More handpicked essays just for you.
Strengths of bystander effect
Strengths and weakness of the bystander classic study
Strengths of bystander effect
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
An Explanation of Mr. Buckley’s Helping Behaviour
The murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964 caused a national outcry.
Although her death was horrific, the public could not believe the
police reported 38 people witnessing the incident yet not one person
took any action. The dismay this caused prompted Psychologists to
study the factors involved in helping behaviour.
Helping behaviour may be defined as “an intentional act to benefit
someone else”. (Hogg and Vaughan, 1995, cited in Hogg and Vaughan,
2002, p 280). Other related terms are altruism and prosocial
behaviour. Each terms definition emphasises different aspects of the
behaviour, particularly the motive for helping. At present, there is
not a universally accepted definition of helping behaviour. The number
of terms in use reflects this disparity.
This essay will provide various social explanations of the helping
behaviour demonstrated by Mr. Buckley. Main conclusions are the theory
proposed by ? seems to account for the cited behaviour more
effectively than the alternatives discussed below.
The cognitive model of bystander intervention (Latane and Darley,
1970, cited in Hogg and Vaughan, 2002) suggests a person makes a
series of judgements ultimately leading to the refusal or
implementation of help. If help is to be given, the situation needs to
demonstrate something is wrong and be defined as an emergency. After
this has been established, personal responsibility needs to be
assigned. Finally the decision of what help is appropriate needs to be
made. This decision is then put into action.
Mr. Buckley noticed a minibus passing by him and “suddenly there was a
massiv...
... middle of paper ...
...f they had time themselves
to stop and help as the incident was not that urgent. Mr. Buckley was
in a more serious incident that involved the need for a quicker
decision to be made. If he had not done this, the minibus would have
likely fallen over the edge of the cliff. This demonstrates
experimental evidence may be lacking in ecological validity and can
not always be applied to real life.
Gender can influence helping behaviour as well. Latane and Dabbs,
(1975), discovered males are more likely to help females than the
other way round. Mr. Buckley did help a female although he did not
know the gender of the driver until after he had decided to help.
However, hearing cries for help would have indicated a female from
cues in her voice. This may have helped in the final stages of
consolidating the decision to help.
T.C. Boyle tells a story again about how people intend good and cause damage. For example, they pack mor...
Latane and Darley (1968) investigated the phenomenon known as the bystander effect and staged an emergency situation where smoke was pumped into the room participants was in. Results showed that 75% of participants who were alone reported the smoke, whereas only 38% of participants working in groups of three reported (Latane & Darley, 1968). Their findings provide evidence for the negative consequence of the diffusion of responsibility. In line with the social influence principle, bystanders depend on reactions of others to perceive a situation as an emergency and are subsequently less likely to help. Latane and Darley’s findings were also supported in recent research: Garcia and colleagues (2002) found that even priming a social context by asking participants to imagine themselves in a group could decrease helping behaviour. It can be contended that these findings are examples of social proof where individuals believe actions of the group is correct for the situation, or examples of pluralistic ignorance where individuals outwardly conform because they incorrectly assumed that a group had accepted the norm (Baumeister & Bushman,
Effective Altruism is a combination of philosophy and social movement that involved moral values to improving the global, for example, poverty, death of disease and starvation. The values of effective altruism consist open-mindedness, critical thinking, and global empathy. Which means, doing things that bring largest positive influence, applying evidence and aim to identify the effective ways, and valued all lives. In Singer’s speech, he said that "Effective Altruism is combined with head and heart. Define how necessary it is and doing in a right direction. Singers also gave examples of a two-year-old girl who has hit by two truck and preventable disease--Malaria." (TED, 2013) Like, “the ripple effect” (TED,
First off I’ll start off by talking about the bystander effect and how it could influence people’s altruistic behavior. Bystander effect is the phenomenon that when someone is in the need of help from anyone around, people who are around that person will only watch due to a few reasons like diffusion of responsibility and symbolic interactionism.
