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Bystander Effect

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Submitted By ZoeZ
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the influence of Bystander Effect on pro social behaviour
Introduction:
Kitty Genovese, a New York City woman, was stabbed to death near her home on March 13, 1964 with her neighbors witness the whole thing happen but no one called the police. This common portrayal of her neighbors as being fully aware of what was transpiring but completely unresponsive. This went on to become a psychological paradigm and an stimulus on psychologist to investigating the effect of bystanders on individuals willing of helping others.

Bystander Effect refers to the tendency for individuals to be less likely to help other person in need when other bystanders are present, or believed to be present, as compared to when they are alone (VCE psychology unit 1 and 2 textbook). And pro-social behaviour is any behaviour intended to help or benefit another person, group or society. One of the classic experiments is conducted by John Darley and Bibb Latané in 1964 called Bystander Apathy Experiment to investigate the influence group size displays the probability of reactions to the incident.

The aim of the current study was to conduct a series of experiments to investigate the influence of Bystander Effect on pro social behaviour. The independent variable was the the number of people that present when the accident happens. The dependent variable was the likelihood of the witnesses to help. It was predicted that the the participant aged 15 to 30 from Facebook would more likely to help when they were alone or only few witnesses present rather than it’s in crowded situations.

Method:
Participants
50 individuals (28 males,22 females) from Facebook aged between 15 and 30 were asked to volunteer to participant in an experiment.
Material
A survey
Procedure
1.Individuals were asked to participant in an experiment regarding the influence of Bystander Effect on pro social behaviour.

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