Social Learning Theory

What is Social Learning Theory?

Social learning theory was first developed by Albert Bandura which suggests that people can acquire new behaviour through observing, modelling, and imitating others. This theory takes the interaction between environmental and cognitive factors into consideration on how it influences human learning and behaviour.

In conjunction with the theory, Bandura and colleagues conducted an experiment to study learned behaviour in children and found that solely through observing the adults’ behaviour particularly aggressive behaviour, children would imitate and carry out the observed behaviour. This experiment not only indicated that aggressive behaviour can be learned, behaviour can also be learned through observation and imitation.

The Bobo Doll Experiment

The Bobo Doll experiment is a study of social learning theory. In the experiment, 76 children (aged 3 to 6 years old) were recruited with an equal number of females and males. The number of children was distributed evenly into different conditions as below:

Bandura and colleagues’ hypothesized the following:

1. Children who are exposed to the aggressive model are more likely to carry out the aggressive behaviour on the Bobo Doll, whereas children who are exposed to the non-aggressive model and unlikely to carry out aggressive behaviour.
2. Boys are likely to exhibit aggressive behaviour than girls
3. Children are more likely to imitate models who have the same sex as themselves.

At the first stage of the experiment, children who were in the aggressive or the non-aggressive model would be brought to a corner in the experimental room individually (which acts as a play area) and were taught to design pictures with provided potato prints and picture stickers (which were found to be having high-interest values). A model would be escorted to the opposing side of the room which contained a tinker toy set, a mallet, and a doll—the Bobo doll.

Aggressive Model condition

In the aggressive model condition, children would observe the model playing with the tinker toy set first, then behaving aggressively towards the Bobo doll. The model elicited distinctive aggressive acts such as:

1. Laying the Bobo doll on its side, sat on it, and punched it repeatedly in the nose
2. Struck the doll on the head using the mallet
3. Tossing the doll up in the air aggressively and kicked it about the room

These behaviours were repeated approximately 3 times along with verbally aggressive behaviours such as “sock him in the nose...”, “hit him down…”, “throw him in the air…” etc and non-aggressive comments: “He keeps coming back for more” and “He sure is a tough fella”.

Non-aggressive Model condition

Whereas for the non-aggressive model condition, children would only be observing the model playing with the tinker toy set, completely ignoring the Bobo doll.

After the observation ended, the children would be brought to a room full of attractive toys and were allowed play with them. However, after approximately 2 minutes, to build up children’s frustration, the children were told that they can’t play with the toys in the room they are currently in anymore. The children were brought to another room that also has toys, which includes ‘aggressive toys’ such as the mallet, dart guns (and others), as well as the Bobo doll and were allowed to play with them for 20 minutes.

What do they find?

1. Children who are in the aggressive model condition made more imitative aggressive responses compared to the other groups. Children in the non-aggressive group tend to exhibit less aggressive behaviours compared to the control group.
2. Children’s imitation behaviour is influenced by the sex of the model:
1. Girls in aggressive model condition elicited more physical aggressive responses when the model was male, but more verbal aggressive responses if the model was female. The gender effects were reversed when it comes to how often they punched the Bobo doll.
2. Boys in the aggressive model condition are more likely to imitate same-sex models compared to girls. They had also imitated more physically aggressive behaviours than girls.

In short, this experiment supported Bandura’s social learning theory, where social behaviour could be learned through observation learning, which is watching the behavour of another person.

Reference/Resources:

1. Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1961). Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63(3), 575–582. doi:10.1037/h0045925
2. Bobo Doll Experiment | Simply Psychology
3. Bandura's Bobo Doll Experiment on Social Learning (verywellmind.com)
4. McLeod, S. A. (2014, Febuary 05). Bobo doll experiment. Simply Psychology.