Social Learning Theory: Bandura’s Bobo Beatdown Experiments

0:00What do you think? Can we only learn through direct experience, or also from studying others?

0:07Psychologist Albert Bandura came up with an interesting experiment

0:11to answer that exact question and form a theory.

0:20Bandura came up with the social learning theory in the 1960s,

0:23a time dominated by scholars who didn’t believe Bandura's idea

0:27and argued that learning was always the result of classical and operational conditioning.

0:32To prove that children can learn by mere observation,

0:35Bandura came up with the Bobo Doll Experiments - a set of controversial studies,

0:40which involved preschool children, adult models and a stand-up punch doll.

0:46In the first set of experiments, the children were seated alone in a corner of the room. From there

0:51they observed an adult actor aggressively kicking and scolding the Bobo doll for about 10 minutes.

0:59Afterwards, the same child was put into a new playroom where another

1:03adult deliberately frustrated the child by taking away the toys the child played with.

1:09The frustrated child was then put back into the room with the Bobo doll where Bandura and his

1:14team made the following 3 observations: 1. Children who initially saw the adult

1:19punching the doll, often copied the behavior. 2. Boys were three times more likely to do so.

1:243. Boys reproduced the behavior twice as often, if they observed a man do it compared to boys

1:30who observed a female actor. Girls were also more influenced by same-sex models.

1:37To find out if movies would have the same effect,

1:39Bandura let some children watch the model live, and others watch it on video,

1:43or as a cartoon animation. As all three groups showed similar responses,

1:48Bandura concluded that children imitate others regardless of where they have seen the behavior.

1:54In the last variation of the experiments, Bandura wanted to know if the children would

1:59act differently when the models were reinforced or punished for their behavior towards the doll.

2:04Now, the children first saw the actor hit the doll,

2:07and then observed another adult enter the room. This second adult would then react to the actor.

2:15These last results showed that it did not make much of a difference to the children whether the

2:19aggressor was praised or not. However, the kids who saw that the model was punished, displayed

2:24much less aggression later, an effect which was especially true for girls. In other words,

2:29seeing others being rewarded does not necessarily motivate us to copy their behavior.

2:34Seeing others being punished, on the other hand, can significantly diminish our will to copy it.

2:41The fact that Bandura was able to prove that children also learn by observing others,

2:46was a breakthrough in psychology. As a consequence of his findings,

2:50scholars and government officials argued that we should ban violence in films and

2:54games. Others suggested that the Bobo Doll studies are not studies of aggression,but

2:59rather show that the children are simply motivated by the desire to please adults or act like them.

3:06Bandura and his co-author Richard Walters later defined

3:10five key tenets of the Social Learning Theory:

3:131. Learning is a cognitive process that takes place in a social setting.

3:182. Learning can occur by observing a behavior AND the consequences of such

3:223. Learning can happen without an observable change in behavior, because we may learn

3:27without displaying what we have learned. 4. Reinforcements play a role but are

3:32not entirely responsible for learning. 5. Cognition, behavior, and environment

3:37all mutually influence each other — a process called reciprocal determinisms.

3:44Bandura, who in college attended a psychology course only to kill time,

3:48soon became passionate about the topic and then one of most cited psychologists in history.

3:56About reality, he said: "Most of the images of reality on which we base our actions

4:01are really based on vicarious experience."

4:04What do you think? How much of your learning comes from observing others?

4:08And if you learn socially, who are your greatest teachers?