February 13, 2011

Bypassing Bystanders

Journal 3-3

I.
                Last week I was very interested in the crisis in Egypt. I was wondering how everything would turn out, and if anything would be solved. As the week has past, there are new developments in Egypt!


               On Friday, President Mubarak resigned from office after previously making statements that he would not. Currently Egypt's military has dissolved the country's parliament and will run the country for six months, or until elections are held. Also the military suspended the constitution and will appoint a committee to propose changes to it. Then, the public will be able to add to it and then get to vote on the amended constitution. Egypt will be undergoing some extreme changes, it's government will have some major "renovations". Only time will tell if these changes will be for the good or for the worse.

II.
               This past week in Ethic's Class, we continued our discussions of the Milgram and Asch experiments, as well as the Stanford Prison Experiment. We discussed the "Bystander Effect", and it's applications on everyday life. All in all, it was a very interesting week in calss!


               My favorite part of this week was learning about the Bystander Effect. I felt that it was very interesting as well as very shocking! Seeing people just walk by others who were in danger or trouble made me very uncomfortable.It made me wonder how many people would pass by me if I needed help? Would I pass by someone else if they needed help? Have I? These questions bothered me a lot. Thinking about it now, I would assume that I would definitely help out someone if I could see that they were in danger. I think that I would be more prone to help others if I could see that they were actually in some sort of medical danger, such as someone laying on the ground or bleeding. I do think that I would question taking action if a child were just having a temper tantrum. Children do that all the time, so it is hard sometimes to judge what is really going on. Hopefully in the right situation, I would take action and save someone's life.



               In class we discussed the Stanford Prison Experiment, but everyone did not get  a chance to talk about their views. After learning about this experiment, I have come to the conclusion that it was very very wrong. I know the experiment was to determine the impact of power and superiority on people, but I think that was lost in this experiment. The subjects became too consumed into their roles and arguably became insane. I feel that the experimenter should have stopped the experiment after witnessing this. If I were put in the experimenter's position, I am 100%sure that I would have called off the experiment, if I even started it in the first place. If I were in the experiment, I do not think that I would  responded in the way that the subjects did. I feel that I could have kept myself together to remember that it is an experiment, and not real.

III.
               After talking about the Bystander Effect, i am very curious as to what the statistics are behind it. In other studies, how many people passed by someone in danger? What is the average?

Please stay tuned for the answer next week!
Sources

Bourke, T. (2008, September 21). The lucifer effect - beyond good and evil . Retrieved from http://www.philosophyoffreedom.com/node/2416
CNN Wire Staff, Initials. (2011, February 13). Egypt's military dissolves parliament, suspends constitution. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/13/egypt.revolution/index.html?hpt=T1

Garcia, T. (2011, February 11). News about the egyptian revolution came from across the media spectrum. Retrieved from http://www.mediabistro.com/prnewser/news-about-the-egyptian-revolution-came-from-across-the-media-spectrum_b15070
The bystander effect. (2010, June 8). Retrieved from http://kalldoro.wordpress.com/tag/bystander-effect/

Tiku, N. (2011, January 28). Egypt’s mubarak defies calls to resign. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/01/egypts_mubarak_defies_calls_to_1.html

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