Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment On Social Learning

• Pre-testing children for aggression

  1. Observing children in nursery

  2. Judging aggressive behaviour on four 5-point rating scales

  3. Matching children in groups with similar aggression levels
• Matched pairs design


  An experimental design where participants are paired based on similar characteristics
• Testing inter-rater reliability


  1. Rating 51 children by two observers

  2. Comparing ratings for reliability correlation
• Inter-rater reliability showed a very high reliability correlation (r = 0.89)
• Conditions in the experiment

  • Aggressive model shown to 24 children
  • Non-aggressive model shown to 24 children
  • No model shown (control condition) – 24 children
• Stage 1: Modeling


  1. Children shown into a room with toys

  2. Playing with potato prints and pictures

  3. Watching aggressive or non-aggressive model
• Adults attacked the Bobo doll in a distinctive manner
• Children were subjected to “mild aggression arousal”
• Stage 2: Aggression Arousal


  1. Child taken to a room with attractive toys

  2. Experimenter reserved toys for other children
• Stage 3: Test for Delayed Imitation


  1. Child in room with aggressive and non-aggressive toys

  2. Behaviour observed and rated through a one-way mirror
• Observations were made at 5-second intervals, giving 240 response units for each child
• Girls in the aggressive model condition showed more physically aggressive responses if the model was male, but more verbally aggressive responses if the model was female
• Boys were more likely to imitate same-sex models than girls
• Boys imitated more physically aggressive acts than girls
• Advantages of the experimental method

  • Establish cause and effect
  • Precise control of variables
  • Replicability
• Standardised procedures and instructions were used, allowing for replicability
• The study has been replicated with slight changes, such as using video, and similar results were found (Bandura, 1963)
• Limitations of the procedure

  • Low ecological validity
  • Model and child are strangers
  • Culturally biased sample
  • Other reasons for aggressive behaviour not considered
  • Uncertainty of long-term consequences
• Children who had not played with a Bobo Doll before were five times as likely to imitate aggressive behaviour than those familiar with it
• Just because the child acts aggressively towards the doll, doesn’t mean that they would act aggressively in a normal social situation