Albert Bandura was a Canadian-born American psychologist who is best known for his study, “The Bobo Doll” experiment. His studies were based of his social cognitive theories, highlighting in this experiment, aggressive behavior. Albert presented an inflatable doll to preschool aged children and verbally abused it in front of them. Albert would then monitor the children and see them respond in the same way. He exhibited the fact, in his study, that children are able to imitate adult behavior through observation. Bandura’s experiment took place at the Stanford Universitys nursery school where he taught as a professor1. Conducting the experiment would demonstrate whether or not childrens’ behavior is learned through reinforcement. In other words, imitating the negative or positive …show more content…
After being divided, they were individually seated at a table in the corner where they would be occupied with activities in which they’d previously shown interest (stickers, pictures, 2 https://www.britannica.com/event/Bobo-doll-experiment 1 https://www.britannica.com/event/Bobo-doll-experiment Nickell 3 prints). This served to discourage active participation and allow the behavior model be the main focal point3 . In the opposite corner of the room, another table had been set up. The table had a chair and on top of the table was a mallet, tinker toy set, and a 5 foot Bobo doll stood in the corner. Children who were in the aggressive behavior group watched as the model verbally and physically assaulted the Bobo doll, kicking, punching, and then hitting the doll with various objects. Models made aggressive statements toward the doll, using phrases like “Pow”; “Sock him in the nose”; and then used less aggressive statements like “He sure is a tough fella” and “He just keeps coming back for more”4. In the nonagressive behavior groups, the model didn’t acknowledge the Bobo and quietly set about playing with the tinker toys. After ten minutes, the behavior models from each group left the