A child may also observe the behavior of fictional characters on television and in films. According to Bandura's theory, a person may observe the behavior of people around them.Īt an early age, such people primarily consist of the parents or primary caregiver, siblings and later, classmates. In 1977, drawing on his previous experimental research, Bandura outlined his social learning theory, which attempts to explain the effect of social interactions on learning. This process of vicarious reinforcement suggests that learning takes place not just through direct observation, but also through the media that a person consumes. The researchers found that the children who watched the video in which positive reinforcements were given were more likely to subsequently behave violently themselves ( Bandura, 1965). One group watched as the person’s behavior was reinforced by way of a food reward, whilst a second group saw a video in which the person was criticised for their violent behavior. In a third study, Bandura tested whether the types of reinforcement that Skinner had used to encourage and discourage behavior (operant conditioning) would influence the behavior of an observer who witnessed a third party being rewarded or punished for his or her actions.īandura shows a film to participants in which a person again beat the toy. The study indicates that indirect exposure to violent behavior through film or television may lead to actions being imitated in a similar way to behavior observed in person ( Bandura et al, 1963). As in the 1961 experiment, those participants who watched the film of a person being aggressive were more likely to behave violently towards the toy than participants in a control group. However, instead of observing an adult’s violent behavior firsthand, they watched a video of the Bobo doll being struck. In 1963, Bandura conducted a second experiment which replicated many aspects of the previous study. These findings indicate that learning takes place not only when individuals are rewarded or punished for their own behavior, but also when they observe another person exhibiting violent behavior - a process called observational learning. The researchers found that the group of children who had observed an adult behaving violently towards the toy were more likely to act aggressively towards it themselves when given the opportunity. They were later given the opportunity to play with the dolls for themselves. Children in one of these groups were placed in a room in which they witnessed an adult hitting a Bobo doll in an aggressive manner. The participants - children who attended the Stanford University nursery - were divided into groups. The experiment took place at Stanford University, where Bandura was then working in a teaching position as a professor. The toys, which were popular during the 1960s, feature an image of a clown and were designed to self-right when pushed over. Bandura et al (1961)īandura, Ross and Ross (1961) devised an experiment in which participants would observe an adult behaving in a violent manner towards a Bobo doll toy. Instead, he turned his attention to the imitative behavior of children who watch, and then attempt to copy, the behavior of others. Skinner further developed Pavlov’s theory, and proposed operant conditioning, whereby reinforcements lead to new forms of behavior being learnt.īandura viewed such conditioning as being reductionist in its understanding of human learning as a simple process of acquiring new ‘responses’ to stimuli.
When a single stimulus was repeatedly paired with a particular event, such as the ringing of a bell with feeding time, salivation would begin to occur in response to the sound. During the 1890s, t he influential Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov had found that dogs would learn new behavior through classical conditioning.
Prior to Bandura’s experiments, conditioning dominated the behaviorist view of learning. He concluded that vicarious reinforcement, as well as direct rewards and punishments, can impact on an observer’s behavior. Retro vintage sexy girls.Bandura also conducted a number of follow-up studies during the 1960s which examined how witnessing a third party being rewarded or punished for behaving in a particular manner can influence a bystander’s own actions.