Albert Bandura, (born December 4, 1925, Mundare, Alberta, Canada),

Canadian-born American psychologist and originator of social cognitive theory

who is probably best known for his modeling study on aggression, referred to
as the “Bobo doll” experiment, which demonstrated that children can learn
behaviours through the observation of adults.

Early Life And Work

Bandura was the youngest of six children born to parents of eastern European descent.
His father was from Kraków, Poland, and his mother from Ukraine; both immigrated
to Canada as adolescents. After marrying, they settled in Mundare, Alberta, where
Bandura’s father worked laying track for the trans-Canada railroad.
After graduating from high school in 1946, Bandura pursued a bachelor’s degree at
the University of British Columbia and in 1949 graduated with the Bolocan Award in
psychology, annually awarded to the outstanding student in psychology. He then did
graduate work at the University of Iowa, where he received a master’s degree in
psychology (1951) and a doctorate in clinical psychology (1952).
In 1953 Bandura accepted a one-year instructorship at Stanford University, where he
quickly secured a professorship. In 1974 he was named the David Starr
Jordan Professor of Social Science in Psychology, and two years later he became
chairman of the psychology department. He remained at Stanford, becoming professor
emeritus in 2010.
The Bobo Doll Experiment
In 1961 Bandura carried out his famous Bobo doll experiment, a study in which
researchers physically and verbally abused a clown-faced inflatable toy in front of
preschool-age children, which led the children to later mimic the behaviour of the
adults by attacking the doll in the same fashion. Subsequent experiments in which
children were exposed to such violence on videotape yielded similar results.
Testimony On The Effects Of TelevisedViolence
In the late 1960s, prompted by the media’s graphic coverage of the assassination of
U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy together with increased reports of children incurring
serious injuries during attempted replications of dangerous behaviours depicted in
television advertisements, the potential effects of television violence on children
became a growing public concern. Because of his related research, Bandura was
invited to testify before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Eisenhower
 Commission, and several congressional committees as to the evidence that televised
violence affects aggressive behaviour. His testimony played a role in the FTC’s
decision to render as unacceptable portrayals of children engaging in risky activities—
such as pounding one another in the head with mallets in an advertisement for
headache medication—and subsequently to pass new advertising standards.
Later Life And Work
Bandura was the first to demonstrate (1977) that self-efficacy, the belief in one’s own
capabilities, has an effect on what individuals choose to do, the amount of effort they
put into doing it, and the way they feel as they are doing it. Bandura also discovered
that learning occurs both through those beliefs and through social modeling—thereby
originating social cognitive theory (1986), which holds that a person’s environment,
cognition, and behaviour all interact to determine how that person functions, as
opposed to one of those factors playing a dominant role.
Bandura received numerous awards for his contributions to the field of psychology,
including the American Psychological Association (APA) Award for Outstanding
Lifetime Contribution to Psychology (2004), the American Psychological
Foundation’s Gold Medal Award for distinguished lifetime contribution to
psychological science (2006), and the University of LouisvilleGrawemeyer Award for
Psychology (2008; carrying a $200,000 prize) for his groundbreaking work in self-
efficacy and cognitive theory. In 2016 he received the National Medal of Science.
Bandura also held many organizational memberships and positions, including APA
president (1974) and American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) fellow (1980).
Bandura was associated for many years with a variety of academic journals, including
the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, Applied Psychology, Media
Psychology, Cognitive Therapy and Research, Behavior Research and Therapy,
and Social Behavior and Personality. He also authored, coauthored, or edited a
number of books, including Adolescent Aggression (1959), Principles of Behavior
Modification (1969), Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis (1973), and Social
Learning Theory (1977). In 2002 the Review of General Psychology ranked Bandura
as the fourth most eminent psychologist of the 20th century, following B.F.
Skinner, Jean Piaget, and Sigmund Freud.
Jeannette L. Nolen
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
 motivation: Observational learning
Albert Bandura, an American psychologist, proposed, and provided a wealth of support for,
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can potentially be learned by observation of…

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
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Bobo doll experiment

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a team of researchers who physically and verbally abused an inflatable doll in front of
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Albert Bandura is an influential social cognitive psychologist who is perhaps best-known for his
social learning theory, the concept of self-efficacy, and his famous Bobo doll experiments. He is
a Professor Emeritus at Stanford University and is widely regarded as one of the greatest living
psychologists.

