Between 1961 and 1963, Canadian psychologist Albert Bandura conducted an experiment to analyze children’s behavior by seeing adult models showing aggressive behavior toward a puppet. In fact, Joo Bobo’s puppet experiment is an empirical demonstration of one of his best-known theories, the theory of social learning.
This theory holds that much of human learning occurs through contact with the social environment; by observing others, we gain certain knowledge, skills, strategies, beliefs, and attitudes; Thus, each individual learns the usefulness, convenience, and consequences of various behaviors by observing certain patterns, and acts on what they believe they should expect as a result of their actions.
- Albert Bandura is considered one of the highest eminences in the field of social learning.
- Has received the title of honorary doctorate in universities in different countries for his contributions to psychology.
- A survey conducted in 2002 placed Bandura in fourth place among the most cited psychologists.
- Of all time.
- After Skinner.
- Freud and Piaget.
Bandura disagreed with the position of the behavioralists, considering that they underestimated the social dimension of human behavior, so he focused his study on the interaction between the student and the environment to explain the learning processes.
In 1961, this researcher began analyzing different methods of treating overly aggressive children, identifying the origin of violence in the behavior they exhibited, for this he launched his best known and world-renowned research: the experience of the Joo Bobo doll. Let’s see what it’s all about next.
Albert Bandura developed this experiment in order to provide an empirical basis for his theory. The results achieved changed the course of the psychology of the time, as the experience of the doll Joao Bobo was a pioneer in aggressive behavior in children.
The basis of the experimental process was to demonstrate that certain behaviors were learned by children by mimicking the actions of adult models. The study involved 36 boys and 36 girls, ages 3 to 5, all students at Stanford University Nursery.
The children were organized into 3 groups: 24 were exposed to the aggressive model, 24 to the non-aggressive model and the rest to the control group; groups, in turn, were divided by gender (boys and girls). that half of the children were exposed to the actions of adults of the same sex and the other half to people of the opposite sex.
Individually, in aggressive and non-aggressive groups, each child was an observer of an adult’s behavior in relation to the Joo Bobo doll (a five-and-a-half-meter-tall plastic inflatable doll that, in balance).
In the aggressive model scenario, the adult began to play with toys in the room for about a minute, after this period, the model began to behave aggressively towards the doll, hitting it or using a toy hammer to hit it on the doll. face.
In the non-aggressive model, the adult played with the doll; Finally, no interaction with any model was previously observed in the control group.
Subsequently, the children entered the room one by one with toys and the joo Bobo doll, these interactions were recorded with cameras to record their behavior after observing how adult models perform.
Bandura determined that children exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to act with physical aggression than those who were not exposed to this model.
With regard to the results of gender differences, they strongly supported Bandura’s prediction that children were more influenced by the patterns of their own sex.
In addition, among the boys who had been present on the aggressive model stage, the number of physical assaults shown was higher among boys than among girls, i. e. boys showed more aggression when exposed to aggressive male models.
Instead, in 1965, an experiment similar to that of the Joo Bobo doll was conducted to establish the effects of rewarding or punishing erroneous and violent behaviors. The findings validated the theory of observational learning; when adults are rewarded for their violent behavior, children are more likely to continue to hit the doll; however, when adults are scolded, the children stop hitting the Joo Bobo doll.
As we can see, children tend to imitate what they see in their models or reference figures, so it is very important to pay attention to the behaviors and attitudes we have, both in the family and in the educational field.