Project Proposal: Observational Learning and Aggression in Children

This project proposal examines observational learning, focusing on how children acquire behaviors through observation, particularly in the context of exposure to violent video games. Drawing upon Bandura's theories and the Bobo doll experiment, the proposal outlines a study to investigate the hypothesis that children exposed to violent video games are more likely to exhibit aggressive behaviors. The methodology involves a controlled experiment with 40 children, divided into groups exposed to violent, non-violent, and no video games, with their behaviors assessed through observation and a behavioral rating scale. The study aims to understand the role of observational learning in shaping children's character development and the potential impact of media violence on their behavior, contributing to the broader understanding of child psychology and the effects of media exposure.

Running head: OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING- PROJECT PROPOSAL 1
Observational Learning- Project Proposal
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Observational Learning- Project Proposal

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Introduction
Observational learning involves studying through observation where kids and adults learn
and acquire new behaviors. It is a continuous process that is automatically initiated at birth and a
powerful learning tool and particularly to kids whose minds are blank in the early ages. A child
interacting with peers is attentive to what is new and in return tries to behave the same way. For
this reason, adults, have the sole responsibility of jumping in and modeling the behaviors of
these innocent minds. Observational learning theories propose two basic approaches through
which behavior is learned. First is the instrumental training where tutors explicitly attempt to
illustrate their responses through differential reinforcements. Secondly, is the imitation where
either the observers or the learners attempt to match their responses to those of the doer.
Imitation occurs without any direct tuition and constitutes the major part of child’s socialization
(Bandura et al., 1961). This paper aims at evaluating how behavioral theory helps in explaining
how kids exposed to aggressive and violent video games are likely to acquire the same set of
behavior as compared to kids who do not play the games.
Theoretical framework
Observational learning is best demonstrated by how kids listen to their mother’s voice
and in return try and mimic the sounds. As a renowned researcher, Albert Bandura modeled an
experiment, the Bobo doll experiment, where he illustrated how children learn and acquire new
traits through observation. In his experiment, children were exposed to an aggressive video game
and in the practical field, a child aggressively hit and kicked the Bobo doll in the same way as
the young woman in the movie. Other than observing and re-doing, he integrated the cognitive
and operant view when it comes to learning. Bandura suggests that observational learning
encompasses four steps in the pattern. These include attention, retention, reproduction, and

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motivation. This is to say that a learner will first notice something happening and in return will
pay attention to it, they will then note and remember the action for them to replicate the same
(Williams and Skoric, 2005).
Traditional learning theories demonstrate behavior as related to experiential
reinforcements. However, Bandura notes that ”virtually all learning phenomena resulting from
direct experiences can occur on a vicarious basis through observation of people’s behavior and
its consequences for them” (Bandura et al., 1963). This is to mean that observers easily acquire
behaviors by example without much of tedious trials and similarly, people inhibit certain
behavior subject to the observed punishment imposed to others for their actions.
According to Bandura, almost every behavior that people portray is either deliberately or
inadvertently learned through example. The positive side about this theory is that a dangerous
mistake can be avoided by employing competent models from which language and novel
response patterns can be acquired in a more efficient manner through observational means. As
mentioned above, the process involved attention, retention, reproduction, reinforcement and
motivational processes. How well something is done determines how best the observers will
imitate the same (Fraser et al., 2012).
Observational learning involves the transmission of information and character regarding
methods of organizing component responses into new patterns of behavior. Physical
demonstrations serve as the best ways of acquiring novel responses pattern by the observers.
There is a clear distinction between adult and children with regard to observational learning.
Adults have developed excellent language and communication skills and as such, they rely on
and prefer verbal modeling, children, on the other hand, have limited language skills and for that
reason, they solely rely on visual depictions. Behavioral learning theories, therefore, supports

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this study that kids exposed to aggressive and violent video games are likely to acquire such
behavior as compared to kids who do not play the games.
Rational
In today’s world, children are developing all forms of characters and this has a great
impact on their future lives. The degree of impact depends on the childhood learnings. A study
by Bandura and Ross indicates that children exposed to aggressive models reproduced the same
character. In the same study, the mean score between children expressed to aggressive models to
the control differed markedly and demonstrated more imitative and non-imitative aggressive
behavior. Also, Fraser et al., (2012) suggested that violent video gaming has a negative
relationship with pro-social behaviors. For this reason, there is the need to study the effect of
behavioral learning on character development in children to help address their future character
needs.
Objectives of the study
1. To study the role of observational learning in behavior development in children
2. To examine how children exposed to violent video games are likely to acquire violent
and aggressive behaviors as compared to children who not exposed to such games.
Hypothesis
H1: Children exposed to violent video games are likely to acquire violent and aggressive
behavior.
H2: Observational learning has a direct relationship with behavior development in children

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Methodology
Participants
The study population will consist of 40 children of the age 37 to 69 months. This will
constitute 20 boys and 20 girls from Stanford Nursery School. Two adults, a male, and a female
will serve as the role models and tutors of violent gaming to the children.
Experimental design
The study population will be divided into five groups with each group having eight
subjects. One group (A) will act as the control, two groups (B) will be subjected to violent
gaming and the remaining two (C) will be subdued to nonaggressive gaming. Each group will
have an equal number of boys as girls. Group B will then be exposed to a violent video game.
The choice of the game is based on the criteria of violence, bleeding and level of body damage
by the players in the video game as ranked by Game Rating Board. The board is a public
organization responsible of rating video games. The game, in this case, is Blade and Soul. Group
C will be subjected to a nonviolent video game based on the same ranking board while group A
will not be subjected to any form of gaming. Children will play the games for two hours in a day
and for three weeks in overall.
Materials
Computers. To host video gaming apps.
Video gaming software.
Balls. To be used for a football match
Measures

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After the three weeks of gaming, the children will be exposed to a friendly and
nonaggressive game, football game, and their behavioral responses noted. All the groups will
play separately and their emotions and behavioral responses evaluated on a scale of 1 to 10 based
on Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scales (BERS; Epstein, 2004)

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References
Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1963). Imitation of film-mediated aggressive models. The
Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 66(1), 3.
Bandura, A., & Huston, A. C. (1961). Identification as a process of incidental learning. The
Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63(2), 311.
Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1961). Transmission of aggression through imitation of
aggressive models. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63(3), 575.
Bandura, A., & McDonald, F. J. (1963). Influence of social reinforcement and the behavior of
models in shaping children's moral judgment. The Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology, 67(3), 274.
Epstein, M. H. (2004). Behavioral and emotional rating scale – second edition. Austin, TX:
PRO-ED.
Fraser, A. M., Padilla-Walker, L. P., Coyne, S. M., Nelson, L. J., & Stockdale, L. A. (2012).
Bringing out the inner soldier: Associations between violent video games, empathy, and
prosocial behavior toward three targets. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 41(5), 636–
649.
Lee, H. G. (2002). Social and psychological variables predicting violence game addiction of
adolescents in the internet. The Korean Journal of Developmental Psychology, 14(4), 55–
79.
Williams, D., & Skoric, M. (2005). Internet fantasy violence: A test of aggression in an online
game. Communication Monographs, 72, 217–233.

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