Aggressive Behavior

Learned social behavior is the theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating others.  This theory has been observed in the learning to imitate aggressive behavior.  Bandura (1997) experiments included the effect from watching an adult that was frustrated.  Adults would take out the aggression on an inflated doll with punching, yelling, and kicking.  Then pre-school children that had viewed the aggressive act would be told that they could not play with toys when they were in a room filled with toys.  The children that had viewed the adult taking out their frustrations on the Bobo doll did the same when they became frustrated.  But the children that didn't view the upset adults did not attack Bobo.  From this study it was concluded that observing aggressive behavior would:

1. Lower children's inhibitions.
2. Teaches children ways to act aggressively when upset.

This makes us wonder and think about the negative or positive traits that can be learned in the family from mere observation.  It also points to the question of viewing violence from television and video games and the learned social behavior children (and adults) are gaining through observation.