Relationships are an important focus in the subject of bystander intervention, as interactions with others will influence the decision making of a person in terms of a decision to intervene, in part. The severity of a situation is related to this decision-making, and may lead to a person who will potentially intervene in forming a conclusion of if the event if an emergency. Additionally, both the previous and following studies involve undergraduate students as participants. This is helpful, as an undergraduate student is generally eager to express an honest opinion, which may lead to a more valid
Prosocial Behavior is exhibited through actions that are directed towards the promotion of another’s well-being. Examples of these behaviors are helping, comforting, sharing, and cooperation. The term was coined in the 1970s and introduced as an antonym for “antisocial behavior.” Extensive study on prosocial behavior was conducted after an incident involving a young girl named Kitty Genovese, wherein she was murdered on her way home from work; she cried for help and although many heard her, none came to her aid until it was far too late (Cherry, 2005). This study aims to determine the students of De La Salle University who display and possess prosocial behavior as well as the reasons as to why they behave prosocially. The researchers conducted
Richard Miller finds Singer’s conclusion unrealistically demanding. He approaches the problem differently and claims that we should instead accept the Principle of Sympathy. According to Miller’s Principle, what morality directly demands is a sufficiently strong concern towards neediness. One’s disposition to help the needy is “sufficiently strong” if expressing greater concern would “impose a significant risk of worsening one’s life” . The Principle of Sympathy differs from Singer’s Principle of Sacrifice mainly in two ways. First, the Principle of Sympathy is a moral code that concerns more with an agent’s disposition to give rather than the amount of money he end...
In the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, egotism-motivated altruism and empathy-motivated altruism can be compared. Gratitude and forgiveness are two important aspects to notice in the movie, especially of egotism or empathy motivated them. Altruism is defined as a behavior that is done aimed at benefiting another person (p.288). Altruism can either be done with egotism as a motive or empathy as a motive.
In this paper, I will argue that killing is better than letting die if, in general, the intention is compassion rather than gratification. In other words, it is morally permissible to deliberately take action that results in another’s death if the motivation is out of compassion rather than gratification, and that this is significantly better than deliberately failing to take steps which are available and which would have saved another’s life – merely allowing someone to die.(definitions –cite NESBITT) ................
The behavior of altruism in an individual is when it brings more costs than benefits for the benefit of another individual. Altruism comes from the Latin word "Alter" which means "the others." This translation of alturism describes it relatively well. Another great definition of altruism can be found in a statement of Edward Osborne Wilson, an American biologist. According to Wilson, "Altruism is defined in biology, as in everyday life, as a self-destructive
...though the researchers weren’t looking for it, he results represent ideas that can help the bystander effect in a situation. Smaller numbers increase the percentage of realization when it comes down to an emergency. The victim, if cohesive, actually plays a big role in causing the bystander effect as well. When a victim is unable to verbally communicate with bystanders, it lessens the chance of help. If a victim is capable of communicating, the help given could be more efficient. This is because it can help break the diffusion of responsibility. A victim looking a bystander directly in the eyes can even spark a quicker reaction in them. These are all ideas that psychologists still study today, and many even consider learning about this phenomenon a requirement.
The Bystander at the Switch case is a fundamental part of Thomson’s argument in “Trolley Problem.” The basis of her paper is to explain the moral difference between this case, which she deems morally permissible (1398), and the Transplant case, which she deems morally impermissible (1396). In the Bystander at the Switch case, a bystander sees a trolley hurtling towards five workers on the track and has the option of throwing a switch to divert the trolley’s path towards only one worker. Thomson finds the Bystander at the Switch case permissible under two conditions:
One of the strengths is providing a new insight into bystander effect. The study argued that researchers have previously neglected the potential benefit of bystanders and thus, the study provided a new horizon by proving reversed bystander effect through experiment. This allows us to be aware of the fact that someone may be providing help merely due to impression management. This arouses a doubt on whether the one who provides help is genuinely concerned about the needs of the victims, or one is just motivated by upholding his/her reputation when surrounded by a crowd. Besides, carrying out a manipulation check right after this experiment is beneficial to this study as well....
Darley, J. M. & Latané, B. (1968) Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 8, 377–383
Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind. Henry James