BoBo doll experiment (1961)Aim: To demonstrate that if children were witnesses to
aggressive display by an adult they would imitate this aggressive behavior when
given the opportunity.Participants: 36 boys and 36 girls all aged between 42
and 71 months.Procedure: 24 children (12 boys and 12 girls) watched a male or female model behave aggressively towards a
'Bobo doll'. The adults attacked the Bobo doll in a distinctive manner, using a
hammer in some cases, and in others threw the doll in the air and shouted
"Pow, Boom". Another 24 children (12 boys and 12 girls)
watched a non-aggressive model that played in a quiet and calm manner for 10
minutes. The 24 children (12 boys and 12 girls)
left were used as a control group and not exposed to any model at all.Results: Children that were exposed to the violet
model tended to imitate the exact behavior they had observed when the adult was
no longer present. The results indicated that while children of both genders in
the non-aggressive group did exhibit less aggression than the control group,
boys who had observed an opposite-sex model behavior non-aggressively were more
likely than those in the control group to engage in violence. Boys that
observed an adult male behaving violently were more influenced than those who
had observed a female model behavior aggressively. Interestingly, the
experimenters found in the same-sex aggressive groups, boys were more likely to
imitate physical acts of violence while girls were more likely to imitate
verbal aggression. Boys engaged in more than twice as many acts of aggression
than the girls.Conclusion: children
observing adult behavior is influenced to think that this type of behavior is
acceptable thus weakening the child's aggressive inhibitions. The result of
reduced aggressive inhibitions in children means that they are more likely to
respond to future situations in a more aggressive manner.
