Albert Bandura and Social Learning

Four years ago when I first took introduction to psychology, Albert Bandura and his research both shocked and fascinated me. One of his experiments that struck me the most was the Bobo doll experiment. The experiment, a clip of which is provided in this post, involved children observing others act aggressively towards a doll and then acting in the same manner observed on their own accord. This experiment made such a deep impact on me because I would say my whole life revolves around children and as such the subject matter concerned me greatly. The reaches of Bandura’s various experiments, such as the Bobo Doll experiment, extends to the learning that is occurring because of the entertainment that our children are viewing today. Movies such as Saw come to mind that perhaps very young children are not viewing, but children in their early teens are most certainly viewing. These early teens, I would argue, lack the mental capacities to process such violent information in an adult like manner because their brain, their frontal lobe in particular, is not fully developed. Not only do children in their early teens lack the mental capacities to process such violence, but they are also learning many negative things, aggression for example, from the violence they are viewing (as is everyone else watching these disgusting films). According to the social learning perspective of Bandura in reference to aggression “human beings are not born with a large array of aggressive responses at their disposal. Rather, they must acquire these… through direct experience or by observing the behavior of others” (Baron, Branscombe, Byrne, 2008, p. 340). Not only do humans learn aggression from the observation of others, but whether or not someone will act in an aggressive manner is dependent on many factors including the person’s past observed experience with aggression (Baron, Branscombe, Byrne, 2008, p. 340). Therefore, if a person observes aggression either directly or vicariously, through such movies as Saw or video games such as Grand Theft Auto, they are more inclined to act aggressively imitating the behavior they observed. That is not to say they will act aggressively because many factors go into aggression besides social learning, but they are more inclined to act aggressively. As someone who hopes to be a mother in the future, the possibility for social learning to be detrimental to my future children is unsettling to say the least. It brings to bear questions of how to raise my future children. For example, in an attempt to shelter my children from the harmful effects of social learning through the entertainment industry should I forbid all such materials? On the other hand, if I do forbid all such materials how much will my children rebel in response to being sheltered? I am not sure of the answers to either of these questions. Fortunately, the observational learning that I did of my parents actions in raising me and my brothers provides a very balanced example. They kept me sheltered, but not so sheltered that I would want to rebel. Hopefully, I can be as good of a parent. In summary, the implication for daily life, such as how to raise one’s children, due to research by individuals like Albert Bandura affects not only the science of Psychology, but also the private sector. Isn’t that one of the beautiful things about Psychology, as humans and the way they interact with each other are more deeply understood it gives the informed individual power to affect their environment more positively (or negatively as the case may be).

Bobo Doll Clip