AP PSYCHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Research by Bandura has also suggested that young children imitate adults’ aggressive actions that they witness in contrived social settings. Thus, aggressive behavior is thought to occur because it has been either modeled or reinforced over time.

Detailed explanation-2: -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.

Detailed explanation-3: -For example, if a child observes their parents going to work every day, volunteering at a local community center and helping their significant other with tasks around the home, the child is likely to mimic those behaviors. If rewarded, these behaviors become reinforced and most likely repeated by the individual.

Detailed explanation-4: -What is an explanation for why the children in Bandura’s 1961 study did not imitate the behaviour of the female model when she was bashing the Bobo? She reminded them of their mothers. The women only engaged in verbal aggression and most of the children were too young to understand.