One 2002 survey ranked him as the fourth most influential psychologist of the twentieth century,
behind only B.F. Skinner, Sigmund Freud, and Jean Piaget.
Best Known For

 Bobo Doll Studies

 Observational Learning
 Social Learning Theory
 Self-efficacy

Early Life

Albert Bandura was born on December 4, 1925, in a small Canadian town located approximately
50 miles from Edmonton. The last of six children, Bandura's early education consisted of one
small school with only two teachers. According to Bandura, because of this limited access to
educational resources, "The students had to take charge of their own education."

He realized that while "the content of most textbooks is perishable...the tools of self-directedness
serve one well over time." These early experiences may have contributed to his later emphasis on
the importance of personal agency.

Bandura soon became fascinated by psychology after enrolling at the University of British
Columbia. He had started out as a biological sciences major and his interest in psychology
formed quite by accident. While working nights and commuting to school with a group of
students, he found himself arriving at school earlier than his courses started. To pass the time, he
began taking "filler classes" during these early morning hours, which led him to eventually
stumble upon psychology.

Bandura explained, "One morning, I was wasting time in the library. Someone had forgotten to
return a course catalog and I thumbed through it attempting to find a filler course to occupy the
early time slot. I noticed a course in psychology that would serve as excellent filler. It sparked
my interest and I found my career."

He earned his degree from the University of British Columbia in 1949 after just three years of
study and then went on to graduate school at the University of Iowa. The school had been home
to Clark Hull and other psychologists including Kenneth Spence and Kurt Lewin. While the
program took an interest in social learning theory, Bandura felt that it was too focused
on behaviorist explanations.
Bandura earned his MA degree in 1951 and his PhD in clinical psychology in 1952.

Career and Theories

After earning his Ph.D., he was offered a position at Stanford University. Bandura accepted the
offer (even though it meant resigning from another position he had already accepted). He began
working at Stanford in 1953 and has continued to work at the university to this day. It was during
his studies on adolescent aggression that Bandura became increasing interested in vicarious
learning, modeling, and imitation.

Albert Bandura's social learning theory stressed the importance of observational learning,
imitation, and modeling. "Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if
people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do," Bandura
explained in his 1977 book on the subject. His theory integrated a continuous interaction
between behaviors, cognitions, and the environment.

His most famous experiment was the 1961 Bobo doll study. In the experiment, he made a film in
which an adult model was shown beating up a Bobo doll and shouting aggressive words. The
film was then shown to a group of children. Afterward, the children were allowed to play in a
room that held a Bobo doll. Those who had seen the film with the violent model were more
likely to beat the doll, imitating the actions and words of the adult in the film clip.

The study was significant because it departed from behaviorism’s insistence that all behavior is
directed by reinforcement or rewards. The children received no encouragement or incentives to
beat up the doll; they were simply imitating the behavior they had observed. Bandura termed this
phenomenon observational learning and characterized the elements of effective observational
learning as attention, retention, reciprocation and motivation.

Bandura's work emphasizes the importance of social influences, but also a belief in personal
control. "People with high assurance in their capabilities approach difficult tasks as challenges to
be mastered rather than as threats to be avoided," he has suggested.
Is Albert Bandura a Behaviorist?

While most psychology textbooks place Bandura’s theory with those of the behaviorists,
Bandura himself has noted that he "...never really fit the behavioral orthodoxy."

Even in his earliest work, Bandura argued that reducing behavior to a stimulus-response cycle
was too simplistic. While his work used behavioral terminology such as 'conditioning' and
'reinforcement,' Bandura explained, "...I conceptualized these phenomena as operating through
cognitive processes."

