Television Violence and Aggressive Behaviour: Albert Bandura (2024)

Television Violence and Aggressive Behaviour: Albert Bandura (1)

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Television is one of the biggest sources of entertainment for children these days. We see them being influenced by the advertisem*nts shown on TV, and they demand to buy everything they see as desirable. Often we see children enacting what they see on screen. Be it a dance step, a line they heard on TV, or even an action sequence.

Television Violence and Aggressive Behaviour: Albert Bandura (30)

Bobo Doll Experiment

In 1961, Albert Bandura conducted an experiment called Bobo Doll Experiment. In this, he and his colleagues took a total of 24 subjects, further divided into three groups of eight. These subjects were school-aged children who were supposed to watch a video of a person playing with toys.

  • The first group was exposed to aggressive behavior on television and was shown an adult behaving aggressively towards a bobo doll.

  • The second group saw the adult playing with the bobo doll and other toys peacefully without aggression.

  • The third group was the control group and was not exposed to any of the above.

Television Violence and Aggressive Behaviour: Albert Bandura (31)

Each child was then observed separately. They were taken to a room with several toys- both aggressive and non-aggressive. Aggressive toys included darts, guns, and a bobo doll, and Non-aggressive toys included crayons, tea sets etc.

The results showed that children exposed to an aggressive model were also more aggressive and received higher mean aggression scores. They imitated what the model had done to the bobo doll in the video they saw.

Bandura on Television Violence

According to Bandura, violence on TV could result in four things:

  • It would lead to aggressive behavior.

  • It glamorizes violence, weakens restraint against aggression, and desensitizes children from cruelty.

  • It can shape a child's image of reality. This means that violence on television can lead to children perceiving the world as more violent than it is.

Other Research Supports the Findings

Several other researchers supported Bandura's findings about learning aggression through observation.

An experiment by Rowell Huesmann and his colleagues found that children who watched violence on television for long hours in pre-school showed higher aggression in their teenage years. They also found that those who watched violence at the age of 8 were more likely to get arrested and prosecuted for crimes in adulthood.

Why do Children Learn Aggression through TV?

According to Bandura, aggression can be learned through observation and imitation, as demonstrated in the Bobo Doll experiment. The Social Learning Theory by Albert Bandura laid the premise for the bobo doll experiment. It says that people learn through observing behaviors performed by models and then imitating them.

  • In addition to just observing acts of violence, children are also influenced by how violent behavior is received by others.

  • If a violent act is praised or rewarded, it will influence children to act similarly.

  • If violence on TV is punished, it will influence the children less than if it was rewarded.

  • Similarly, if a child observes an influential model that they admire and looks up to, they are more likely to show similar behavior.

Conclusion

Aggressive behavior often stems from watching violence on television, and several pieces of research have proved this. In such a situation when children spend a considerable amount of their time seeking entertainment on television, it is vital to have some measures in place to avoid them learning aggressive behavior. Limiting violent behavior on screen is the most crucial step in preventing children from learning similar behavior.

Utkarsh Shukla

Updated on: 12-Dec-2022

925 Views

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Television Violence and Aggressive Behaviour: Albert Bandura (33)

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Television Violence and Aggressive Behaviour: Albert Bandura (2024)

FAQs

Television Violence and Aggressive Behaviour: Albert Bandura? ›

Bandura on Television Violence

What does Bandura's theory tell us about the influence of television? ›

But Bandura demonstrated exposure to TV violence can produce at least four effects. First, it teaches aggressive styles of conduct. Second, it weakens restraints against aggression by glamorizing violence. When good triumphs over evil violently, viewers are even more strongly influenced.

What does Bandura's study tell us about aggression? ›

If the adult model is punished for his/her aggressive behavior, the probability that the child will show aggressive behavior is reduced. In contrast, positive reinforcement or no reinforcement of the model leads to increased aggression on the part of the child (vicarious/indirect learning).

What was the conclusion of the Bandura study? ›

Bandura concluded that children could learn from the observation of adult models. Children tended to imitate what they saw the adult model do. This suggests that learning can occur without reinforcement (rewards and punishments). These findings led Bandura to develop the Social Learning Theory.

