Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models - Essay Example

Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models Affiliation Outline Children's psychology Aggression in children Males are more aggressive Media plays a great role in affecting the behavior Albert Bandura's views Children seek the guidance of others and thus imitate others They are influenced by their role models Television violence plays a great role in affecting the child's behavior Behavior modeling Experiments performed Bobo experiment Results showed that children exhibit more aggressive behavior if they are left with an aggressive model The results were opposite with children who were left with non aggressive models. Rewards play a role in the behavior Bandura analyzed the behavior of children Other experiments performed L.Rowel Huessman experiment Effect of models on the behavior of children Parents role in avoiding the aggressiveness of the child Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models Abstract Children at a young age show the characteristics of what they are going to be in the future. In other words at a young age children act as a medium which is eager to attain knowledge. The reactions and emotions of the children become quite visible when they go through adolescents. They attain the ability to aggression, unhappiness and happiness quite readily. Research has shown that males show more aggression than that of females. As children are in their growing stages they pick up many things from what they see and at times imitate the actions that they see. This makes media a strong factor in the children's behaviorism. "Albert Bandura argued that aggression in children is influenced by the reinforcement of family members, the media, and the environment"(Bandura, 1977: p. 206-208). Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models Nowadays observing movies, films, TV shows play a great role in the behavior of one individual. These have become a major influence for individuals as they observe such kind of mediums and enforce the actions showed in these medium in their respective lives. It specially is important for individuals of young age as they are the ones who are looking for guidance in their early stages. As Robinson states "adolescents who are unsure of the correct behaviors, will watch and learn from others they look up to" (Robinson 1999 p. 30). It is not necessary for children to know the person to imitate him thus they have many role models who appear on the TV. And these children are greatly influenced by their role models. At times this has a negative impact on the children as they then learn by observing their role models that violence equals a reward. A study was conducted by Paik and Comstock in 1994 which further proved this effect and showed that antisocial behavior is more probable in people who watch television violence usually. Albert Bandura had a belief that aggression is picked up through a procedure named as behavior modeling. He considered that people do not inherit violent or aggressive affinities but they model these behaviors after seeing others (Bandura, 1977 p.204). As Bandura states "most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action" (Bandura 1977, p. 22).Children imitate or pick up aggressive responses by viewing other individuals which include their family members or even viewing people through the media. Albert Bandura affirmed that many individuals learned aggressive responses because they thought that these responses would support them in their respective lives. This support could further help them in the decrease of tension, gain of monetary incentives, achieving the honor of others etc. For example the Bobo doll experiment which was conducted to analyze the aggressive behavior of children showed that many children followed the aggressive behavior of the adults due to the rewards gained. In this experiment two groups were formed i.e. violent and non violent. In the violent model group a child was left alone in a room with a model. This model exhibited violent behavior towards the toys which were kept in the room. Similarly in the non violent group a child was left alone in a room with another non violent model. The model here exhibited opposite behavior towards the toys and hence was not violent with the toys. Later the children were left in the same situation but without the model. The violent group exhibited the same violent behavior as the model. While the non violent group children exhibited a non violent behavior towards the toys i.e. the same as the model which went inside the room. This experiment clearly showed that the actions of aggression of children are greatly influenced by the things they see. Albert Bandura believed that if aggression of children was controlled in the early days then the children would never turn out to be criminals (Dixon 2003). Another faction of children saw the aggressive behavior of adults and then the punishing of the same adults. This faction of children was not expected to carry out the same aggressiveness of the model. Afterwards this faction of children was offered rewards if they imitated the aggressive behavior and in result many of the children imitated the aggressive behavior despite of the punishments they had seen. This experiment further helped Bandura to analyze and come out with a theory. In this theory Bandura stated that children molded their behavior by observing others. He also stated that children did not only copy the actions but they also reviewed other factors which were involved. Like when the children saw the adults being punished because of their aggressive behavior, they did not copy the behavior. But when the children were offered rewards for carrying out such behavior they did so. This showed that other factors are also involved in determining the behavior. The Bobo Doll experiment showed that subjects who were given a chance to observe aggressive models produced a similar and aggressive behavior as shown to them by their models. While on the other hand the subjects who were exposed to non aggressive models showed little or no aggressive reaction. This experiment clearly showed that models were a huge factor in changing an individuals thinking and actions. Many other experiments performed by other people such as Blake have similarly revealed that only the factor i.e. the observation of a model has a remarkable effect on a subject's social environment. Another experiment was carried out by L.Rowell Huessman in 1992 to determine the effect of media in children who were in their teenage years. The experiment involved two stages, one was carried out in 1977 while the other one in 1992 on the same individuals. In this experiment the children asked to opt for their favorite TV programs from different lists. These lists were categorized into violent and non violent ones. They were asked how often they watched the shows. After making a suitable study on the results the aggression of the children was formulated by viewing the overall results of how often the children watched aggressive shows and what the aggressive level of the show was. In 1992 the same individuals were called and experimented. All the individuals brought in were interviewed and asked for the same questions as before in 1977. Later the non family members of these individuals were called in and interviewed to find out the level of aggressiveness of the individual. The results showed that the adults who regularly watched violent shows had a much aggressive physical and mental behavior towards the people. While on the other hand the children who often watched such shows or watched shows of less violent nature did exhibit less aggressive behavior. The experiment on a whole showed that children's over all behavior depends or is greatly influenced by what they see. The experiments mentioned above clearly show that there is a relationship between the behavior of violent models and people on the behavior of the children. The above done research shows that children from the teenage years should be controlled by the parents and they should not let their children watch high violence TV shows or exhibit any sort of aggressive behavior. They should keep their children away from people who have an aggressive behavior. These steps taken by the parents would help to build the overall responsibility of the children and would hence decrease the aggressiveness in the behavior of one individual. Bibliography Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Dixon, W. E. (2003). Twenty studies that revolutionized child psychology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Paik. H., & Comstock, G. (1994). The effects of television violence on antisocial behavior. Robinson, H. (1999). Rage. Port Melbourne: Lothian Books. Seamon, J. G., & Kenrick, D. T. (1994). Psychology. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall. Read More