positive or negative. If a child wants approval from parents or peers, this approval is an external reinforcement, but feeling happy about being approved of is an internal reinforcement. A child will behave in a way which it believes will earn approval because they desires approval. Positive (or negative) reinforcement will have little impact if the reinforcement offered externally does not match with an individual's needs. Reinforcement can be positive or negative, but the important factor is that it will usually lead to a change in a person's