Citation

Galanaki E, Malafantis KD. Front. Psychol. 2022; 13: e988877.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Frontiers Research Foundation)

DOI

10.3389/fpsyg.2022.988877

PMID

36506971

PMCID

PMC9733593

Abstract

In a series of innovative experiments, Bandura (1925-2021), renowned Psychology Professor at Stanford University, USA, and his collaborators (e.g., Bandura and Huston, 1961; Bandura et al., 1961, 1963; Bandura, 1965, 1969) showed that young children exposed to adults' aggression tend to behave aggressively. In these experiments, children observed adults, in vivo or in vitro, as well as cartoons, behaving aggressively toward a large, inflated doll (clown) named "Bobo doll", for about 10 min. The findings of these studies are considered to support modeling, observational learning, or learning by imitation and provide evidence for Bandura's social learning theory, which belongs to the behaviorism paradigm. In this paper, we offer a psychoanalytic critique of these experiments with the aim of shedding light on the unconscious processes of children's imitation of aggression. Although Bandura (1986) later formulated the so-called social cognitive theory and focused on less observable processes (e.g., self-regulation, self-efficacy, beliefs, expectations), in presenting these early experiments he clearly opposed the existing psychoanalytic interpretations of aggression.

Language: en

Keywords

children; aggression; identification with the aggressor; Bandura; introjection of the aggressor; modeling; psychoanalysis; seduction