Bystander Intervention

The article begins with a description of an event in which a woman was stabbed while 38 neighbors looked on. While the attack lasted forty-five minutes, no one even called the police until after she had died. Social psychologists concluded that bystanders are affected by something in the situation that makes them hesitate to assist, rather than a lack of care for the victim. This presents the bystander as a victim of the situation and theories such as the cost-reward model point out that behavior may be based on egoistic motivation. It would be more accurate and comprehensive to include all situational forces and individual motivations when analyzing bystander behaviors.

The diffusion of responsibility theory was presented, which stated that the acceptance of individual responsibility is based on the number of bystanders present, with more bystanders resulting in less individual responsibility since the responsibility is diffused with many others. Normative social influence was also presented. For this theory individuals alter their behavior according to othersĆ expectations

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lp themselves feel better. The cost-reward model included individual consideration of the costs of helping along with the rewards. Even the empathy-altruism hypothesis stated that high empathy is related to altruistic motivation to help, which is egoistically motivated in most cases. These models provide only a limited view of the problem. Contributions From Additional References Levine and Thompson (2004) present Self-Categorization Theory to understand bystander behavior. According to this theory it is the identity of the individual that explains behavior. People can change their identity in different situations or social contexts, but it is the salient identity that evaluates information and shapes action. For example, the bystander may identify with the group or the victim, and this shapes their response. Levine (1999) further stated that bystander action is based on individual construction of social categories. For example if the victim is viewed as related to the attacker, it is less likely that the bystander would intervene in this social relationship. The existence of multiple theories to explain bystander reactions supports the need to include multiple perspectives to understand this behavior. Social Constru
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Approximate Word count = 1301
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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