Latane & Darley Flashcards
How many witnesses did the Police Commisioner say there were for Kitty Genovese
38 witnesses had refused to intervene
What was Darley’s response to the Kitty Genovese murder
“Firstly, social psychologists ask not […] why are the people who failed to respond monsters, but how are all people the same and how might anybody in that situation be influenced not to respond.”
What did Latane and darleygo on to devise
- A 5-step cognitive model
2. A set of experiments to test the model
What is the 5 step cognitive model
In order to respond to an emergency, you need to…
- Notice that something is happening
- Interpret the event as an emergency
- Take responsibility for providing help
- Decide how to act
- Provide help
what happens if other people are around you
it is harder to intervene
Latané & Darley suggest an inverse relationship between …
the number of bystanders and the likelihood of emergency helping
What are the two processes of the bystander hypothesis
a) Pluralistic Ignorance
b) Diffusion of Responsibility
What is plutalistic ignorance
The presence of other people who remain inactive or seem unconcerned during an event can dissuade or discourage an individual from intervention, even though they might have felt concerned by the situation.
A norm of inactivity is established
Where does the pluralistic ignorance fir into the 5-step cogntiive model
- Interpret the event as an emergency
What was the white smoke experiment
Male Columbia University undergraduates
• Cover Story: Problems involved in life at an urban unversity
• Asked to sit in a ‘waiting room’ and fill in a survey
• Room begins to fill with an invisible (harmless) white smoke
Independent Variable:
• Group size: Participant alone / Participant with two others
• Others: Confederates who do not react / Naïve participants
Dependent Variable: Behavioural response to emergency
(1. ) Did the participant leave the room to report the smoke? (yes/no)
(2. ) How many minutes did it take until the person reports?
What was found from the white smoke experiment
As the number of other people present in a given situation increases, the responsibility that a given individual feels for responding to that situation is correspondingly diminished
We expect one of the others to take on responsibility
where does the white smoke experiment fit into the 5-step cognitive model
- Take responsibility for providing help
What was the seizure experiment
Method
N = 72 New York University undergraduate Psychology students
Cover Story: Discussion about personal problems of students while at uni
• Seated in one of several small rooms – to supposedly retain anonymity
• Can hear ‘other discussants’ (actually recordings) through headphones and communicate via intercom in turns
• Experimenter will not listen or participate in the discussion
Emergency event: One ‘discussant’ admits to being prone to seizures, and expresses distress when it is his turn again […I’m gonna die-er-er … help-er-er-seizure (chokes, then quiet)]
Independent Variable:
Group size: 1, 2 or 6 ‘others’
Dependent Variable: Behavioural response to emergency
(1.) Did the participant leave the room to report the emergency? (yes/no)
(2.) How many minutes did it take until the person reports?
Which constellation leads to the highest likelihood of helping a female student who was harassed?
A group of women because safety in numbers.
What did Cherry (1995) criticse
Culturally-Embedded Theorising
- 1960s: Domestic violence and violence of men against women were not discussed
- Researchers have failed to translate this gender aspect of the Kitty Genovese case into their experiments
Importance of the relationship between victim and perpetrator for bystander intervention?
