Bobo Doll Experiment’s Impact on Social Behavior
ABSTRACT
This paper will introduce you to the idea of how certain social perceptions can have an impact on social behaviours. The Bobo doll experiment was a conducted study to investigate if social behaviours can be acquired by observation and imitation. This paper will go in-depth on the types of methods used in the experiment and the scientific findings behind this experiment.
Keywords: Replication, behaviours, Mode
Introduction
The study is about a controlled experiment which seeks to find out if social behaviours such as aggression can be attained through observation and imitation. It was done by Albert Bandura and he attempted to add trust to his belief that the entire human behaviours were mastered, by coping and social imitation, instead of inheritance through genetic factors. Bobo doll is a stretchy toy intended to spring back upright when it is bashed over and it is about five feet tall.
The study took place in 1961 at Stanford University Nursery School. The participants were placed in three separate rooms for the experiment. The participants were nursery school children comprising of both boys and girls. They were aged between 3 to 6 years old. Children were chosen for the research to attempt and demonstrate that they would copy a grown-up model behaviour. They were chosen since they have little social constraining, and as well as fewer instruction and teaching of the guidelines of culture than grown-up subjects.
An equal number of boys and girls were selected from the nursery school. A total of 72 children were picked and it constitutes 36 boys and 36 girls. They were then separated into 3 groups. The first group was the control set that would not observe a grown-up role model entirely. The set was made up of 24 children with 12 boys and 12 girls. The second group would be subjected to a model displaying violent propensities. This following group also consisted of 24 kids of either sex who were divided into two groups. The resultant sets of 12 were additionally separated into two more sets where half would be examined with a female model and the other half with a male model. The last set was arranged in a similar way that exactly resembled the second set; the only variation is that the subjects were subjected to a non-regressive grown-up (Martyn Shuttleworth, 2008).
All the children from the entire groups were then exposed to slight aggression arousal. Every kid was separately guided to a room with fairly attractive toys for a period of 10 minutes. Immediately when the child plays with the toys the observer then denies the child the permission to play with the toys. This process was envisioned to build up the frustration heights in the subject. The next stage involved testing slow imitation. The children were taken into a room with violent and non-violent toys. The violent toys comprised of a dart gun, pegboard, Bobo doll and a mallet while the non-violent toys comprised of pastels, plastic farm animal, tea set and three bears. The subjects were in the room for 20 minutes. They were viewed via a one-way mirror, and a number of behavior categories assessed. Assessments were done at intervals of 5 seconds, consequently providing 240 responses units for every child. Physical aggression was measured by punching the doll with the mallet (Cherry Kendra. 2020). Verbal aggression too was also assessed with other behaviours that didn’t match that of the model.
Results
Kids who discerned the violent role model indicated exceedingly imitative violent responses than the ones who were able to be in control and non-violent sets.
There was non-imitative and partial violence among those kids who had perceived aggressive behavior, however, there was a minor change for non-imitative aggression. The girls showed additional physical aggressive responses in the condition of an aggressive male model, but more verbal aggressive responses when it involved female model. Nevertheless, hitting of Bobo doll gave an exception to the general pattern of observation because, for this situation, the gender consequences were interchanged.
Boys were better possibly to replicate similar gender models than girls. There was a weak imitation of similar-gender models for girls. Also, boys replicate better physically hostile acts than girls. There was a slight disparity in the verbal hostility between boys and girls.
I think that the study is unethical. For instance, there exists a problem of whether or not the kids are taken through the process suffered any long span consequences. However, it is doubtful, we can never be sure.
Replication
Yes. The study can be replicated since the instructions and procedures used were standardized. Standardized instructions and procedures permit for replicability. As a matter of fact, the experiments have been imitated with minor modifications that include using a video and the same results were achieved (McLeod Saul. 2014).
I chose this particular study because it allows for accurate control variables. Most variables including the gender of the models were controlled. Also because of its replicability, it pushed me further to choose this particular study.
In conclusion, the findings supported the experimenter’s theory. Children were able to study social behavior such as aggression through the observation learning process – through viewing the behavior of another individual. The experiments establish the cause and result on the child succeeding behaviour since all variables are controlled. Thus, the experiment has not been completely proved since some findings are a bit questionable.
References
Cherry Kendra. (2020). What the Bobo Doll Experiment Reveals About Kids and Aggression. Retrieved from: https://www.verywellmind.com/bobo-doll-experiment-2794993
Martyn Shuttleworth (2008). Bobo Doll Experiment. Retrieved May 2020 from https://explorable.com/bobo-doll-experiment
McLeod Saul. (2014). Bobo Doll Experiment. Url: https://www.simplypsychology.org/bobo-doll.html