"Authors of psychological texts continue to mischaracterize my approach as rooted in

behaviorism," Bandura has explained, describing his own perspective as 'social cognitivism.'

Selected Publications

Bandura has been a prolific author of books and journal articles over the last 60 years and is the
most widely cited living psychologist.

Some of Bandura's best-known books and journal articles have become classics within
psychology and continue to be widely cited today. His first professional publication was a 1953
paper titled "'Primary' and 'secondary' suggestibility" that appeared in the Journal of Abnormal
and Social Psychology.

In 1973, Bandura published Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis, which focused on the
origins of aggression. His 1977 book Social Learning Theorypresented the basics of his theory of
how people learn though observation and modeling.

His 1977 article entitled "Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change" was
published in Psychological Review and introduced his concept of self-efficacy. The article also
became an instant classic in psychology.

Contributions to Psychology

Bandura’s work is considered part of the cognitive revolution in psychology that began in the
late 1960s. His theories have had a tremendous impact on personality psychology, cognitive
psychology, education, and psychotherapy.
In 1974, Bandura was elected president of the American Psychological Association. The APA
awarded him for his distinguished scientific contributions in 1980 and again in 2004 for his
outstanding lifetime contributions to psychology.

Today, Bandura is often identified as the greatest living psychology as well as one of the most
influential psychologists of all time. In 2015, Bandura was awarded the National Medal of
Science by President Barack Obama.

Bobobobobobobobobobobobobob

Do the violence that children observe in television programs, movies, and video games lead them
to behave aggressively? This is a hot question today, but it was also of great interest 50 years ago
when a psychologist led an experiment known as the Bobo doll experiment to determine how
kids learn aggression through observation.

What Was the Bobo Doll Experiment?

Are aggression and violence learned behaviors? In a famous and influential experiment known as
the Bobo doll experiment, Albert Bandura and his colleagues demonstrated one way that children
learn aggression. According to Bandura's social learning theory, learning occurs through
observations and interactions with other people. Essentially, people learn by watching others and
then imitating these actions.

Aggression lies at the root of many social ills ranging from interpersonal violence to war. It is
little wonder then that the subject is one of the most studied topics within psychology. Social
psychology is the subfield devoted to the study of human interaction and group behavior and the
scientists working in this field have provided much of the research on human aggression.

Bandura's Predictions

The experiment involved exposing children to two different adult models; an aggressive model
and a non-aggressive one. After witnessing the adult's behavior, the children would then be
placed in a room without the model and were observed to see if they would imitate the behaviors
they had witnessed earlier.
Bandura made several predictions about what would occur:

1. He predicted that children who observed an adult acting aggressively would be likely to act
aggressively even when the adult model was not present.
2. The children who observed the non-aggressive adult model would be less aggressive than the
children who observed the aggressive model; the non-aggressive exposure group would also be
less aggressive than the control group.
3. Children would be more likely to imitate models of the same-sex rather than models of the
opposite-sex.
4. Boys would behave more aggressively than girls.

Method Used in the Bobo Doll Experiment

The participants for the experiment were 36 boys and 36 girls enrolled at the Stanford University
Nursery School. The children ranged in age between 3 and almost 6 years, and the average
participant age was 4 years 4 months.

There were a total of eight experimental groups. Out of these participants, 24 were assigned to
a control group that received no treatment. The rest of the children were then divided into two
groups of 24 participants each. One of the experimental groups was then exposed to aggressive
models, while the other 24 children were exposed to non-aggressive models.

Finally, these groups were divided again into groups of boys and girls. Each of these groups was
then divided so that half of the participants were exposed to a same-sex adult model and the
other half were exposed to an opposite-sex adult model.

Before conducting the experiment, Bandura also assessed the children's existing levels of
aggression. Groups were then matched equally so that they had average levels of aggression.

