The Bobo doll experiment, conducted by psychologist Albert Bandura in the early 1960s, illustrates the concept of observational learning, also known as social learning. This theory suggests that people can learn new behaviors by observing others rather than through direct experience.
In the experiment, children watched a video of an adult behaving aggressively towards a Bobo doll—hitting it, kicking it, and shouting at it. Later, when these children were given the opportunity to play with the same doll, they imitated the aggressive behaviors they had observed. This demonstrated that the children did not just imitate the specific actions; they also adapted the behavior, showing creativity in how they expressed their aggression.
Bandura’s findings provided strong evidence for the idea that children learn social behaviors through the observation of role models. The results emphasized the importance of modeling in the development of aggressive behavior and raised concerns about the impact of media violence on children.