Outline and evaluate one social psychological theory of aggression

One social psychological theory of aggression is social learning theory (SLT) which describes aggression as occurring due to observation and imitation. A person who observes aggressive behaviour is likely to imitate this if they see the role model as similar to themselves. Also vicarious learning would state that if they saw a role model rewarded for aggressive behaviour, then based on their self-efficacy – the belief that they will be rewarded – they will imitate this behaviour.

One crucial study when looking into SLT is Bandura's Bobo Doll study; when child participants observed an aggressive role model punching the Bobo doll they often imitated this behaviour. However, there are various methodological issues which may cast doubt over the reliability of this study in the explanation of aggressive behaviour. For example, one child was overheard saying "look mummy it's the doll we're supposed to hit", this could be indicative of demand characteristics.