Bystander intervention

The effect of ambiguity of the helping situation and the interpersonal relationship between bystanders

Dados Bibliográficos

ID19277779
AutoresJUNJI HARADA (Nagasaki University, autor correspondente)
Ano1985
Volume27
Fascículo4
Páginas177-184
Data de publicação1985-01-01
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJapanese Psychological Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0021-5368 • E-ISSN: 1468-5884
EditoraThe Japanese Psychological Association (PUBLISHER • JP)
DOI10.4992/psycholres1954.27.177
OpenAlexW1805005413
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8
Referências citadas18

The effect of situational ambiguity on helping behavior was examined in relation to interpersonal relationship between bystanders in the field and laboratory settings. In Experiment I, 279 males and females waiting for buses either alone, with a stranger, or with an acquaintance witnessed a person looking for the appropriate bus stop for his destination. In the high ambiguity situation, he expressed a look of distress, but in the low ambiguity situation expressed distress openly by asking a passerby around him. In Experiment II, 120 undergraduates either alone, with a stranger, or with an acquaintance witnessed a person dropping his contact lens. There was another unresponsive subjects who seemingly knew the victim well (low ambiguity condition) or did not know him at all (high ambiguity condition). In both experiments, the effect of ambiguity on helping was most pronounced in the two-acquaintance condition. Subjects in the presence of an acquaintance were more helpful in the low ambiguity situation than were the subjects in the high ambiguity situation. These findings were interpreted in terms of the informational and the normative social influences of small-group processes

Ambiguity · Bystander effect · Developmental psychology · Distress · Epistemology · Helping behavior · Interpersonal communication · Intervention (counseling) · Normative · Situational ethics · Clinical Psychology · Communication in Education and Healthcare · Emotions and Moral Behavior · Psychology · Psychology of Social Influence · Social Psychology