Prosocial Behavior: The Murder Of Kitty Genovese

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Recommended: Prosocial behavior

According to Oxford dictionaries, Prosocial Behavior is related to or denoted to behavior that is positive, helpful, and intended to promote social acceptance and friendship. In other words, prosocial behavior is the acts that will benefit others, which includes, volunteering, donating to charity or sharing something with someone. Prosocial behavior can be represented by a broad category of acts, which is meant to be beneficial to people around your social group. The behavior can sometimes also be altruistic because it involves helping others in need without thinking about the benefits for you and this could be at a personal cost to help others.
The focus was given to prosocial behavior in psychology due to psychologist William McDougall, who …show more content…

This incident further influenced psychologists to look deep into people’s bystander behavior. The event took place after she returned home at 3 am. There were 38 neighbors who witnessed it but no one came to assist her. No one even called the police. Latane and Darley two professors of psychology researched the situation. The question they asked was “What conditions promote helping in an emergency and what conditions discourage it and why?” It might have been that the difference between apathy and taking action is not within us but it depends on the situation. It depends on our thoughts and how we interpret the situation. Therefore, when there is only one bystander present in an emergency situation and help is required to be given, it is only him that can provide help. On the other hand, the situation is not clear-cut when there are many bystanders present around. The responsibility of intervention is divided among all the bystanders present. In this case, there is no pressure to feel that all the responsibility is on one person’s hand. This will make each person feel less responsibility to help the victim. (4) Latene and Darley tested an experiment and their question was: If a person witnessed an emergency, would the presence of other onlookers make him or her less likely to offer help? The answer, time after time, was

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