Introduction
The Bystander effect is a phenomenon that has been in existence for a long time and has been studied for decades. According to this phenomenon, the more people are gathered in a situation of danger, the less likely they are to be of any help. This is true even in instances when the bystander has been trained and have previously helped people that were in danger. This effect is made worse by social media as instead of helping, people prefer log in and either record or talk about what is happening. This means that there are situations, such as robberies or even medical ones, where people might not be able to help the ones in trouble. This could be disastrous to the victim.
By understanding more about the bystander effect, it is possible to know how to communicate with the people so that they can be involved in the situation. One situation where that could be applicable is that of a class discussion group. If the lecturer wants people to participate and because of the bystander effect they are not able to come to, it could be possible and easier for him to encourage them if he knew what exactly was going through their minds. Similarly, this information could be used by marketing organizations throughout the world. For instance, an organization that was coming up with a bold new product for specific clients might be able to know how to communicate effectively for its initial potential clients.
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A.1. Literature Review
Research by Maria Plotner and others focused on children and how they behaved around situations that needed learning. According to the experiment, which used 5-year-old participants, even the young children were very helpful to the experimenter in instances where nobody else was able to help (Plötner, Over, & Carpenter, 2015) . However, the same children were very reluctant to help those that needed help when they were in the presence of others who had the opportunity to do the same. Similarly, scenarios where others can be able to see the helping situation but are physically barred still did not push the child that could help to do so. Although this experiment targeted 5-year old children, the fact that they hesitated to help the experimenters where they could means that this is a phenomenon that is embedded in human nature. However, it is somewhat learned because these students might have learnt it from others.
Another research study focuses on trying to understand the patterns of participation that lead people to stand as helpless participants. According to this study, the bystander effect is impacted by 4 different key-components; self-awareness, the social cues in place, blocking mechanism and the diffusion of responsibility (Hudson & Bruckman, 2004) . Although previously the belief was that the bystander effect was only possible in dangerous situation, it is visible in harmless situations such as online discussion forums in class. This experiment is supposed to show just how people react in a situation where their help was needed but there were many others. These other individuals also appear to be able to help but they just choose not to.
Although these experiments wanted to find out whether the bystanders effect was a reality, they used completely different methods and measures in the experiment. In the 5-year old experiments, for instance, the individual being tested was only one initially. Although these students were also used collectively in the study, the focus on the study was not on large numbers of people. Similarly, that experiment manipulated its variables differently. For instance, the exam at times only put one individual in an instance where only he could help and the others could do nothing. Granted, these bring about better results but they are costly in terms of time and other resources and thus they could be used later on.
A.2. Experimental Design
A.2.a. experimental design steps
One of the experimenters will get to lay down in a prostrate position in the school exit lobby. Here, everybody getting out of the classrooms will pass the experimenter there (Yin, 2013) . There will also be four different experimenters located some distance from the one lying in a helpless situation.
A.2.b. reasoning
This is a situation that will work and is suitable for the experiment. The lobby in the school entrance is the proper location because most of the school uses this way to exit the school building. By people being there already, the situation will have more people that could help but are not. This would be ideal because there has to be other bystanders.
A.2.c. sequence of events
Just a minute or two before the common classes in the block are released for lunch, one experimenter will get to lay prostate on the floor in the center of the lobby. After people get out, the experimenters will observe the first person to show any care or concern for the person lying down. A few of those who have passed without doing anything could also be interviewed for a minute later on.
A.2.d. tools, technologies and measurement units
The tools that will be used for the experiment include the camera which will help record the information and to later analyze it. Although the number of people passing through the door will be recorded with a notebook and pencil, the video will be present and important because of the purpose of verification (Yin, 2013) . There will also be a notebook necessary for getting the information of those who will be interviewed in the process. Everybody that passes there will be recorded as a vertical mark. This will be marked by an “n” which stands for a nudge as well as a “c” which means significant amounts of concern. This is somebody that wanted to do something and did more than nudging the individual but did not get to helping him.
A.3. Variables
The independent variable in the case is the presence of bystanders. The researcher wants to know whether the presence of others in a situation could inspire fears in an individual and stop him from helping (Guest, Namey, & Mitchell, 2012) . The presence of bystanders is what the experimenters manipulate to see whether the individuals can give a helping hand to the individual in need. Thus, this help that is being offered to those in help is the dependent variable. The controlled variable is the situation appearing dangerous like a student fainting or not feeling well. For the experiment to be able to yield relevant information, the situation should appear to be that of danger (Guest, Namey, & Mitchell, 2012) . This way, the people would not have too much time to think and justify not helping. This is a controlled variable because it does not have to be the way it is yet that aspect is not being changed.
A.4. Threat Reduction to Internal Validity
One thing that could have violated the validity of this specific experiment would be it turning from a bystander effect experiment into something different. This could happen if the first person in the room went directly to save the student (Guest, Namey, & Mitchell, 2012) . As such, it made sense to put other experimenters in the room to create a suitable environment for the experiment.
