Television is one of the biggest sources of entertainment for children these days. We see them being influenced by the advertisements shown on TV, and they demand to buy everything they see as desirable. Often we see children enacting what they see on screen. Be it a dance step, a line they heard on TV, or even an action sequence.
In 1961, Albert Bandura conducted an experiment called Bobo Doll Experiment. In this, he and his colleagues took a total of 24 subjects, further divided into three groups of eight. These subjects were school-aged children who were supposed to watch a video of a person playing with toys.
The first group was exposed to aggressive behavior on television and was shown an adult behaving aggressively towards a bobo doll.
The second group saw the adult playing with the bobo doll and other toys peacefully without aggression.
The third group was the control group and was not exposed to any of the above.
Each child was then observed separately. They were taken to a room with several toys- both aggressive and non-aggressive. Aggressive toys included darts, guns, and a bobo doll, and Non-aggressive toys included crayons, tea sets etc.
The results showed that children exposed to an aggressive model were also more aggressive and received higher mean aggression scores. They imitated what the model had done to the bobo doll in the video they saw.
According to Bandura, violence on TV could result in four things:
It would lead to aggressive behavior.
It glamorizes violence, weakens restraint against aggression, and desensitizes children from cruelty.
It can shape a child's image of reality. This means that violence on television can lead to children perceiving the world as more violent than it is.
Several other researchers supported Bandura's findings about learning aggression through observation.
Exposure to violence in media has several long-term and long-term effects.
Short-term effects include an increase in aggression in interactions with others.
Long-term effects include an increased risk of criminal behavior.
An experiment by Rowell Huesmann and his colleagues found that children who watched violence on television for long hours in pre-school showed higher aggression in their teenage years. They also found that those who watched violence at the age of 8 were more likely to get arrested and prosecuted for crimes in adulthood.
According to Bandura, aggression can be learned through observation and imitation, as demonstrated in the Bobo Doll experiment. The Social Learning Theory by Albert Bandura laid the premise for the bobo doll experiment. It says that people learn through observing behaviors performed by models and then imitating them.
In addition to just observing acts of violence, children are also influenced by how violent behavior is received by others.
If a violent act is praised or rewarded, it will influence children to act similarly.
If violence on TV is punished, it will influence the children less than if it was rewarded.
Similarly, if a child observes an influential model that they admire and looks up to, they are more likely to show similar behavior.
Aggressive behavior often stems from watching violence on television, and several pieces of research have proved this. In such a situation when children spend a considerable amount of their time seeking entertainment on television, it is vital to have some measures in place to avoid them learning aggressive behavior. Limiting violent behavior on screen is the most crucial step in preventing children from learning similar behavior.
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