Essay On The Bobo Doll Experiment

Jennifer Sutto

PSY350-18688

Alexander Danvers

01 February 2016 The Transmission of Aggression Through Imitation of Aggressive Models, famously known as The Bobo Doll Experiment, was conducted by Albert Bandura, Dorothea Ross, and Sheila Ross. The experiment was conducted to study the concept of social learning. Banduras, Ross, and Ross wanted to see if children would mimic behavior displayed by adult role models, specifically aggressive behavior. They studied 72 children between the ages of 3 and 6 years old, with an equal amount of boys and girls. They used a matched pairs design, which is when the researcher groups off participants based on certain characteristics related to what they are measuring, and then randomizes them into groups. The children were either watching an adult hit and attack a Bobo doll, ignore the Bobo doll, or they were in the control group. The children watched the adults in an individual setting so that they would not be influenced by other children. Some children watch same-sex models, and others watched opposite-sex models. After they watched the adult’s interaction with the Bobo doll,

An additional alternative method would be to have the children watch another child perform aggressive acts on the Bobo doll, instead of an adult, to see if they would still be likely to imitate the aggressive behavior. Although, the children in this group may be a bit more hesitant to imitate the aggressive behavior since it is not coming from an authoritative figure but rather from another child. Using a child as a model for behavior to another child would expand the study to help the researchers determine if aggressive behavior is socially learned from adults and children