Albert Bandura's Theory Of Domestic Violence

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Domestic violence is something that most people do not want to talk about. It is the dirty little secret kept my families to protect those who are committing the behavior. The problem is that violence is not ok and the more it is pushed under the rug and a blind eye turned to it, the worse it gets. As a matter of fact, ignoring domestic violence can have potentially deadly consequences. What causes a person to become violent? Are they born with a predisposition to it because of their inherited genes or is it something that is learned? This has been a debate among scholars, scientists, and psychologists for many years. One psychologist in particular named Albert Bandura came up with the Behavior Modeling Theory which states that children who …show more content…
Three different groups of children were tasked with watching how an adult interacted with the doll and then they were given the chance to interact with it as well. The children who observed the adults that were aggressive with the doll reacted the same way towards it, while the children who watched the adults being kind and loving to the doll also reacted the same way. It should also be noted that the gender of the child and the gender of the adult did have some correlation to how much they mimicked the behavior. So what then did this experiment prove? It was a way to show that children learn by watching those around them and tend to react the same way because they do not yet know right from wrong. Violence does not have to be the only thing that can come from learned behavior. Another psychologist Ivan Pavlov conducted an experiment in which he conditioned a dog to salivate when hearing a bell ring because he associated it with food. This too is a learned behavior. This same thing can be applied to a child. When a child is an infant and does not yet have the ability to use words to express its needs it will cry to get attention. The child soon learns that if it cries when it is hungry it will get fed. While this is not exactly the same as observed behavior it is still a learning process for the …show more content…
There is hitting, punching, hair pulling, name calling, and screaming during this time. This becomes the norm in the household and the child now sees this as the way things are and retains this knowledge. They are learning this behavior to be ok because nothing is being done to stop it. This same child goes to school and does not agree with another child on the playground and hits the other child in response to the disagreement. Children learn violent behaviors in primary social groups, such as the family and peer groups, as well as observe it in their neighborhoods and in the community at large (Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. (2000, November

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