Step up and step in sounds like a commercial for bullying. I choose this topic because I believe that we need more people to step up and step in when it comes to taking action. The bystander effect is a common term in psychology that more people need to be familiar with. I have provided a link below that discusses ten notorious cases of the bystander effect. I must warn you that some of the cases are really violent.
Did you know?
Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts (2012) define the bystander effect as a phenomenon that states that people are less likely to help during an emergency when other bystanders are present. What makes this topic so interesting is that people often say that during an emergency they would hope that they would help but yet so often no one does. It is said that this occurs because of the diffusion of responsibility. Diffusion of responsibility is a term used to explain the diminished sense of responsibility a person feels when they believe that others are or will help (Schneider et al., 2012). Basically people assume that they don’t need to help because someone else is. My father-in-law always tells me that “when you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.” Please excuse the language but I find this statement appropriate.
It’s easy to sit here and say that you would take action. I too, would “hope” that if I found myself in an emergency situation where my help was needed, I would do something. I’ve always found myself to be a person who goes out of their way for others but it is hard to say what I would actually do in any given situation.
According to Aronson, Wilson, & Akert (2013), there are five steps that occur before a bystander will decide to intervene. The first step is to notice the event. Step two is interpret the event as an emergency. The third step is to assume responsibility. Step four is to know the appropriate form of assistance and finally step five is to implement the decision. If at any point during the decision making, one of the steps is misinterpreted, then it will result in no intervention and no help is given (Aronson et al., 2013). I believe that the best way to prevent the bystander effect is through education. By educating others about the bystander effect as well as what to do in an emergency situation we can ultimately reduce the chances of it occurring and potential save a life.
One thing that I learned from my training in the Air Force is that people are more willing to help if someone gives them direction. The military gives you extensive training for different types of situations but for those without proper training you may think that there is nothing you can do. Most of the time when you are direct, people are more willing to help because it is a quick way to show people the seriousness of the situation. Let them know what you need or what needs to be done. In today’s society people are more likely to pull out their devices and start recording a situation than to actually intervene. In situations like this I think people need to reprogram their minds to stop hitting the record button and start dialing 911.
This link provides examples of the bystander effect.
References
Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., & Akert, R. M. (2013). Social Psychology (8th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
This is a great topic. I recently just watched a video that was a man beating on woman in front of a group of people. The first thing I think about it is “wow someone is standing by recording this instead of doing something to help this girl”. The second thing I noticed is that when people do finally step in, it’s only women. There are a group of guys standing in the back doing nothing at all, while a group of women are frantically trying to pull this guy off this poor girl.
I feel like I act pretty well under pressure, but at the same time I don’t know how I would respond to a situation like this. I do feel like I would be scared because if I do step in, what is going to stop this man from beating on me also? I would want to do the right thing, but I don’t know until I’m in the situation.
I am a huge animal lover and I have two dogs of my own. I live in a city and every time I see a dog running loose, no one is doing anything. If I can tell the dog has a home or identification, I will always try to get them. I just try to think about if it was my dog I would hope someone would step up and try to help.