Observational Learning and Media Influence- Exploring Banduras Study and Contemporary Perspectives on Violence

Observational Learning and Media Influence- Exploring Banduras Study and Contemporary Perspectives on Violence

The basic concept in the study is that children generally learn through observing. Children imitate the behaviours of the adults around them. They observe and imitate both negative and positive traits. Children exposed to physical and verbal violence are more likely to be violent both at home and school (Bandura et al., 2021). After exposure to violence, some children may not exhibit the traits- though this makes a very small percentage. Children who are never exposed to violence can never show traits of violence. A child observes and pays attention to the behaviour of another person. They store the information or behaviour in their memory. The child starts to imitate what they observe. It can be after a day, a month, or years after the child gets a motivation or reason to behave the way they observed, and it might become their character. Observation is the main and most common way people learn; both children and adults learn through observation.

Exposure to violent video games, television programs, and media can result in violent behaviour among children and youth. Violence in television and games can cause a child to be less sensitive to the suffering and pain of others, including family and friends. A child can also become fearful of the world and the people around them. The violence in media can cause them to think that everyone or everything around them is violent, hence failing to trust people, including their loved ones. Children exposed to violence are likely to be harmful and aggressive towards other children and their siblings (Bandura – bobo doll experiment, 2011). If a child is actively watching violence on television while in elementary school, the possibility of being aggressive and violent as a teenager is higher. Most people arrested as criminals and prosecuted due to violence and aggressiveness in adulthood were actively watching violence when they were young. Though watching violence causes people to be violent and insensitive, it’s not the only cause.

As a child, I learned a lot from observing what was happening around me, just like any other child.  My mom was a strict disciplinarian. One day, my older sister picked a cookie from the cookie jar without asking for permission. Our mother punished her for that behaviour, and I immediately learned that I should ask my mom’s permission whenever I needed a cookie. I have stayed with that behaviour to date; I do not touch or use anything without requesting the owner’s permission.

Learning is changing the nervous system due to the environment. Behaviour is changed to allow an individual to function in an environment. Learning can either be done by operant conditioning, observational learning, and classical conditioning.  Operant and classical conditioning are the associative ways of learning (Jarvis et al., 2003). Observational learning is behaving or responding in a certain way due to observing other people behave in the same way. The people are called models. There is no reinforcement used, but the observer will eventually behave like the model. In classical conditioning, an individual learns to associate certain events that happen to them together. It causes people to learn anticipation of events (Domjan, 2018). For example, a dog given meat after a bell is rung will always associate the bell with meat and salivate for meat immediately after it hears a bell ring. Operant conditioning involves learning how to reinforce behavior; hence it strengthens or extinguishes a response. Behaviors followed by satisfying consequences have a probability of being repeated, but those whose consequences are not pleasant are not often repeated.

References

Bandura – bobo doll experiment. (2011). [Image]. Retrieved 9 November 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHHdovKHDNU.

Bandura, A., Rose, D., & Rose, S. (2021). Classics in the History of Psychology- Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models [Ebook] (p. a single page). York University. Retrieved 9 November 2021, from http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Bandura/bobo.htm.

Domjan, M. (2018). The essentials of conditioning and learning. American Psychological Association.

Jarvis, P., Holford, J., & Griffin, C. (2003). The theory & practice of learning. Psychology Press.

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

After viewing Bandura’s original video from his 1961 study above, complete the following for this discussion:
Explain the basic concepts regarding observational learning demonstrated in this study.
Based on the video and your reading, do you believe that violence in television, media, or video games likely promotes violent behaviours according to the principles of observational learning? Please share your thoughts and examples.

Observational Learning and Media Influence- Exploring Banduras Study and Contemporary Perspectives on Violence

Additionally, discuss your own real-life example of the concept of observational learning by sharing an incident either witnessed personally or through the media.
Discuss how observational learning differs from theories of learning that emphasize “conditioning” (classical conditioning and operant conditioning). Use the example of how aggressive behaviour may result from conditioning.
Be sure to provide the URL link(s) and/or title(s) to any resource used as a reference in your post.