EXPERIMENTS - LEARNING: THE BOBO DOLL

Question 1

Who and in what year did the bobo doll experiment occur

Answer 1

(Bandura, Ross, Ross in 1961)

Question 2

What was the aim of the bob doll experiment

Answer 2

To test whether children will imitate an observed adult behaving in an aggressive way to a bobo doll.

Question 3

What was the methods of the bobo doll experiment

Answer 3

• The experimenters tested 36 girls and 36 boys aged 3-6 years (from a local nursery) who’s base aggression levels were tested and equally distributed into 1 of 3 groups.
• Bandura filled a room full of toys for children to play with.
• Before the children entered to play with the toys, they saw an adult (model) go into the room to play – particularly the inflatable “bobo” doll.

Question 4

In terms of the methods what did group 1 do

Answer 4

Group 1: observed an aggressive model who played with the toys by hitting them or throwing them around.

Question 5

In terms of the methods what did group 2 do

Answer 5

Group 2: observed a non- aggressive model who played with the toys normally (pushing cars, tea party etc.)

Question 6

In terms of the methods what did group 3 do

Answer 6

Group 3: observed no model before entering the room to play.

Question 7

What were the findings of the bobo doll experiment

Answer 7

Children who observed the aggressive model made far more aggressive responses than those in other groups.

• Boys were more likely to imitate same-sex models than girls.
• Girls were more likely to use physically aggressive responses if the model was male, but more verbally aggressive responses if the model was female.
  Boys imitated more physically aggressive acts than girls. There was little difference in verbal aggression between boys and girls.

Question 8

What were the conclusions of the bobo doll experiment

Answer 8

Bobo doll experiment demonstrated that children are able to learn social behaviour such as aggression through the process of observation learning, through watching the behaviour of another person. The findings support Bandura’s (1977) Social Learning Theory.

Question 9

List some critiques of the bobo doll experiment

Answer 9

• Laboratory studies of imitation do not replicate real life (lack ecological validity).
• All the children came from a nursery attended by children from rich upper-class white families (selection bias).
• The model and the child are strangers, so do not replicate “normal” modelling.
• Demonstration of behaviour was immediate, so retention was not measured.