Contributions to the field of Psychology - Observational Learning

 Here is one of the most awaited posts that delves into the most famous Bobo Doll Experiment and the Social Learning Theory, Hope you find it informative, and don't forget your comments are invaluable to us.

Let's peek into the world of Albert Bandura through the famous Bobo Doll Experiment that he performed in the year 1961. This interesting experiment tackled discussions about how children can learn various behaviors (for example, aggression) just by observing someone else. He experimented and came up with the understanding of how kids learn behavior and it went down like -

The experiment-

Bandura, with his team, called 72 kids (36 boys and 36 girls) aged 3 to 6 years old from the Stanford University Nursery School, as he decided to see if social behaviors mainly aggression, could be learned by simply watching others. They prepared a controlled experiment where children were grouped according to their aggressive nature. It created three groups of children:

1. Aggressive Model Group: These children were introduced to an adult (either a male or female who is termed a model) who aggressively attacked a Bobo doll. They watched the adult hitting the doll with a hammer, throwing it around, and shouting things like "Boom!" and "Pow!". 

2. Non-Aggressive Model Group: These children viewed an adult playing calmly with toys, ignoring the Bobo doll.

3. Control Group: These children didn't get to watch any adult doing anything.

This was the initial part of the experiment that would decide if the kids would imitate the behavior they had just witnessed. After they were taken to another room filled with a mix of aggressive and non-aggressive toys, the eye-opening results appeared-

Most of the children imitated the behavior they just saw, aggressive model group children were hitting or kicking the Bobo doll like the adults they watched, or they were creating their own way to act aggressively with the doll. 

A quick interesting fact here, girls showed more verbal aggressiveness when the adult was a female, while boys were more physically aggressive overall, especially when the adult was a male, but an unexpected twist occurred, the girls demonstrated more physical aggression when they saw a male adult doing it. They also discovered that boys tend to follow same-sex adults more than girls do. 

Later in the experiment, one group watched the model’s aggression being rewarded with sweets and drinks, another group saw the model being punished for the aggression (scolded), and the third group again was shown no specific consequence. Here, those children who watched the model getting punished did not imitate what they learned in the fear of punishment.

Observational learning-

We can conclude that kids can learn aggression through observation. So, do children adapt all their behaviors by watching others?

Well, children do imitate a lot of things they see. 

Albert Bandura especially said that individuals may simply learn from the behavior, they don't necessarily need to imitate it every time. It becomes a major component of Bandura’s social learning theory also. Bandura stated some really compelling conditions for observational learning-

1. Attention - To learn means to pay attention. First, we need to pay attention and that is only possible when we're excited or interested in something. So if the observer is distracted, tired, or not really into it, the chances of them picking up that specific behavior become less.

2. Retention - Memory plays a good part here because to be able to imitate a behavior you need to remember it first. It is like, to give your best dance performance you need to remember every step.

3. Reproduction - Here comes our physical and mental ability. To replicate a behavior you need the physical strength or endurance it demands. You need to be physically and mentally ready or forget about it.

4. Motivation - What can we do without it? Here, Bandura pointed out that people are more likely to imitate behavior when they see someone being rewarded for it. On the flip side, if someone is getting punished for it, the observer is likely to avoid copying the action.

Moral Development and Behavior -

Moral standards serve as the guides to right and wrong deeds, and it is necessary in developing a moral self. Bandura explained how moral development is primarily shaped through observing others and self-regulating practices as individuals adapt those standards to form their own behavior. Individuals started to monitor their newly formed behavior by comparing it to internal moral standards and also applying self-imposed consequences like guilt when they violate those standards.