Outline Research Relating To Human Altruism Andor

Outline Research Relating To Human Altruism And/or Bystander Behaviour Essay, Research Paper

(b)Assess the effects of cultural differences on such behaviour

A number of studies have been

carried out into bystander behaviour. There has been research into the

influence of situational factors, the nature of the helper, the nature of the

victim and into how the victim is perceived by the helper. Latanane and Darley

produced a five-stage model of bystander behaviour to try to explain why people

help or not. The attribution theory and causal schemata theory (Kelly 1973)

were introduced to try to explain how we make attributions about a situation.

Piliavin has created a model of bystander behaviour called the cost/benefit

model. All of these theories and studies show how and why people help others in

certain situations. ........... Latanane and

Darley carried out research into the influence of situational factors on

helping behaviour/bystander behaviour. They asked male college students to sit

in a waiting room and fill in a questionnaire believing that they were about to

take part in a study about people.s attitude towards urban life. The subjects

were either alone or in groups of three. Smoke was poured through a small vent

in the wall and the subjects reactions were watched for six minutes. When

people were on their own within two minutes 50% reported smoke and 75% reported

it within six minutes. When the subjects were in groups only 12% reported smoke

within two minutes and 38% within six minutes. 62% carries on working for six

minutes although the room was full of smoke. The people who were working

together claimed that they were looking to each other for guidance as to how to

behave. Because non of them knew how to behave no one had moved and the

situation was redefined as a harmless one. This redefinition of the situation

was called .pluralistic ignorance. and this can only occur when the subjects

are not fully aware of all the facts of the situation. This shows the effects

of group influence on people.s behaviour. The group all looked to each other

how to behave and resented working independently. ........... The number of

bystanders also affects whether people help or not. Latanane (1981) suggests

that the responsibility is shifted when many witnesses are present so more

witnesses can actually mean less helping. This is called the social impact

theory. Darley and Latanane (1968) conducted a study into the number of

bystanders and how they affect helping. Subjects were supposed to be discussing

social problems with other participants over an intercom system heard what they

believed to be one of the group having a seizure. He was trying to explain that

he had seizures in times of stress. They measured who helped within four

minutes. When the subjects believed that there were two in the group 85% tried

to help, when there were 3 in the group 62% tried to help and when there were 5

other people in the group only 31% intervened. They concluded that the

participants had a conflict between a fear of making fools of themselves and

ruining the experiment by over reacting and their own guilt and shame at doing

nothing. In Latanane and Darley.s experiment the other people.s behaviour could

not be observed and said that someone must have intervened. Latanane and

Darley.s experiment showed dissolution rather than diffusion of responsibility.

This study is therefore not useful for showing the effects of diffusion of

responsibility. Milgram (1970) also proposed a theory

called the stimulus overload theory. This suggested that people in cities are

so used to emergency situations that they treat them as normal everyday ones.

These situations occur more often so people don.t help. People from smaller

towns however do not see this emergencies so often so are more likely to help

as it attracts more attention. This is supported by Gelfand et al. (1973).

People from larger towns and cities are less likely to help because it

interferes with people.s privacy which is more difficult to find in cities

(Milgram, 1973). The proximity of the bystanders is said to have an adverse

effect on people.s potential helpfulness. The Social Impact theory by Latanane

(1981) also says that as the remoteness between the bystander and the victim

increases then the less responsible the bystander feels. E.g., someone asking

for donations on the telephone is less likely to get any than someone asking in

the street face-to-face. Piliavin (1969) showed that people were just as likely

to help on a crowded subway as an un-crowded one showing that people found it

harder to refuse help in a face-to-face situation such as an enclosed subway. ........... Latanane and

Darley created a cognitive 5 stage model of helping behaviour to show how

people decide whether to help in a situation or not. If the bystander answers

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