bobo doll

bobo doll


What can parents can learn from previous reports
Summary
This report will consider:
How Bandura’s work illustrates that real life and media portrayals of violence can potentially affect children’s behaviour;
What parents can learn from Bandura’s experiment; and
What parents can do to protect their children.
Background
Bandura et al created the “bobo doll” experiment in which children were shown adults displaying aggressive behaviour towards a doll, in real life scenarios and through media e.g cartoon. The purpose was to observe how the children acted towards the doll after watching the violence, and to what extent the children imitated this behaviour.
Understanding the experiment and learning from it
It’s natural for children to be influenced by the behaviour of others. Bandura focused on addressing the impact of children witnessing violence in different situations and to what extent a child would copy the behaviour. The results of the experiment, discussed below, show that children can be easily led by others.
Real life
When shown a man displaying aggression boys acted more aggressively towards the doll than girls, however when a woman model was used the girls displayed more aggression.
Shown when the child copied the model of the same sex more so than the opposite, it’s widely accepted that a child will copy someone if they are similar to themselves, the evidence shows how a child can relate to someone behaving aggressively and imitating this potentially influencing their own behaviour.
If a child is shown positive behaviour they will likely copy this, which emphasises the importance of a child being raised within a positive environment, witnessing positive behaviours. Parents cannot protect their children from all forms of violence but can minimise their exposure to violence within the household. If a child is exposed to violence in their daily life, the child may be more used to this type of behaviour and think it’s an acceptable way to...

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