A.5. Hypothesis
The hypothesis was that most of the block would have passed the individual without showing any sort of concern. The reason for this hypothesis is that there have been many similar experiments that had been carried out. Although they were not exactly similar, most of them show that only around 30% of the participants involved in the experiment did not show any concern or move towards helping the individual in the situation of danger.
Process of Data Collection
Only a total of 150 students would be used for the experiment. These students will not know that they are part of a research study until after it is finished. Being a small block around 250 students are expected from the classrooms. There will be a video camera which will be recording the number of people passing through the place and their reactions. On the ground will be a person with a notepad and a pen who will be recording the number of people coming from there. The individual will be making marks which look like “I”. This will represent one individual and the mark is to be made as soon as they pass the door. There will then be a mark for individuals depending on whether they nudged or did more than that on the clients.
The second part of the data collection process will involve giving out the surveys for the different participants to answer. Some of the people that have gotten to pass the student lying in the lobby will be stopped by the experimenters and given a 5-question questionnaire to answer before they go back on their way. The intention of this is to find out exactly why the students would pass an individual that was very clearly in some sort of problem without a care in the world. Although it is expected that some of these students were not trained and had never helped anyone in their lives who needed help, that was to be the minority.
B1. Appropriate Methods
The appropriate methods for collecting information in this experiment will include the use of quantitative observation. Information for the experiment will be systematically observing through counting the number of people coming into the room and their specific reactions to the situation. The people will be noted by a stick-like figure (Guest, Namey, & Mitchell, 2012) . Also, a letter “n” will be used alongside those who nudged the individual and a “c” would be used for those who showed a little concern and were either stopped by or advised otherwise by other people. The numbers will be converted into percentages that will explain four elements; those who showed no concern, who nudged, who showed some concern and who actually helped.
There will also be a survey questionnaire that would help to ensure that these students were able to give their own responses in the experiment. Apart from the experiment being designed to prove that the bystander effect is a phenomenon that truly exists, it is also important to find out what transpires in the minds of those who were passing the individual, it made sense to have a 5- questions questionnaire (Yin, 2013) . With this, it would be possible for those who passed the individuals to answer quickly and without wasting their time.
Results
Out of the 150 students that came from within the block, only one teacher showed enough concern to go and help the student. By this time, there had been a number of students that have gathered there and are looking at the student that is seemingly unwell. As such, none of these students were able to lift a hand and help the student that appeared to be sickly. Most of the students passing him did not look at him while many others only noticed him and went back to their activities and what they were initially thinking.
Out of these students, only around 5 had the guts to try and nudge the student to get a reaction for him. As the people continued increasing in number, a gentleman tried nudging the individual on his shoulder but this caught the attention of three girls passing by and they stopped to see. However, on these girls stopping with concern, the individual that was nudging him stopped doing it and went on out. The girls stood there looking at the individual for some time and this made others to stop and look at the student too. However, all this while nobody was brave enough to go and see whether the student was actually doing well.
One student noticed that the boy lying on the floor and stopped to help. However, this individual was stopped by her friends who seemed to advise her against that act. As such, though reluctantly, she went on with her journey. This is as close as the students got to helping the individual.
The questions “were you raised to help someone in need regardless of the situation?” 75% of those who participated in the survey answered this as true. Similarly, for the question “have you ever helped someone in need selflessly before?” 81% of those who answered gave a positive answer. However, 100% of these individuals did not do anything to try and help the person who was lying down.
Conclusion
These results prove that the reality is tougher than what the prior experiments had concluded on. According to most experiments, at least 30% of the population would try to help in one way or another. In this case, there was nobody to do anything that would suggest helping the student. On the contrary, the only people that took a second to nudge the student were only 3% of the students passing that passed him. This is still way below the research expectations. Nevertheless, the results confirm the hypothesis. The experimental design in this instance was important because it differentiates a legitimate experiment from a mis informative one. If, for instance, there was interviewing as the only option of data collection then the answers might not have been genuine.
It is possible for the experiment to be replicated. The main thing about the experiment is to ensure that the individual looks like he is in trouble and the situation is of danger. However, it is important that the situation is simple enough for any one person to handle. If the situation appears to be too big for any one person to indulge without being in danger, then the information that would be gathered could be pure misinformation which could confirm the hypothesis wrongly. Another important element in the study is for there to be little or no focus on the person in danger. When the students are first released into the hallway, they should meet a person that is down and although others could still be around, they are focused on other things. This way, it will be possible to get a genuine reaction of students that first see the person suffering and others that could help not doing so.
References
Guest, G., Namey, E. E., & Mitchell, M. L. (2012). Collecting Qualitative Data: A Field Manual for Applied Research. Thousands Oak: SAGE Publications.
Hudson, J. M., & Bruckman, A. S. (2004). The Bystander Effect: A Lens for Understanding Patterns of Participation. The Journal of the Learning Sciences , 165-195.
Plötner, M., Over, H., & Carpenter, M. (2015). Young Children Show the Bystander. Psychological Science , 499-506.
Yin, R. K. (2013). Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
