Question

Review each of the following video and then post a 350-450 worded reply expressing your thoughts and opinions about them.

The video are from YouTube

Search for the bystander effect: an interesting look at the Bystander Effect, and

Social Influence: crash course psychology episode #38

Answer 1

THE BYSTANDER EFFECT:

The Bystander effect was first demonstrated by John M. Darley and Bibb Latane in 1968. According to this phenomenon, the tendency of the individuals to offer help to a person in danger or in a emergency situation is decreased, because of the presence of other people. It also states that, the more the number of people present in that situation, the less likely is the individual to offer help to the person in need.

In an experiment conducted on Bystander's effect, a man acts as though he is in a emergency situation, where he lies down on the street and cries out for help. It was observed that many people pass by that person and its been 20 minutes, but none of them seems to really offer him help.

According to the Bystanders effect, this could be because of two conflicting rules within every individual:

- As human beings we have a basic tendeny to offer help to people who are in distress or danger.

- And also that, we have social conformity, in a social sitaution a person tends to do what other people around him does inorder to fit in to the group, though it might contradict the ideas and beliefs of that individual itself.

These coflicts within these individuals, where they actually want to offer help to the person in need, but also wants to stick to what other people around them does, makes these individuals resist themselves from helping the person in need.

In the same experiment, instead of the man, a woman is lying down, and in a few minutes a person comes to help her, other people join also join him, because now they want to be a part of the new group which is offering help.  

Again, in the same experiment, the first man who was lying down is again lying down but with a difference that he is well dressed and appears to be a person in a high position job. Within very few seconds, people around him comes to help because they believe that this man would be a part of their group as he resembles them.

REVIEW:

It was obvious from the third scenario that, people are more likely to offer help to those who would resemble them and also to those whom they believe to be a part of their group.

And also, the woman who was in need of help was helped sooner than the man in the same situation does. This represents that woman are given more importance to be helped than a man.

THE SOCIAL INFLUENCE:

In a famous experiment by the psychologist Stanley Milgram in 1961, it was found that, when the experimenter gave orders, the volunteers were capable of harming the other individuals (who were acting in the experiment and were pretending to be harmed) by giving electric shocks up to 450 volts when they gave wrong responses. It was found that two third of the volunteers harmed other individuals by giving the maximum amount of shock, while all of them gave shock up to 300 volts.

This was due to social influence and conformity, where the volunteers were obeying the experimenter as they believed him to be a authority figure. We are grown in such a way that we are supposed to obey the societal norms and rules like obeying polieman, teachers, parents.  

In a experiment conducted by the psychologist Solomon Ash, two third of the volunteers in the study gave wrong answer only because the other people in the group were also giving the same answer. This was also due to social confirmity, where the individuals intentionally gave the wrong answers only because they want to stick on the group.

But also, one third of the group resisted to social conformity and were believing in their own belief and gave the correct answers. This is because people does not always rely on the group, or want to please them or fear for disapproval for being different from the others.

Social loafing: The individual's tendency to diffuse their responsibity and put in less efforts, if they are part of a group.

REVIEW:

From these above experiments it could be clearly seen that we human being have tha natural tendency of being a part of the group, where to agree or disagree to what most of the people does. This could sometimes be a disadvantage where, people may accept all that is happening aroung them though it is not matching with their owm belief or values. Due to this, we are subconsciously made to adjust to all the things around as, such as neglecting other peoples needs, not standing against injustice. And the worst part of it is, we fail to recognise that what we are doing is not appropriate because we feel that 'we are doing what every one else does!'.

So it is very important that we must not only follow the group norms but also analyse carefully what the situation is and then act appropriately rather than doing what everyone does or what everyone wants us to do. This is a essential quality which makes every individual unique and differentiate human beings from other organisms as we are capable of thinking ,reasoning and to act appropriately to different situations.