Critical Analysis Of 'Opening Skinner's Box'

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Critical Analysis of Opening Skinner’s Box
In Chapter 4, In the Unlikely Event of a Water Landing, the author Lauren Slater starts the chapter off telling the true story of how a young woman, Kitty Genovese, was brutally murdered and raped outside of her apartment complex. What was most shocking in the aftermath is there were a total of 38 witnesses and not a single person did anything to help her. This raised many concerns as to why the witnesses did nothing. When they were being interviewed by the cops, they stated that they just did not want to get involved(p.94), thus “diffusing responsibility”, this is a term used by two psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latane, who were very concerned with and wanted to understand why nothing was done to aid young Kitty Genovese as she was being stabbed and raped. Darley and Latane researched and conducted a series of experiments at New York University to determine how an individual …show more content…

They may have been raped themselves, They could have had many thoughts puzzling in their minds, would they shoot the rapist? Would they crumble and cry? Is someone going to call the police? Will one just ignore the situation? Or they may simply have, “I got over it, she will do the same.” attitude. To answer the question of “Will the people around me be more likely to help?” One would have to understand the entire spectrum of the witnesses experiences. Personal history would factor in, but is is too unpredictable and multifactorial to serve as a predictive argument either way, but should not be discounted. Each perceives through their personal filters or experience, morals and hierarchy of immediate needs. This does not justify turning their backs away, but gives more insight as to what may have been going on in each of the witnesses

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