## Scientific method in psychology

Even though the working tools of scientists active in the social sciences are different from the tools of natural scientists, the essence of their work – use of the scientific method to learn about the world around us – is identical. As an example of the scientific procedure in the field of psychology, we can look at the so-called "Bobo" doll experiment, which was carried out in 1961 by the team of psychologist Albert Bandura. This experiment tested the hypothesis that children learn how to behave mainly by observing and imitating adults. During the experiment, the tested children were divided into three groups. The first group was seated in a room where the organisers played them a video in which an adult was behaving aggressively towards a "Bobo" doll (a large inflatable doll that is easily hit, kicked, etc.). In the second group, children were shown a video in which an adult behaved neutrally or friendly towards the doll. The third group did not watch any video. The children were then moved to a room with a doll and the scientists recorded their behaviour. It turned out that children who saw aggressive behaviour on video were much more likely to behave aggressively towards the doll in comparison to other children. This difference was even more pronounced if the person in the video was of the same gender as the child (more boys were aggressive if the person on the video was male than if it was a female and vice versa). By comparing the tested children (those who were shown the videos) with the control group (without the video), it was subsequently possible to formulate conclusions and propose further experiments.
A YouTube clip showing this experiment can be found here.