Procedures Used in the Bobo Doll Experiment

Each child was tested individually to ensure that behavior would not be influenced by other
children. The child was first brought into a playroom where there were a number of different
activities to explore.
The experimenter then invited an adult model into the playroom and encouraged the model to sit
at a table and join in the activities. Over a ten minute period, the adult models began to play with
sets of tinker toys. In the non-aggressive condition, the adult model simply played with the toy
and ignored the Bobo doll for the entire period. In the aggressive model condition, however, the
adult models would violently attack the Bobo doll.

"The model laid the Bobo on its side, sat on it, and punched it repeatedly in the nose. The model
then raised the Bobo doll, picked up the mallet, and struck the doll in the head. Following the
mallet aggression, the model tossed the doll up in the air aggressively, and kicked it about the
room. This sequence of physically aggressive acts was repeated three times, interspersed with
verbally aggressive responses."

In addition to the physical aggression, the adult models also used verbally aggressive phrases
such as "Kick him" and "Pow." The models also added two non-aggressive phrases: "He sure is a
tough fella" and "He keeps coming back for more."

After the ten-minute exposure to the adult model, each child was then taken to another room that
contained a number of appealing toys including a doll set, fire engine, and toy airplane.
However, children were told that they were not allowed to play with any of these tempting toys.
The purpose of this was to build up frustration levels among the young participants.

Finally, each child was taken to the last experimental room. This room contained a number of
"aggressive" toys including a mallet, a tether ball with a face painted on it, dart guns, and, of
course, a Bobo doll. The room also included several "non-aggressive" toys including crayons,
paper, dolls, plastic animals, and trucks. Each child was then allowed to play in this room for a
period of 20 minutes while raters observed the child's behavior from behind a one-way mirror
and judged each child's levels of aggression.

What Were the Results of the Bobo Doll Experiment?

The results of the experiment supported three of the four original predictions.

1. Children exposed to the violet model tended to imitate the exact behavior they had observed
when the adult was no longer present.
 2. Bandura and his colleagues had also predicted that children in the non-aggressive group would
behave less aggressively than those in the control group. 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 behave non-aggressively were more likely than
those in the control group to engage in violence.
3. There were important gender differences when it came to whether a same-sex or opposite-sex
model was observed. Boys who observed adult males behaving violently were more influenced
than those who had observed female models behaving 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.
4. The researchers were also correct in their prediction that boys would behave more aggressively
than girls. Boys engaged in more than twice as many acts of aggression than the girls.

So What Do Bandura's Results Suggest?

The results of the Bobo doll experiment supported Bandura's social learning theory. Bandura and
his colleagues believed that the experiment demonstrates how specific behaviors can be learned
through observation and imitation. The authors also suggested that "social imitation may hasten
or short-cut the acquisition of new behaviors without the necessity of reinforcing successive
approximations as suggested by Skinner."

According to Bandura, the violent behavior of the adult models toward the dolls led children to
believe that such actions were acceptable. He also suggested that as a result, children may be
more inclined to respond to frustration with aggression in the future.

In a follow-up study conducted in 1965, Bandura found that while children were more likely to
imitate aggressive behavior if the adult model was rewarded for his or her actions, they were far
less likely to imitate if they saw the adult model being punished or reprimanded for their hostile
behavior.

Criticisms of the Bobo Doll Experiment

As with any experiment, the Bobo doll study is not without criticisms:
  Because the experiment took place in a lab setting, some critics suggest that results observed in
this type of location may not be indicative of what takes place in the real world.
 The study might suffer from selection bias. All participants were drawn from a narrow pool of
students who share the same racial and socioeconomic background. This makes it difficult to
generalize the results to a larger, more diverse population.
 Since data was collected immediately, it is also difficult to know what the long-term impact might
have been.
 Acting violently toward a doll is a lot different than displaying aggression or violence against
another human being in a real world setting.
 It has also been suggested that children were not actually motivated to display aggression when
they hit the Bobo doll; instead, they may have simply been trying to please the adults.
 Some critics argue that the study itself is unethical. By manipulating the children into behaving
aggressively, they argue, the experimenters were essentially teaching the children to be
aggressive.

