Albert Bandura researched how it is we learn to act the ways we do and came away with a head-scratchingly simple conclusion: by observation. It seems common sense now, but it wasn’t in 1961 when he conducted the now-famous “Bobo Doll” experiment where adults exhibited violent behavior toward a doll. Watching children then mimicked this violence. Observation, modeling, imitation: these acts became the basis of Social Learning Theory, and Observational Learning. Bandura’s work has been quietly revolutionary, he’s the fourth most cited psychologist in research (after Sigmund Freud, B.F. Skinner, and Jean Piaget), and is described as one of the most influential psychologists of all time.
I wonder how much Bandura would say our observations of others inform what it is we think we truly want in life?
