Research indicates that children learn aggression by imitating aggressive models.
Rehearsing aggression, as when children play with toy guns, is one step in this process.
123456Number of Acts Imitated
Liked Toy
and
Liked ActDisliked Toy
but
Liked ActLiked Toy
but
Disliked ActDisliked Toy
and
Disliked Act
FIGURE 14.4 Mean Number of Aggressive Acts Imitated
Source: From “Role of affective assessment in modeling aggressive behavior, ”by B. D. Slife and J. F. Rychlak,
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 1982, 43, 861 –868.388 CHAPTER 14 The Behavioral/Social Learning Approach