Children observe the people around them behaving
in various ways. This is illustrated during the
famous Bobo doll experiment (Bandura, 1961).
Individuals that are observed are called models.
In society, children are surrounded by many
influential models, such as parents within the
family, characters on children’s TV, friends within
their peer group and teachers at school. These
models provide examples of behavior to observe
and imitate, e.g., masculine and feminine, pro and
anti-social, etc.
Badura’s Social Learning Theory
Children watched a video
of men and women being
aggressive to a blow up
doll (bobo doll).
The children were
allowed to play with the
bobo doll.
All the children showed
aggressive behaviour
towards the bobo doll.
Children pay attention to some of these people (models)
and encode their behavior. At a later time they may
imitate (i.e., copy) the behavior they have observed.
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.
Girls who viewed male
models were more
aggressive compared to girl
who watched female models
were more verbally
aggressive.
Therefore Bandura
believed that if a child
observed aggressive
behaviour such as domestic
abuse they were more
liklely to engage in the
behaviour.