A Word From Verywell

Bandura's experiment remains one of the most well-known studies in psychology. Today, social
psychologists continue to study the impact of observed violence on children's behavior. In the
half-century since the Bobo doll experiment, there have been hundreds of studies on how
observing violence impacts children's behavior. Today, researchers continue to ponder the
question of whether the violence children witness on television in the movies translates to
aggressive or violent behavior in the real world.

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Learning is a remarkably complex process that is influenced by a wide variety of factors. As

most parents are probably very much aware, observation can play a critical role in determining
how and what children learn. As the saying goes, kids are very much like sponges, soaking up
the experiences they have each and every day.

Because learning is so complex, there are many different psychological theories to explain how
and why people learn. A psychologist named Albert Bandura proposed a social learning theory
which suggests that observation, imitation, and modeling play a primary role in this process.
Bandura's theory combines elements from behavioral theories, which suggest that all behaviors
are learned through conditioning, and cognitive theories, which take into account psychological
influences such as attention and memory.

How Does Social Learning Theory Work?

During the first half of the 20th-century, the behavioral school of psychology became a dominant
force. The behaviorists proposed that all learning was a result of direct experience with the
environment through the processes of association and reinforcement. While Bandura's theory is
also rooted in many of the basic concepts of traditional learning theory, he believed that direct
reinforcement could not account for all types of learning.

For example, children and adults often exhibit learning for things with which they have no direct
experience. Even if you have never swung a baseball bat in your life, you would probably know
what to do if someone handed you a bat and told you to try to hit a baseball. This is because you
have seen others perform this action either in person or on television.

While the behavioral theories of learning suggested that all learning was the result of
associations formed by conditioning, reinforcement, and punishment, Bandura's social learning
theory proposed that learning can also occur simply by observing the actions of others.

His theory added a social element, arguing that people can learn new information and behaviors
by watching other people. Known as observational learning, this type of learning can be used to
explain a wide variety of behaviors, including those that often cannot be accounted for by other
learning theories.

3 Things You Should Know About Social Learning Theory

There are three core concepts at the heart of social learning theory. First is the idea that people
can learn through observation. Next is the notion that internal mental states are an essential part
of this process. Finally, this theory recognizes that just because something has been learned, it
does not mean that it will result in a change in behavior.

"Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely
on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do," Bandura explained in his 1977
book Social Learning Theory. "Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally
through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are
performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action."

Let's explore each of these concepts in greater depth.

1. People can learn through observation.

In one of the best-known experiments in the history of psychology, Bandura demonstrated that
children learn and imitate behaviors they have observed in other people. The children in
Bandura’s studies observed an adult acting violently toward a Bobo doll.

When the children were later allowed to play in a room with the Bobo doll, they began to imitate
the aggressive actions they had previously observed.

Bandura identified three basic models of observational learning:

1. A live model, which involves an actual individual demonstrating or acting out a behavior.
2. A verbal instructional model, which involves descriptions and explanations of a behavior.
3. A symbolic model, which involves real or fictional characters displaying behaviors in books,
films, television programs, or online media.

As you can see, observational learning does not even necessarily require watching another
person engage in an activity. Hearing verbal instructions, such as listening to a podcast, can lead
to learning. We can also learn by reading, hearing, or watching the actions of characters in books
and films.

As you can imagine, it is this type of observational learning that has become a lightning rod for
controversy as parents and psychologists debate the impact that pop culture media has on kids.
Many worry that kids can learn bad behaviors such as aggression from violent video games,
movies, television programs, and online videos.

2. Mental states are important to learning.

Just observing someone else's actions is not always enough to lead to learning. Your own mental
state and motivation play an important role in determining whether a behavior is learned or not.

