Chapter . Observational Learning of Aggression: Bandura's Bobo Doll Study

Correct!

Sorry, your answer is incorrect. The correct answer is observational learning.

In negative reinforcement, a negative condition is removed in order to increase the probability of repeating a prior behavior. One might argue that the removal of social opprobrium is at work here, but that still wouldn’t explain the fact that the children mimicked the model’s behaviors prior to receiving any direct reinforcement.

Note that children’s behaviors may be positively reinforced after they engage in them, but their mimicry of the exact behavior of the models prior to any personal reinforcement best places this study as an example of observational (or vicarious) learning.

Classical conditioning refers to the connection of neutral stimulus to a naturally occurring stimulus (or unconditioned stimulus) in a stimulus-response pairing. There is no naturally occurring stimulus-response pairing on which to build in the study.

Correct!

Sorry, your answer is incorrect. Bandura simply needed a safe (i.e.; non-human) target for children to aggress against so no one was really hurt.

Bandura wasn’t studying peer aggression per se, and in any case we see that the doll was taller than some of the participants.

While clowns are indeed terrifying to some, coulrophobia’s prevalence rate is rather low, and there’s no evidence Bandura had this specific phobia.

There’s no indication that the modeling of aggression is limited to human targets.

Correct!

Sorry, your answer is incorrect. His response to this is likely to be careful.

Bandura’s research does show a definite effect, not the null finding this answer would suggest.

Catharsis does has a long history, but what it doesn’t have is evidence. Witnessing aggressive actions do not appear to drain violent impulses.

Remember, Bandura noted that children watching the model engage in novel aggressive play behaviors, not just repeating the ones they saw (although they do that as well).

Correct!

Sorry, your answer is incorrect. The correct answer is guns. These toys were all seen in the video, and were all seen being used aggressively, but none were mentioned as being significantly preferred by the modeling group save for guns.

Correct!

Sorry, your answer is incorrect. He is most interested in the generation of novel aggressive behaviors.

Children do mimic the language of the model – Bandura acknowledges that—but that is not the specific focus of the study.

Bandura never mentions counting the number of aggressive behaviors.

The video showed both a boy and a girl acting aggressively, but Bandura never mentions which (if any) is expected to be more aggressive.