Bobo doll experiment
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The Bobo doll experiment was conducted by Albert Bandura in 1961 and studied patterns of behaviour associated with aggression.
Bandura hoped that the experiment would prove that aggression can be explained, at least in part, by social learning theory. The theory of social learning would state that that behaviour such as aggression is learned through observing and imitating of others. Social learning theory would state behaviours like aggression have a social and cognitive context, meaning people view the behaviour in society then consciously or unconsciously think that the behaviour is acceptable for them to carry out and therefore imitate it.
The experiment is important because it sparked many more studies about the effects that viewing violence had on children, especially studies regarding the effects of playing violent video games on young children and how it may affect their behaviour in later life.
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[edit] Method
The subjects studied in the experiment involved 36 boys and 36 girls from the Stanford University Nursery School ranging in age between 3 and 6. The total of 72 children were split in to 3 groups of 24. 2 groups would be put into an aggressive model scenario with 1 group in a same-sex adult model and one group in a different-sex adult model. The final group would be used as a control group and would be exposed to a non-aggressive model scenario.
For the experiment each child was exposed to the scenario individually so as not to be influenced or distracted by classmates. The first part of the experiment involved bringing a child and the adult model into a playroom. In the playroom, the child was seated in one corner filled with highly appealing activities such as stickers and the adult model was seated in another corner containing a toy set, a mallet, and an inflatable Bobo doll. Before leaving the room, the experimenter explained to the child that the toys in the adult corner were only for the adult to play with.
After a minute of playing with the toy set, the adult in the aggressive model scenario would attack the Bobo doll by hitting it. The mallet was also used to continually hit the Bobo doll on the head. After a period of about 10 minutes, the experimenter came back into the room, dismissed the adult model, and took the child into another playroom. The non-aggressive adult model simply played with the small 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.
The final stage of the experiment took place in a room in which the child was left alone for 20 minutes with a series of aggressive and non-aggressive toys to play with. A Bobo doll, a mallet, dart guns, and tether ball with a face painted on it were among the aggressive toys to choose from. The nonaggressive toys the children could choose from were a tea set, paper and crayons, a ball, two dolls, cars and trucks, and plastic farm animals. Judges watched each child behind a one-way mirror and evaluated the subject based on various measures of aggressive behavior.
The first measure recorded was based on physical aggression. This included punching or kicking the Bobo doll, sitting on the Bobo doll, hitting it with a mallet, and tossing it around the room. Verbal aggression was the second measure. The judges counted each time the children imitated the aggressive adult model and recorded their results.
[edit] Results
Bandura found that the children exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to act in physically aggressive ways than those who were not exposed to the aggressive model. For those children exposed to the aggressive model, the number of imitative physical aggressions exhibited by the boys was 38.2 and 12.7 for the girls.
The results concerning gender differences strongly supported Bandura's prediction that children are more influenced by same-sex models. Boys exhibited more aggression when exposed to aggressive male models than boys exposed to aggressive female models. When exposed to aggressive male models, the number of aggressive instances exhibited by boys averaged 104 compared to 48.4 aggressive instances exhibited by boys exposed to aggressive female models. While the results for the girls shows similar findings, the results were less drastic. When exposed to aggressive female models, the number of aggressive instances exhibited by girls averaged 57.7 compared to 36.3 aggressive instances exhibited by girls exposed to aggressive male models.
Bandura also found that the children exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to act in verbally aggressive ways than those who were not exposed to the aggressive model. The number of imitative verbal aggressions exhibited by the boys was 17 times and 15.7 times by the girls. In addition, the results indicated that the boys and girls who observed the nonaggressive model exhibited far less nonimitative mallet aggression than in the control group, which had no model.
The experimenters came to the conclusion that children observing adult behaviour are influenced to think that this type of behaviour is acceptable thus weakening the child's aggressive inhibitions. The result of reduced aggressive inhibitions in children means that they are more likely to respond to future situations in a more aggressive manner.
Lastly, the evidence strongly supports that males have a tendency to be more aggressive than females. When all instances of aggression are tallied, males exhibited 270 aggressive instances compared to 128 aggressive instances exhibited by females.
[edit] Discussion
This experiment showed that males are drastically more inclined to physically aggressive behaviours than females. Bandura explains that in our society, aggression is considered to be a distinct male trait. Because of this, boys are raised to be more aggressive it is therefore more acceptable when males exhibit this trait. Girls, not confident of displaying physical aggression, almost matched the boys in Bandura's experiments in terms of verbal aggression.
The experiment suffers from a methodological shortcoming: The sole purpose of a Bobo doll is to bounce back up when knocked over; to act as a target. Therefore, the children in the experiment were likely to hit the target Bobo doll for fun because this is what it is designed for, not because they feel aggressive or are imitating aggressive behaviour.
[edit] Criticisms
Methodological Issues:
-The experiment lacked realism (Not ecologically valid)
-The children's behaviour could have been a result of demand characteristics
