QCAA Psychology - Darley & Latane (1968)

Define the bystander effect by selecting the correct words to complete the sentence.

The bystander ​ (a)   is a ​phenomenon where people do ​ (b)   offer aid in an emergency influenced by the ​ (c)   of bystanders.

• not
• presence
• effect
• intervention
• absence
• often

Recall the likely reasons that people did not help during the Kitty Genovese attack.

• They didn't realise it was an attack.

• They didn't care.

• It was too hard to go help.

• It was too dangerous to go help.

Answer explanation

The correct answer is: They did not realise it was an attack. Though something was happening, it is likely they couldn't see well enough to decide about whether it was too dangerous. It is highly unlikely that people didn't care, or decided that it was too hard to help.

Identify whether the following statement is true or false.

Darley and Latané's hypothesis, stated the more bystanders present in an emergency the less likely any one person was to help.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

True. Darley and Latané's experiment, entitled "Bystander Intervention in Emergencies: Diffusion of Responsibility" was one of the first to provide empirical evidence of the bystander effect and prove their hypothesis correct.

Participants in the study were placed in a room by themselves and given headphones to wear and a ​ (a)   . They were told the experiment was about discussing "personal problems faced by normal college students under high pressure". There were a number of other people on the microphones, and they would all be discussing the prompts together. Only one person's microphone would be on at any one time, and it would be almost ​ (b)   to talk to the other people. This experiment was a ​ (c)   . There were no other participants on the other microphones, and the other subjects speaking during the discussion were actually tape recordings. One of the tape-recorded participants would mention early on that they were prone to seizures, and then upon their second turn to speak, would begin slurring their speech and ask for help, simulating a seizure. The ​ (d)   taken for the participant to enact some form of helping behaviour was recorded from the beginning of the slurred speech. The more people the participant thought were present, the ​ (e)   it took them to help, and fewer people actually went and got help.

• microphone
• impossible
• deception
• time
• longer

Match the following steps of the decision model of bystander intervention with the correct description.

• Step 4

• Interpreting the event as an emergency

• Step 3

• Deciding on an action to take

• Step 2

• Taking responsibility

• Step 1

• Implementing the decided action

• Step 5

• Noticing the event

Describe how audience inhibition can influence the bystander effect, referring to specific stages in the decision model of bystander intervention.

Answer explanation

Audience inhibition is the effect seen when people are worried about potential negative social effects of helping. When there are other people around, a person can fear embarrassment if they take action and people react negatively. In this case, the person has either not moved past stage 2 or 3 in the decision model of bystander intervention. They may not have made it past stage 2 if they are unsure if it is an emergency and that is why they are worried about potential embarrassment, or they have not made it past stage 3 because they are too afraid of potential negative social reactions to take responsibility.

Keywords:

• inhibition

• embarrassment

• intervention

• stage

• responsibility

Tips:

To answer this question fully, you must first describe what audience inhibition is and then identify that stages 2 and 3 are the stages that might be affected. Stage 3 is the most important stage to identify. It must also be explained how audience inhibition could affect these stages. Describing the concept first is important.

Analyse Bibb Darley and John Latane's (1968) model of bystander intervention by breaking down the model into its steps.

Answer explanation

The model of bystander intervention contains 5 steps that theorise the decisions people go through when deciding to help in an emergency. At any point, if the person cannot positively confirm the step, they cannot move on to the next step.

Step 1 asks if the person has noticed the emergency. If the person does not notice the emergency, they cannot help.

Step 2 is when the person decides if the situation is an emergency. If the person decides it is not, they will not help.

Step 3 is when the person takes responsibility for the situation. This is where lots of people stop.

Step 4 is when the person decides on the correct action, now that they have taken responsibility. If they cannot decide what to do, they will not move on to the final step.

Step 5 involves actually enacting the helping behaviour. If you are unable to enact the helping behaviour, then no help is given.

Only once all the steps have been gone through is help given.

Keywords:

• step

• emergency

• responsibility

Tips: To answer the question fully, you must first describe the model and its purpose, before describing each step in detail (this is the "break down" part of analysing). You must also acknowledge the relationship between the steps at some point, in that you cannot move on to the next step if the previous step is not positively answered.

The bystander effect is a phenomenon where an ​ (a)   occurs and people do not offer help, influenced by the presence of other people. Pioneering researchers Darley and Latané investigated this effect by showing that ​ (b)   numbers of people present for an emergency (a fake medical emergency) increased the time taken to provide help, and ​ (c)   the percentage of people that provided help at all. From this, they created a decision model of bystander intervention, which showed steps that people go through to make a decision about helping during an emergency. In order to help, a person must ​ (d)   the emergency, decide it is an emergency, take ​ (e)   to help, decide on an action to take, and finally enact the decided action. Multiple factors can influence this process, including social influences of others' reactions and the lessened feeling of responsibility when others are present.

• emergency
• greater
• decreased
• notice
• responsibility