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Strengths and weaknesses of the bystander effect study
Strengths and weaknesses of the bystander effect study
Cognitive theory of the bystander effect
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Every day many of us are faced with the question, “Should I step in and help?”. Some of us immediately think yes and jump in to help, while others believe it is better to keep walking. The bystander effect happens when a person does not stop and help because they think someone else will. In these situations, some people stand up and respond to the crisis, because they are not worried about what will happen to them, but what will happen to the person in crisis instead. In the novel Night and the poem “The Hangman”, the bystander effect took place because people were afraid to bring attention to themselves.
The murder of Kitty Genovese took place on March 13th, 1964 outside of her apartment building in New York. She was attacked three separate times by Winston Moseley, the perpetrator. This particular murder got headline news due to the witnesses of the murder and what was done to intervene. The New York Times were a huge part of the headlines due to their original article written about the murder, which was said to be fabricated for attention purposes. The article claimed that 37-38 people were eye witnesses to the murder during the three different attacks, but no one decided to report the crime to the police which definitely raised some eyebrows.
She screamed. People turned their lights on and opened their windows; she screamed out saying “He stabbed me! Please help me.” This man stabbed her two more time before she died. The police were called at 3:50 and the police arrived two minutes later.
In the book To Kill A Mockingbird Jeremy Atticus Finch shows that he is heroic. There are numerous ways he shows this. He keeps calm when in a dangerous situation. Jem also is brave and courageous. Jem puts other first and he protects others.
When a person steps forward to help, they are stopping one of the dangers of indifference. Wiesel describes getting involved as, “awkward, troublesome”. No one wants to confront a problem because it is easier to pretend it never happened. People always think, “at least it’s not happening to me”, until it does. Another danger is pain and suffering.
Moseley pursued Genovese as she raced toward the building's entrance, caught up with her, and stabbed her twice in the back. Genovese cried out, "I was stabbed, my God! Aid me!" Several of the neighbors heard her scream, but only a few of them understood that she was calling for aid. Moseley fled after a neighbor yelled at the assailant, "Leave that girl alone!"
The article explores the psychological factors that influence bystander behavior, such as diffusion of responsibility and the fear of going against social norms. It shows how individuals may hesitate to help others in need due to the fear of being ostracized by their community, which can impact their conscience and moral
Bystander behaviour can generally be described as the actions people take when they witness an emergency situation in a public place. There have been many studies on bystander behaviour, this essay will explore two approaches to explain this behaviour. It will look at the experimental method performed by Latané and Darley and at the discourse analysis done by Levine. First the essay will describe and outline the methods.after that it will examine the similarities as well as the contrast between those techniques. Latané and Darley did their research on bystander behaviour in the aftermath of the murder case of Catherine `Kitty´ Genovese,which happened in the Suburbs of New York in 1964.
The bystander effect is defined as the effect in which one person feels unobligated to help a situation because there are other people around. An example of this is the movie is when the two black guys in the stolen vehicle hit a man and because the other is present they feel it is best for their sake to stand by and run away from the man they just hit. This behavior shown towards the man who was hit is discourteous and occurred because the two men did not feel inclined to help the man they hit because the other was present. Defensive attribution is the tendency to blame the victim for the crime and is another aspect of social psychology found in the film Crash. One example of this in the film is the same example as stated before; when the two black men hit the pedestrian with a vehicle they stole.
One way that people respond to systems of oppression is by being a bystander. A bystander is a person who witnesses an oppressor harassing a victim but does nothing about it because it does not affect that person or so they think that it does not affect them. One of the poems that talk about bystanders is ' First They Came For ' by Martin Niemoller. The poem takes place in Germany, during WW 2.
Two major approaches when studying bystander behaviour are discourse analysis and experimental method. Latané & Darley and Levine have contributed to psychological study into this matter, using these different methods of experimentation to reach conclusions regarding the bystander effect. This essay will begin by describing the different uses of evidence in both methods. Furthermore, it will discuss what these methods have in common, for they equally attempt to understand why bystander behaviour occurs, and the reasons that they differ. It will examine why each method is a useful way of analysing human behaviour, and the similarities in the limited demographics used by these particular psychologists.
The reason is the Bystander Effect is a theory that in an emergency people don’t get involved due to various reasons. For example, people like the witnesses don't jump in or get involved because they will stay in shock or be scared to help out an innocent person that has been murdered or being in a situation of a murder. In my opinion one of the witnesses could of at least called 911 or jump in to help out the innocent person. Consequently, people around the world believe that there should be a law to force this behavior among citizens called, The Good Samaritan Law. In a short brief way, this law would and could punish or fine people who failed to aid a person in need of help.
It is unbelievable how many people do not help just because others are present. People are more worried about their personal outline and what people think of them so they do not want to embarrass themselves by making a scene if it is not necessary. Darley and Latane’s “Why People Don’t Help in a Crisis” is effective because emergencies can happen to anyone, at anyplace, during anytime that may involve a bystanders attention and help. Pay attention to the surroundings, go with a gut feeling if a situation looks as if it may be an emergency, and do not be worried about what others around may think if assistance is needed. By simply lending out a helping hand, it could save a
In the article Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn 't Call Police, author Martin Gansberg recalls the events that occurred on the night of March 13, 1964. "38 respectful, law abiding citizens" (120) stood idle as Kitty Genovese was hunted down on three separate occasions and murdered. Not once was an attempt made to alert authorities, an action that may have resulted in Kitty 's life being spared. When questioned, the spectators had a multitude of excuses for why they had not notified authorities, some of which included, "I didn 't want to get involved," (122) and even, "I was tired" (123). This article demonstrates the violence of this time period and the unwillingness of humans to assist those in need.
The bystander effect states that during an occurrence or a crisis, the more observers there are, the less
