518 Part VI Learning-Cognitive Theories
Once established, people continue to aggress for at least five reasons:
(1) They enjoy inflicting injury on the victim (positive reinforcement); (2) they
avoid or counter the aversive consequences of aggression by others (negative rein-
forcement); (3) they receive injury or harm for not behaving aggressively (punish-
ment); (4) they live up to their personal standards of conduct by their aggressive
behavior (self-reinforcement); and (5) they observe others receiving rewards for
aggressive acts or punishment for nonaggressive behavior.
Bandura believes that aggressive actions ordinarily lead to further aggression.
This belief is based on the now classic study of Bandura, Dorrie Ross, and Sheila
Ross (1963), which found that children who observed others behaving aggressively
displayed more aggression than a control group of children who did not view
aggressive acts. In this study, the experimenters divided Stanford University nursery
school boys and girls into three matched experimental groups and one control group.
Children in the first experimental group observed a live model behaving with
both verbal and physical aggression toward a number of toys, including a large
inflated Bobo doll; the second experimental group observed a film showing the
same model behaving in an identical manner; the third experimental group saw a
fantasy film in which a model, dressed as a black cat, behaved equally aggressively
against the Bobo doll. Children in the control group were matched with those in
the experimental groups on previous ratings of aggression, but they were not sub-
jected to an aggressive model.
After children in the three experimental groups observed a model scolding,
kicking, punching, and hitting the Bobo doll with a mallet, they proceeded into
another room where they were mildly frustrated. Immediately following this frus-
tration, each child went into the experimental room, which contained some toys
(such as a smaller version of the Bobo doll) that could be played with aggressively.
In addition, some nonaggressive toys (such as a tea set and coloring materials)
were present. Observers watched the children’s aggressive or nonaggressive
response to the toys through a one-way mirror.
As hypothesized, children exposed to an aggressive model displayed more
aggressive responses than those who had not been exposed. But contrary to expec-
tations, the researchers found no differences in the amount of total aggression
shown by children in the three experimental groups. Children who had observed
the cartoon character were at least as aggressive as those exposed to a live model
or to a filmed model. In general, children in each experimental group exhibited
about twice as much aggressive behavior as did those in the control group. In
addition, the particular kind of aggressive response was remarkably similar to that
displayed by the adult models. Children scolded, kicked, punched, and hit the doll
with a mallet in close imitation to the behavior that had been modeled.
This study, now more than 40 years old, was conducted at a time when
people still debated the effects of television violence on children and adults. Some
people argued that viewing aggressive behaviors on television would have a
cathartic effect on children: That is, children who experienced aggression vicari-
ously would have little motivation to act in an aggressive manner. The study by
Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1963) offered some of the earliest experimental evi-
dence that TV violence does not curb aggression; rather, it produces additional
aggressive behaviors.