While the behavioral theories of learning suggested that it was external reinforcement that
created learning, Bandura realized that reinforcement does not always come from outside
sources.

Bandura noted that external, environmental reinforcement was not the only factor to influence
learning and behavior. He described intrinsic reinforcement as a form of internal reward, such as
pride, satisfaction, and a sense of accomplishment. This emphasis on internal thoughts and
cognitions helps connect learning theories to cognitive developmental theories. While many
textbooks place social learning theory with behavioral theories, Bandura himself describes his
approach as a 'social cognitive theory.'

3. Learning does not necessarily lead to a change in behavior.

So how do we determine when something has been learned? In many cases, learning can be seen
immediately when the new behavior is displayed. When you teach a child to ride a bicycle, you
can quickly determine if learning has occurred by having the child ride his or her bike unassisted.
But sometimes we are able to learn things even though that learning might not be immediately
obvious. While behaviorists believed that learning led to a permanent change in behavior,
observational learning demonstrates that people can learn new information without
demonstrating new behaviors.

How Does Observational Learning Happen?

It is also important to note that not all observed behaviors are effectively learned. Why not?
Factors involving both the model and the learner can play a role in whether social learning is
successful. Certain requirements and steps must also be followed.

The following steps are involved in the observational learning and modeling process:

 Attention: In order to learn, you need to be paying attention. Anything that distracts your
attention is going to have a negative effect on observational learning. If the model is interesting or
there is a novel aspect of the situation, you are far more likely to dedicate your full attention to
learning.
 Retention: The ability to store information is also an important part of the learning process.
Retention can be affected by a number of factors, but the ability to pull up information later and
act on it is vital to observational learning.
 Reproduction: Once you have paid attention to the model and retained the information, it is time
to actually perform the behavior you observed. Further practice of the learned behavior leads to
improvement and skill advancement.
 Motivation: Finally, in order for observational learning to be successful, you have to be
motivated to imitate the behavior that has been modeled. Reinforcement and punishment play an
important role in motivation. While experiencing these motivators can be highly effective, so can
observing others experiencing some type of reinforcement or punishment. For example, if you see
another student rewarded with extra credit for being to class on time, you might start to show up a
few minutes early each day.

A Few Applications for Social Learning Theory

Social learning theory can have a number of real-world applications. For example, it can be used
to help researchers understand how aggression and violence might be transmitted through
observational learning. By studying media violence, researchers can gain a better understanding
of the factors that might lead children to act out the aggressive actions they see portrayed on
television and in the movies.

But social learning can also be utilized to teach people positive behaviors. Researchers can use
social learning theory to investigate and understand ways that positive role models can be used to
encourage desirable behaviors and to facilitate social change.

A Word From Verywell

In addition to influencing other psychologists, Bandura's social learning theory has had important
implication in the field of education. Today, both teachers and parents recognize how important
it is to model appropriate behaviors. Other classroom strategies such as encouraging children and
building self-efficacy are also rooted in social learning theory.
As Bandura observed, life would be incredibly difficult and even dangerous if you had to learn
everything you know from personal experience. So much of your life is rooted in your social
experiences, so it is no surprise that observing others plays such a vital role in how you acquire
new knowledge and skills. By better understanding how social learning theory works, you can
gain a greater appreciation for the powerful role that observation can play in shaping the things
we know and the things we do.

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Sample
Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1961) tested 36 boys and 36 girls from the Stanford
University Nursery School aged between 3 to 6 years old.
The researchers pre-tested the children for how aggressive they were by
observing the children in the nursery and judged their aggressive behavior on
four 5-point rating scales.
It was then possible to match the children in each group so that they had similar
levels of aggression in their everyday behavior. The experiment is, therefore, an
example of a matched pairs design.
To test the inter-rater reliability of the observers, 51 of the children were rated by
two observers independently and their ratings compared. These ratings showed a
very high reliability correlation (r = 0.89), which suggested that the observers
had a good agreement about the behavior of the children.