attention to how the friend engages the potential date in conversation, what is
said, and so on. If the friend ’s behavior is rewarded (a date is made), the boy
may believe that he, too, will be rewarded if he acts just like his friend. Most
likely, he ’ll soon get his courage up and ask out someone he ’s had his eye on
for a while. And if the older friend is turned down? It ’s unlikely the boy will
imitate the punished behavior. In both cases, the boy paid close enough atten-
tion to learn how his friend went about asking for a date. But whether he will
perform the behavior depends on what he thinks will happen.
Bandura (1965) demonstrated this learning-performance distinction in a
classic experiment with important social implications. Nursery school chil-
dren watched a television program in which an adult model performed fournovel aggressive acts on an adult-size plastic Bobo doll:
First, the model laid the Bobo doll on its side, sat on it, and punched it in the
nose while remarking, “Pow, right in the nose, boom, boom. ”The model then
raised the doll and pommeled it on the head with a mallet. Each response wasaccompanied by the verbalization, “Sockeroo …stay down. ”Following the
mallet aggression, the model kicked the doll about the room, and these responses
were interspersed with the comment, “Fly away. ”Finally, the model threw
rubber balls at the Bobo doll, each strike punctuated with “Bang. ”(pp. 590 –591)
The children saw one of three endings to the film. Some saw a second adult re-
ward the aggressive model with soft drinks, candy, and lots of praise. Others sawthe model spanked with a rolled-up magazine and warned not to act aggressively
again. A third group was given no information about the consequences of the ag-
gressive behavior. Next, each child was left alone for 10 minutes of free playing
time. Among the many toys in the room were a Bobo doll and all the materials
needed to perform the aggressive acts they had seen. An experimenter watched
through a one-way window to see how many of the four acts of aggression thechildren would perform spontaneously. Each child was then offered fruit juice
and small toys for each of the four aggressive acts he or she could perform for
the experimenter. This last step was included to see if the children could perform
the behavior —that is, had they learned the responses from watching the model?
The results are shown in Figure 13.4. Nearly all the children in all three
groups could perform the behaviors when asked. However, whether theychose to perform the behavior when left alone depended on the consequences
they expected. Although all of the children had learned how to act aggres-
sively, the ones who had seen the model rewarded were significantly morelikely to perform the behaviors than those who had seen the model punished.
APPLICATION: BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION
AND SELF-EFFICACY THERAPY
One of the appeals of traditional behaviorism is its presentation of a simple,
rational model of human nature. Looking at the world through a behaviorist ’s
eyes, everything makes sense. Employees work hard when they are reinforcedproperly. Children stop fighting when aggressive behavior is punished and
working together is reinforced. But what about some of the seemingly irratio-
nal behaviors we see in people suffering from psychological disorders? HowApplication: Behavior Modifi cation and Self-Efficacy Therapy 357