Summary Of We Are All Bystanders Essay

In the book “Bystander by James Preller the main character Eric is a thirteen year old 7th grade boy who faces difficulties that change him as a person and how he views things. Eric’s parents get divorced causing his little brother Rudy, his mom and himself to move to Long Island from Ohio. Eric’s mom then enrolls Eric into a new school in which he does not fit into and he when he eventually fits in he finds the wrong friends.

In "The Perils of Obedience," Stanley Milgram conducted a study that tests the conflict between obedience to authority and one's own conscience. Through the experiments, Milgram discovered that the majority of people would go against their own decisions of right and wrong to appease the requests of an authority figure.

In the early morning hours of March 13, 1964, twenty-eight year old barmaid Catherine "Kitty" Genovese was murdered and raped on the street in Kew Gardens, New York. The incident did not initially receive much attention until Martin Gansberg's infamous article, "Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder, Didn't Call the Police", was published in the New York Times two weeks later. In reality, only twelve people witnessed the event yet each did nothing to significantly help Genovese until it was too late. The Genovese murder has become the definitive example of the "bystander effect", the social phenomenon in which individuals are less likely to help someone in distress if there are other people present. The bystander effect occurs wherever there is

The Bystander effect is a controversial theory given to social phenomenon where the more potential helpers there are, the less likely any individual is to help. A traditional explanation for this Bystander Effect is that responsibility diffuses across the multiple bystanders, diluting the responsibility of each. (Kyle et al.) The Bystander effect, also known as the Genovese Syndrome, was created after the infamous murder of “Kitty” Catherine Genovese in 1964, on the streets of New York in front of thirty-seven witnesses. After studying the Genovese syndrome and doing research on how this phenomenon occurs today, it is clear The Bystander effect is not theory, but actually fact.

Another variable is that the greater the number of bystanders typically results in a decrease of any intervention (Paull, et al., 2012). People who really want to help out usually put being accepted into a group, or society over their want to intervene. Although this seems like something only a “follower” would participate in, the average person, regardless of morals and values, will not help someone out if they feel that it will result in them not being accepted. In some cases a person starts out by not conforming to a group, but once they notices that no one has followed suit they will quickly stop what they are doing and join in with the other people around them. A lot of people will have a hard time believing this because of people’s inability to admit to being concern with fitting in, but has been tested and scientifically proven.

An authoritative figure can affect how a person acts and may change the way they would normally do things in a certain situation. During the Milgram experiment a participant was instructed by the experimenter to administer a series of shocks to another participant for every wrong answer. According to Milgram “The level of shock the participant was willing to deliver was used as the measure of

In the article, “The Perils of Obedience,” Stanley Milgram, a Yale psychologist, published the findings of his infamous human authority experiment. During this trial, human subjects were tested to discern how far one will go in order to obey the commands of an authority figure. The test subjects were fooled into believing someone was actually being shocked; however, the reality was the other person was simply an actor and never received any shocks. The results were astounding: sixty-five percent of the subjects continued the entire 450 volts, while the rest lasted until at least 300 volts. In response to the experiment, Diana Baumrind, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkley, examined the actions and moral issues executed by

In the book "Bystander", written by James Preller, it talks about not just the bully and victims but the other roles, such as Bystanders and allies. In chapter 20, a gathered group of boys discuss their responses to Griffin's unreasonable and illogical behavior. Their reasons for doing nothing include "The unreliability of authority figures to respond", "The threat of retaliation", "The victim, at least on some level, deserves it" , "It is human nature, the law of the jungle, and it will always persist", "It's better to stay out of it", "No one should rat out another student". These are ridiculous and absurd reason to be a bystander to such a unspeakable act. The main idea I would like to another reader to consider is advise others to not

When someone is clearly in need of help you would think people would rush to their aide and help. We’ve seen and heard plenty of stories of people helping others in danger risking their lives. But what about those stories where people just stand by and watch as someone is clearly in need of help. This articles tells of such stories. On March 13, 1964 at 3 a.m., 28-year old Catherine (Kitty) Genovese was returning home to her apartment from work in Kew Gardens, Queens when she was attacked by Winston Mosely. She was raped and stab more than 12 times over a 35-minute time span. As she screamed for help lights in the nearby apartments turned on. People looked out but no one came to help her. More than half of her neighbors heard her pleas for

In 1974 Stanley Milgram conducted the classic study of obedience to authority. The study looked into how far individuals would be willing to go, and were asked could they deliver increasingly devastating electric shocks to a fellow human being, as they were requested to do so by the professor in charge of the experiment.

Milgram's Obedience to Authority Experiment video shows an experiment that explores how authority, or someone in authority, can impact the actions of the individual. While the individual may know that their actions are not good, they can be swayed by an authority figure to carry out actions that the individual would not normally do. This is because the authority figure persuades them to alter their actions because it is necessary for the greater good of the cause at hand. This is possible because the individual's fear of non-conformity may override their concerns of others, and they feel they are able to defer the responsibility of their actions to the authority figure.

One of the most terrible real life examples of the effect of this phenomenon is the Holocaust. The German soldiers kept killing Jews not because they wanted all Jews to be dead but becuase they were told to kill by an authority figure. Authority figures also told them who to blame for the crisis in Germany. This shows how powerful the authority phenomenon can be.

The Milgram experiment illustrates people 's reluctance to confront those who abuse power. By recruiting and deceiving people of all different backgrounds, he manipulated them into using punishment on people’s ability to learn. The Milgram experiment helps psychologists and sociologists explain the reasoning behind knowingly conflicting pain for a certain outcome. Milgram contributed path-breaking experiments towards the research between obedience to authority. He furthered knowledge in social networks and urban psychology.

Four people sit in a room, one directly behind the other. In front is the victim, behind is the perpetrator, behind them is the witness, and in the very back is the authority. The victim turns their back to the 3 people behind. On top of the victim's head is temptation. The authority, gets up from their chair, says to the bystander, “Let me know if you need anything”, and steps outside of the room. The perpetrator with a lack of authority, has a chance. The perpetrator grabs the temptation and the victim does not notice. The witness does notice but does not notify the authority and becomes the bystander. With all 4 components, a crime has occurred and will continue to until something changes. The people are stuck in their roles until anything changes. In a quote from Miles Lehrman, a holocaust survivor, he states, “A perpetrator is not the most dangerous enemy.

A woman by the name of Kitty Genovese was stalked and stabbed to death in an alleyway of Queens, New York, in 1964 (Pugh & Henry). It is reported that there were nearly 40 witnesses who heard her screams for help but failed to do so (Colangelo, 2014). Why is it that some individuals tend to shy away from bad situations in which help is clearly needed? Kitty’s murderer, Winston Mosely, was caught days later and stated, “I knew they wouldn 't do anything, people never do” (Seedman & Hellman, 1974, p. 100). Little did Moseley know that he was onto a subject matter that would soon make waves in social psychology. The inaction of witnesses on that fateful night in 1964 led to research of a phenomenon known as the bystander effect (BE; Latane & Darley, 1970). BE refers to social situations in which there is a decreased likelihood of helping in emergencies when others are in the immediate area. The Genovese murder occurred over half a century ago, which begs this question: Is BE prevalent today? Security specialist Bill Stanton (2009) put the question to the test by enlisting the help of a 7 year old girl, her mom, and a police officer. On the streets of New York City, Bill posed as the abductor and the girl as the abductee. The vast majority of people walked by, seemingly indifferent to the emergency situation. Both the mom and the police officer were incredulous. A