Classic Study in Social Psychology
Classic Study in Social Psychology
Erica Mariscal Vigil
PSYCH/620
Diana Wheatley
04/14/14
Classic Study in Social Psychology The bystander effect is associated with the phenomenon, which states that when a larger amount of people are present, the less likely people are to help a person in need of assistance. When an emergency occurs, people are more likely to help when there are little or no other people. A summary about this study as well as an explanation of the results and how the concept of situationism relates to the study will be discussed.
The Bystander Effect In 1964 the murder case of Kitty Genovese, a woman who was stabbed 38 times while bystanders watched and did nothing to help, caught the attention of John Darley and Bibb Latane. Darley and Latane conducted many experiments in an effort to rationalize the psychology behind the bystander effect (Cherry, 2014). The experiments involved situating a participant either alone or with other participants and staging and emergency scenario. Darley and Latane then measured the time it took participants to respond to the emergency. They also measured whether they took intervention measures or not. The results showed that the presence of other participants made participants reluctant to helping by a considerable margin (Dean, 2007).
Method
Darley and Latane determined that for obvious reasons they would not be able to reproduce the events of the Genovese murder but needed a situation that would approximate a true emergency in order for the bystanders to be observed. Darley and Latene told students taking an introductory psychology class at New York University a covers story stating, that they were conducting a study on how students adjust to university life in a competitive, urban environment and the types of personal problems they were experiencing. They told the students they would be in separate rooms to avoid any discomfort. The students were then asked to take turns talking to one
Erica Mariscal Vigil
PSYCH/620
Diana Wheatley
04/14/14
Classic Study in Social Psychology The bystander effect is associated with the phenomenon, which states that when a larger amount of people are present, the less likely people are to help a person in need of assistance. When an emergency occurs, people are more likely to help when there are little or no other people. A summary about this study as well as an explanation of the results and how the concept of situationism relates to the study will be discussed.
The Bystander Effect In 1964 the murder case of Kitty Genovese, a woman who was stabbed 38 times while bystanders watched and did nothing to help, caught the attention of John Darley and Bibb Latane. Darley and Latane conducted many experiments in an effort to rationalize the psychology behind the bystander effect (Cherry, 2014). The experiments involved situating a participant either alone or with other participants and staging and emergency scenario. Darley and Latane then measured the time it took participants to respond to the emergency. They also measured whether they took intervention measures or not. The results showed that the presence of other participants made participants reluctant to helping by a considerable margin (Dean, 2007).
Method
Darley and Latane determined that for obvious reasons they would not be able to reproduce the events of the Genovese murder but needed a situation that would approximate a true emergency in order for the bystanders to be observed. Darley and Latene told students taking an introductory psychology class at New York University a covers story stating, that they were conducting a study on how students adjust to university life in a competitive, urban environment and the types of personal problems they were experiencing. They told the students they would be in separate rooms to avoid any discomfort. The students were then asked to take turns talking to one