Field Study on Helping Behavior

To date, a variety of scholars has already conducted researches of all kinds devoted to the investigation of the human’s problem of social interaction. As an example, the article Salvaging the Self can be named. This scientific work was written by David Snow and Leon Anderson in 1992, and it was aimed to explore the nature of interaction between homeless and settled people.

As stated earlier, this experiment completely proved my hypothesis wrong. Many of the people that rode the elevator with me stared at me as though there were something wrong with me. Most were uncomfortable and fidgety and kept looking over their shoulder at me as they rode forward, and me, backwards. More than a few asked if I was alright and even asked my friend, who was acting as if he did not know me, knew what was was wrong. I even conducted a few controlled experiments where I rode the elevator forward to see if people would react to me then, but not a single person outside of the experiment even acknowledged my existence. I would have thought that in a place like L.A. County, people would be too busy to notice others, or people would have been raised to mind their own business and keep to themselves, but apparently abiding my social standards and making sure that others do as well is a higher priority.

The presence of guilt has been felt by all human beings. As guilt grows in a

The presence of guilt has been felt by all human beings. As guilt grows in a

My experiment consisted of me asking strangers, on the streets of Downtown Grand Rapids, for directions to Rosa Park’s Circle, and invading their personal space. To start, I would approach a stranger; tell them that I am lost, and that I am in need of directions to the Rosa Park’s Circle. As strangers began giving directions to me, I inched closer and closer to them. In addition to invading their personal space, I also held intense eye contact with them, trying my best not to blink. The whole time, although it was difficult, I kept a straight face while I performed my experiment. To make sure that I gathered enough information, and a variety of results, I tested my

1. John Darley and Bibb Latané were interested in prosocial behavior, or behavior that produces positive social consequences, and they examined factors that contributed to the decision to assist in an emergency situation. They termed the behavior of helping others “bystander intervention.”

III. “ if people can see that there are others around who are witnessing the incidents, everybody thinks perhaps I'm not the best person to help them, that person there looks stronger, or maybe that person their is more capable”

The bystander effect is both a social and psychological phenomenon in which an individual’s inclination towards showing helping behaviours are minimised by the influence of other people. Research has found that the more people acting as bystanders in a situation, the less likely it is that helping behaviours will be demonstrated. However in the correct conditions, where conditioned cues increase self-awareness, it is possible to reverse the bystander effect phenomenon. The bystander effect is prevalent in everyday life, and often decorates the news, shocking the world, especially when authority figures such as police men and women succumb to the effect. Diffusion of responsibility, ignorance of others interpretation of an event and self-consciousness are all social processes which appear to lead to social inhibition of helping behaviours and one of the main theories of the bystander effect is provided Latané and Darley (1970) whose cognitive model provides a series of decisions that can lead to social inhibition. The bystander effect is influenced by the conditions an individual is in when an event occurs, for example the bystander effect appears to be most dominant when an individual is in a group of strangers with low group cohesiveness. FINISH

Now this might seem like a crazy idea because in you mind if someone really needed help you would always help. This is not always the case though. In the book, "No One Helped": Kitty Genovese, New York City, and the Myth of Urban Apathy, the author, Marcia Gallo, highlights the events that happened that lead to the understanding of the event known as the Bystander Effect. It was because of this event, that the term bystander effect was first used and brought to light not only to the scientific community but also to the public. March 27, 1964 Kitty Genovese

Introduction: The bystander effect is a normal occurrence that happens when the presence of others decreases an individual’s probability to intervene in an emergency situation. There are many reasons to why the bystander effect occurs, the main reason being the fact that the individual’s sense of responsibility is reduced when there are other people witnessing the situation. Culture plays a significant role in determining if a bystander will or will not aid during certain situations. Western countries such as Australia, United States, Germany and Ireland are all known to have an individualist culture, where people are seen as

Recently, a young student from DePaul University in Chicago was attacked on a train. Jessica Hughes was on the Blue Line, also known as the “L”, when two men attacked her during the day (Holmes). Hughes was not the only passenger on the train, and was screaming for help, so why didn’t anybody step up to help her? After a lengthy discussion with my mom about this topic and after hearing her scoff and claim that she would have helped, I told her about the clear, silent culprit - the bystander effect. According to Psychology Today, “The bystander effect occurs when the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency situation.” The problem

The bystander effect is a fascinating psychological phenomenon in which people are less likely to lend support or aid to someone in need if there are other people present. The bystander effect seems ruthless and unethical, but it is a common reaction of many people when a stressful situation arises. The cause of it is likely a combination of several social forces. Most notably, the common scapegoat is “someone else will help”. This defers all feelings of responsibility and distances the bystander from the situation that they are observing. This is only one of the contributing forces that create this lurking danger of the bystander effect. This arises the important question of, how do we minimize its effect?

“The Bystander effect” is the psychological occurrence that is related to the social intervention among people. It is filled with anecdotes of people of who stood back when help is needed, preferring to wait for someone else to act. According to author, the probability of accepting help decreases with an increment in the quantity of spectators. There are different causes of the bystander effect and these causes only depends on the perception of the individual and the way people take up the situation. Most common causes are diffusion of responsibility, symbolic interactionism and fear of becoming target or getting indulged in criminal case.

Over 70 years ago, Hartshorne and May (1928) concluded that pro-social actions are largely situationally determined rather than the result of enduring personal characteristic. This led to the conventional wisdom that dispositional variable are weak and unrealiable predictors of helping and altruism, further, when interest in helping was rekinded in the late 1960s and early1970s (Dovidio, 1984), the research findings were consistent

Past research has shown that bystander behavior is associated with the processes of not helping; therefore, understanding what factors trigger prosocial behavior may be beneficial in minimizing the bystander effect (Latané & Darley, 1968). The model of helping (notice the event, interpret the need for help, and take personal responsibility) clarifies the stages of cognitive processing that impacts an individual’s decision to intervene (Latané & Darley, 1968). If the bystander fails to notice the event, he will fail to interpret the need for help as well as fail to take responsibility to offer help (Latané & Darley, 1968). Moreover, the arousal: cost-reward model explains how emotional arousal plays an important role in shaping prosocial behavior