What did 8 children in Bandura's Bobo doll study demonstrate ___ when they showed aggressive behavior towards the Bobo doll? ›

Conclusion. Bobo doll experiment demonstrated that children are able to learn social behavior such as aggression through the process of observation learning, through watching the behavior of another person.

How does TV violence affect aggression? ›

Extensive viewing of television violence by children causes greater aggressiveness. Sometimes, watching a single violent program can increase aggressiveness. Children who view shows in which violence is very realistic, frequently repeated or unpunished, are more likely to imitate what they see.

How does Bandura's theory explain behaviour? ›

Social learning theory, proposed by Albert Bandura, emphasizes the importance of observing, modeling, and imitating the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others. Social learning theory considers how both environmental and cognitive factors interact to influence human learning and behavior.

What is the reason of aggression according to Bandura? ›

According to Bandura, four mediational processes must occur for imitation of behaviour to take place: attention (an individual must pay attention to the model's aggressive behaviour); retention (individuals must code and store the observed aggressive behaviour in long-term memory); reproduction (individuals must be ...

How did Bandura measure aggression? ›

They were rated on 4 five-point scales measuring physical aggression, verbal aggression, aggression to inanimate objects, and anxiety. They were assigned to 3 groups with their aggression levels matched. 51 children were rated by 2 observers and similar ratings were produced therefore, there is inter-rater reliability.

What is the Bobo doll experiment and what does it tell us about aggressive behaviour? ›

A Bobo doll is an inflatable toy that is approximately the same size as a prepubescent child. The aim of Bandura's experiment was to demonstrate that if children were witnesses to an aggressive display by an adult they would imitate this aggressive behavior when given the opportunity.

What is the summary of Albert Bandura? ›

Albert Bandura's social learning theory suggests that observation and modeling play a primary role in how and why people learn. Bandura's theory goes beyond the perception of learning being the result of direct experience with the environment.

What did we learn from Bandura's experiment? ›

In the 1960s, psychologist Albert Bandura and his colleagues conducted what is now known as the Bobo doll experiment, and they demonstrated that children may learn aggression through observation. Aggression lies at the root of many social ills ranging from interpersonal violence to war.

Why is Bandura's theory important today? ›

The theory emphasizes the value of the surrounding environment and role models. The idea provides a sufficient justification for how many behaviors, including violence, are learned. The theory appears to be accurate and testable. It offers adequate clarification of taught behavior.

Why children exhibited violent behaviors during Bandura's Bobo doll experiment? ›

Albert Bandura is a psychologist whose famous Bobo doll experiment showed that children who watched a video showing violence being rewarded were more likely to imitate that violence.

What happened when a child watched an adult beat Bobo? ›

But when it was their own turn to play with Bobo, children who witnessed an adult pummeling the doll were likely to show aggression too. Similar to their adult models, the children kicked the doll, hit it with a mallet, and threw it in the air.

What did the children do after watching the adult interact with the Bobo doll in Bandura's experiments? ›

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.

What did Bandura's social learning theory indicate about media viewers? ›

Albert Bandura was a world famous psychologist. He created the 'Media Effects' theory which focuses on the idea that the media can directly 'implant' ideas into the mind of audiences. He also believed that audiences acquire attitudes, emotional responses and new styles of conduct through modelling.

What is media effects Bandura theory? ›

Bandura's research suggested that modelling in the media introduced attitudes, responses and conduct that would be acquired by audiences. True – This idea suggests that the conduct of individuals can be changed by the media. The idea that audiences would imitate media violence is a main principle of Bandura's theory.

What is the social learning theory of television? ›

Social learning theory, especially Bandura's (1969) observational learning provides a theoretical framework for the research on television's effects on children. Observational learning involves changes in the observer's behavior after viewing others directly or through films, television, books and other media.

What is the role of television in socialization? ›

Even for those children who do not spend countless hours in front of it, it can still be argued that it plays a significant part in their socialization process, merely from the indirect effects - primarily how it influences their peers, and thus themselves.

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