#learned behaviour

P.D. James (Phyllis Dorothy James), novelist

The Bobo Doll Experiment: To what extent is physical aggression a learned behaviour?

In 1961, psychologist Albert Bandura began the first of a number of social experiments. The studies aimed to determine the extent to which people learn physical aggression by observing the behaviour of others. 

The research involved 72 children - 36 girls and 36 boys - aged between 3 and 6 years old. Bandura separated the children into three equal groups of 24, and each group observed a different scenario involving a bobo doll:

Group 1: Observed male and female adults behaving aggressively towards a bobo doll, which included kicking, punching and hitting it with a mallet. The adult models also shouted aggressive remarks at the doll.

Group 2: Observed male and female adults playing gently and non-aggressively with the doll.

Group 3: Witnessed neither scenario and were instead used as a control group.

Afterwards, the children were invited to play in a room of toys - including the bobo doll - while Bandura observed and recorded their behaviour. 

Results

The results demonstrated that the children who witnessed the adults’ aggressive behaviour were significantly more likely to single out the bobo doll from the other toys and behave aggressively towards it.
 It was also observed that the children emulated specific physical actions demonstrated by the adult models - including kicking, punching and using objects to inflict damage to the doll - which indicated that they reenacted exactly what they saw.
 On the other hand, the group which observed peaceful play were significantly less interested in approaching the doll and instead were more likely to interact non-aggressively with the other toys available. 

There was also notably a gendered significance of the study. It was recognised that the male children were more likely overall to demonstrate physical aggression than the female participants, yet levels of verbal aggression remained the same for both genders. Additionally, it emerged from the study that both genders were more likely to physically imitate the male adult model than the female model. This has been linked to primitive concepts and theories surrounding the ‘alpha male’, as it has been suggested that the children were more inclined to submit and comply to masculine authority due to instincts and perhaps social expectations.

Theoretical Significance 

This series of experiments fundamentally shaped Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, which proposes that individuals effectively learn behaviour through observing and imitating others. This theory also emphasises the importance of consequences in influencing behaviour. For example, a child is more likely to imitate aggression if the aggressor being observed faces a lack consequences for their actions. However, if the aggressor is reprimanded by another authority figure, then children are less likely to mimic their aggressive behaviour. This theory has also since been commonly applied as an explanation for how young people’s behaviour becomes influenced by exposure to violent media; video games, graphic movies.

Criticisms

A doll is not comparable to another human being. Therefore, demonstrating aggression towards a doll does not necessarily mean that somebody would also mimic violence on another person.

It is entirely likely that the children imitated aggression in an attempt to please the adults, not necessarily because they genuinely wanted to exert violence or aggression. Therefore, motives need more exploration.

The immediate collection and interpretation of data in this study means that no long-term implications can be determined.

Learned Behaviour was inevitable the moment I realised how bad Trevor's abuse was. It took me a little while to decide exactly who was going to adopt him; I considered Johanna, and David's parents, but I ended up settling on Ms Hallgrim because she seemed like she would be really understanding (after what happened with Hilda) but also firm enough to guide him without resorting to bad parenting. The line where she tells Trevor "there's a word for how your mother treats you" was basically the genesis of this whole fic. Of course, I had to put Trevor through the wringer with some additional trauma, even if my goal was to put him in a better place, and this was absolutely spiteful to his mum.

Fun fact, I really wanted to call this fic Problem Child, but I'd already used that title for another fanfic; I settled for referencing that in the summary instead XD

I'm gonna chose Nothing's The Same for this one, specifically because I made one really big change between starting it and finishing it, and that's that it was originally supposed to be Gerda who comforts Johanna. She does a lot of that in the 5+1, and in Full Disclosure, but I just couldn't get her arrival to work in this fic. This is why it's mentioned at the beginning of the fic that Tontu is keeping to himself; because he wasn't meant to appear.

But I genuinely think having him appear was one of the best decisions I've ever made in a fic. That really made that fic unique for me, and it made me think more about Tontu's role in this AU - there's another Tontu-centric fic in the planning stages for this AU even, all because I decided on a whim to make him comfort Johanna.

As for the stars:

⭐️ - Two Girls In A Bus Stop Shelter - I really like this title; it's possibly one of my favourites, but it's actually re-used from a rejected Oregon idea. In the original it had none of the meaning (since the fic wasn't about a trans character or gender at all), but I had a planned fic called Two Girls In A Gas Station Forecourt that would've been about Connie on her runaway journey running into Molly Blyndeff.

⭐️ - “I am upset, really,” she admitted softly, looking away, “something happened today; I made a big mistake, and I can’t stop thinking about it, and that’s why I couldn’t sleep because it hurt but I was too scared to tell you because I thought you’d just get mad but-” she stopped with a gasp, running out of air as everything came out in a torrent. “Can we… can we talk about it?”

“Of course we can, Hilda.” There was nothing but earnestness in her mum’s voice; looking up, she found only care and trust in Johanna’s gaze. And in that moment, she was sure she’d made the right decision; for the first time that evening, for the first time in a very long while, she felt safe enough to let it all out. - from Cold Is The Night

This moment is really important to me, because honestly it's why I wrote the fic. I've used "Hilda doesn't feel like she can talk about the Time Worm" before, but this time I really wanted to get into that. Having Johanna promise to be better is good and more than canon gave us, but I wanted to actually show that without making the whole story about that, and I'm really happy with the result :)) It also steals one line from somewhere else, but I don't think it's obvious XD

His dad was abusive. Violent. And his father before him.

Once he asked his dad for money for a field trip and his dad threw him into a wall so hard he went through the drywall and ended up in his sister's closet.

He wasn't born with these skills.

His mother told him when he was in highschool that regardless of what happened, she would always back her husband over him.

He wasn't born cold.

Many Americans are taught that violence is an easy, acceptable, and even reasonable response to violence. Which helps explain what happened at the Oscars a few weeks ago.

And if you think what Chris Rock was doing on that stage before the incident wasn’t violence, then you’ve missed half of what happened on the stage that night.