Discussion Board 7
PART 1 – Helping Behavior
In the helping chapter you learned about Darley & Latane’s model of helping behavior. In this
section you will find, analyze, and discuss a real-life situation of helping behavior.
1. Begin by posting a link to an “event” where a person is in need. This might be a crime, a
situation where someone is being bullied, or a situation where someone is experiencing an
emergency, as in the Kitty Genovese case. This link should be to an article or video clip that
clearly describes the facts surrounding the event. Next, write a one paragraph summary of the
“event”.
2. Darley and Latane’s model suggests that we will help others only when we have completed
the following steps:
-Noticing the event or “emergency”
-Interpreting the situation as an “emergency” (a situation where immediate action or assistance
is necessary).
-Taking responsibility to help
You also learned about how the attributions we make for people’s behavior can absolutely
influence these steps in the model (e.g., if we see someone in scruffy clothing laying on the
sidewalk we might assume that’s “ordinary” because it is a homeless person, but if we see
someone in an expensive suit laying on the sidewalk we might assume that’s “out of the
ordinary” and that the person must have passed out or experienced a medical emergency.
Furthermore if we are in public and other people continuously walk past this person laying on
the sidewalk this affects our interpretation of the event as well. In our heads we say “well if
others didn’t stop surely this isn’t really an emergency”.
For this question, apply Darley and Latane’s model to your event.
-Did witnesses notice?
-Did they interpret the event as an emergency?
-Did anyone take responsibility for helping?
3. Did you see any evidence of the bystander effect or the diffusion of responsibility? Did you
see any examples of informational social influence, conformity, or cognitive dissonance? Did
you see any other relevant examples of concepts we discussed in the helping chapter (e.g., the
empathy altruism hypothesis, the social responsibility norm, kin selection theory, etc.) in this
real life event?
PART 2 – Current Research in Social Psychology
Go to the following website and select one article to read, summarize, and analyze.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/social_psychology/
1. Which articledid you select (include the article title and a hyperlink to the article? Why is
this a topic of interest to you?
2. Write a two paragraph summary (in your own words) of what the article was about.
3. How did the results of the article connect to what you have learned in class? Discuss the
specific concepts, theories, or studies that are relevant to understanding this issue.
