How witnessing aggression might affect behavior
Have you ever wondered why some people lash out?
Is that tendency for aggression something they’re born with, or could it be influenced by observing others?
It’s a question that’s long been on the minds of both parents and researchers.
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In the 1960s, psychologistAlbert Banduraand his colleagues conducted what is now known as the Bobo doll experiment.
In it, they demonstrated that children may learn aggression through observation.
Aggression lies at the root of many social ills ranging frominterpersonal violenceto war.
It is little wonder, then, that the subject is one of the most studied topics within psychology.
The children ranged in age between 3 and almost 6 years.
The final group of 24 children acted as thecontrol group,which was not exposed to adult models.
These groups were divided again into groups of boys and girls.
Each child was tested individually to ensure that their behavior would not be influenced by other children.
The child was first brought into a playroom where there were a number of different activities to explore.
The experimenter then invited the adult model into the playroom.
In the aggressive model condition, however, the adult models would violently attack the Bobo doll.
They would also use “verbally aggressivephrases” such as “Kick him” and “Pow.”
The purpose of this was to build up frustration levels among the young participants.
Observing Behavior
Finally, each child was taken to the last experimental room.
Each child was then allowed to play in this room for a period of 20 minutes.
Predictions
Bandura made several key predictions about what would occur during the Bobo doll experiment.
Essentially, people learn by watching others and then imitating these actions.
The conclusions drawn from the Bobo doll experiment may help explain human behavior in many areas of life.
Research has found that the Bobo doll experiment and its follow-up study shed light onbullying.
Some have questions about its real-world applicability, experimental methods, and relevance.
Since data was collected immediately, it is also difficult to know what the long-term impact might have been.
Additional criticisms note the biases of the researchers.
The study may also suffer from selection bias.
All participants were drawn from a narrow pool of students who share the same racial and socioeconomic background.
This makes it difficult to generalize the results to a larger, more diverse population.
Galanaki E, Malafantis KD.Albert Bandura’s experiments on aggression modeling in children: A psychoanalytic critique.Front Psychol.
