Albert Bandura
Learn about the man behind the bobo doll experiment
Albert Bandura's Family
Albert Bandura was born on December 4th 1925, in Mundare, Canada. Albert lived there with his 5 siblings where he was the youngest of the six children. He married Virginia in 1952 and they had two kids.
Albert Bandura's Schooling
Education
Albert Bandura went to a small high school with 20 students and 2 teachers. After high schcool Albert went to the university of British Columbia for his B.A. After he got his B.A he choose to go to the university of Iowa. He went there for his doctorate in 1952. He then went to Wichita Kansas guidance center to do a clinical Internship. Well he was at the university of Iowa his intreset in learning and behavrisam grow.
Awards and Accomplishments
Dr. Bandura has won many awards and has also published nine books. Dr. Bandura was elected President of the American Psychological Association. In 1998 he received the Thorndike Award for distinguished contributions of psychology in education. One other award he earned was the Scientist Award from California University.
Dr. Bandura's Contribution to Psychology
Dr. Bandura is famous for his books, but he is also known for his social learning theory (now known as social cognitive theory). This theory is a behavior theory that he believed clearly indicated that children don't inherit violent tendencies from their parents. Dr. Bandura thought that adolescents are violent because of what they have observed. Dr. Bandura put his theory to the test with the bobo boll experiment. He showed children a video that included a different ending for each group. The video showed an adult hitting, yelling, pretending to shoot the doll and other aggressive actions. One ending showed the adult being praised. Another ending showed and adult being scolded. The last group of children viewed no video at all. Dr. Bandura then took one group of the children into a room identical to the one in the video. The children who watched the video where the adult was praised mimicked the actions they saw in the video. The other groups played and mostly ignored the doll.
Dr. Bandura Present Day
Dr. Bandura currently teaches at Stanford University and has done so since 1953. Dr. Bandura and his wife, Virginia, have two daughters. Sadly though Virginia passed away in 2011.