How the Presence of Others Affects Behavior

John Darley and Bibb Latane (1969) are two psychologists who studied and created the idea of the bystander effect in which can be defined

“What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor, but the silence of the bystander.” -Elie Wiesel

Social work has long recognized the relationship between the behavior of an individual and the environment in which the individual interacts (Hutchison, 2008). Human behavior theories offer a framework to organize, interpret and understand this relationship (Hutchison, 2008). For this case study, the following three theories will be examined for relevancy: Life cycle theory, role theory and resiliency theory.

different times) act as if they were is a lot of pain or a drunk. The test was to see how long it took

This essay aims to explore and describe some of the key studies within Social Psychology and show why social psychology is still important within the science of psychology today. Social psychology was once described by Allport (as cited in Lindzey & Aronson, 1985, p.5) as, “the scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others”. One of the first psychologists to study social psychology was Kurt Lewin. Lewin is considered the “father of social psychology” by many as he took a stand against the dominant behaviourist approach during the 1920’s through his belief that interaction between the individual and their environment is key to affecting behaviour, rather than environment alone. His revolutionary ideas matured into the study of group dynamics, which is widely used by many organisations today (Collin, 2012).

Identify behavioral changes that result from the presence of others. Why does the presence of others produce changes in our level of performance or awareness?

“Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder But Didn’t Call the Police” is unfortunately a true story about citizens who witnessed their neighbor being assaulted and didn’t take action. The neighbor’s negligence perturbed me, and I had to look into it. The Samuel Merritt University refers to it as “The Bystander Effect” and explains it as “a diffusion of responsibility . . . the more people there are to witness an event, the less each individual feels personally responsible for doing something” (Samuel Merritt University, “Bystander Intervention & Prevention”). This article about Kitty Genovese and her selfish neighbors reminded me of a dispute I once saw between a small group and an individual. It wasn’t the fight that startled me, but the group of apprehensive

On November 5th, 2012 in Staten Island, a woman named Glenda Moore had tried to escape the storm of Hurricane Sandy with her two boys -- Connor, 4, and Brandon, 2 -- to try and head towards dry land. On the monday morning Glenda risked driving herself and her two boys to safety in their blue Ford Explorer, only to get trapped in the catastrophic waters. While trying to get her sons out of the car quickly, she soon got separated from them, leaving them stranded and unknown of their surroundings. Frantically calling for help, Ms. Moore goes to her neighbors house yearning for help from him, but, he leaves ignoring her. On Thursday morning, both of the boys bodies were found lifeless. This is why the state of California needs to introduce a bystander law.

Consider the story of Kitty Genovese: Kitty was an average woman. She lived in New York, had a job as a bartender, was well liked in her community, however on March 13, 1964 Kitty was was brutally raped and murdered right outside of her apartment building. Thirty-eight people watched as Winston Moseley, the offender, committed these atrocities as Kitty cried out for help while she was dying. Thirty-eight people watched, but not one of them tried to help. This event coined the Bystander Effect.

Effective social learning theories do not just explain behaviors, they build bridges. Few experts believe that social or even biologically determined actions arise in isolation: they come about as a result of a variety of factors that may be located inside or outside of the subject, but eventually they come together in combination. It is this recognition that has formed the basis (at least in retrospect) for the long-lasting impact of Bandura's social learning or now social cognitive theory of behavior. It is a theory that can be its own agent for building a better self (Bandura, Agentic, n.d.).

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

The participants were 21 (19 female and two male) undergraduate students enrolled in a general psychology laboratory class at a small Midwestern university. The participants were selected by convenience sampling, and they received a grade for participating in and completing the experiment. Each participant completed the experiment, and the participants were separated into two groups. The first group consisted of 10 participants that listened to music first, whereas the second group consisted of 11 participants that conversed with the passenger first. The experimental session lasted approximately 1 hr and 30 min.

To differentiate interactive and independent effects, Dr. Brennan questioned if two people are superior in performance because of independent statistical beliefs or because of collaborative interaction. Through her Enumeration Visual experiment, she found that two people were indeed faster because of the collaborative social interaction that is present between them. She showcased graphs that

“Social influence is the process by which the actions of an individual or group affect the behavior of others” (Feldman 495). These influences are strongly experienced by members in the group. Every group is unique and is mostly guided by a particular norm and behavior. An individual in a group passively or actively allows himself to be influenced by the group just to have a sense of belongingness. In the bid to prevent being excluded or rejected from a group, some individuals overtly adhere to the norms of the group. “Thus, people conform to meet the expectations of the group” (Feldman 495).

Symbolic interaction offers a dramaturgical perspective of how people identify and create their social self through social interaction. Many social theorist studies social interaction/ self as a function to our society. In addition, microsociology develop the idea of applying social interaction on a smaller sample size within the society. Therefore, there were an increase in the study of human interaction and the self. Mead develop his idea through symbolic interaction and social psychology of the human mind. Simmel develop his idea through the perspective of symbolic interaction of urban sociology. Both sociologist focus on the inter social aspect of the human life.