Social Psychology Help.

Hi
Just wondering if anyone can help me with some work i need to do. I need to find out about Kitty Genoves to help with my next social psychology study but i am struggling. If anyone can help it will be great.

Katy

Reply 1

8owman

Kitty Genevose was murdered in New York (I think). She was attacked and abused 40 minutes prior to her death, in the middle of a busy area of th city. Why she has sparked so much interest is becasue no one came to help her, even though she cried for help and many people in the nearby officies heard. This lead to the study of "bystander behaviour" (how the presence of others can affect an individual's behaviour).

Reply 2

Gem

Kitty Genovese was a 28 year old woman who was murdered on 13th March 1964. It happened in a residential area, and the shocking thing was 38 people heard her screams yet nobody went forward to help her.

Latane & Darley (1968) were horrified and carried out an experiment where a participant was taken into a cubicle and told to wear a headset and talk to other participants, which varied in number, also in cubicles. Prior to being put in the cubicle the participant was told by another participant, which was in fact a stooge, that he had epilespy. Half way through the experiment the 'epileptic' had a fit and Latane & Darley timed how long it would take for the real participant to get help. It was found that the more people the real participant thought was taking part in the experiment, the longer it took for them to get help. This is called 'Diffusion of Responsibility' which is basically where someone doesn't help as they assume that somebody else will, so they don't need to, and that it was Latane & Darley propose happened to Kitty Genovese.

In your project you can write a lot about ethics, such as deception, non informed consent, harm to participant etc.

I dunno if that helps, I hope so, but feel free to PM me!

Reply 3

PurpleMonster

Oh yeh just done this. Kitty Genovese was brutally murdered in New York City in 1964. It lasted over thirty minutes and the murderer stabbed her went away, came back stabbed her again and went away again. He returned for a third time where he raped her and then murdered her. At least 38 people heard yet noone helped.

Latare and Darley (1968) suggested three reason why bystanders may not intervene.

1) Pluralistic Ignorance: Bystanders look to see how others behave. If noone reacts the situation is seen to not be an emergency so no help is given.

2) Audience inhibition: People don't want to look stupid in public by over-reacting to something which could be a potentially safe situation.

3) Diffusion of responsibility: If other people are present people assume they will deal with the situation

This is supported by evidence by Latane and Darley 1968, who found that participants on their own are more likely to react to a smoke filled room or someone having an epiletic fit than if they have company.

Hope this is some help :wink:

Social Psychology Help.

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