franz162: April 2012 Archives

Perhaps the concept that will remain with me five years from now that I learned in Psychology 1001 is that of the bystander effect. The bystander effect is defined as the non responsiveness of those witnessing an event. I was shocked to learn that numerous deaths and rapes could have been prevented by someone intervening instead of assuming that another witness would step in and stop the crime.

Having been certified in first aid and CPR, I will be more willing to use my skills if I approach a situation in which they are needed. Instead of assuming someone more qualified or experienced than I will step in, I need to do the best I can with the training I have. When I witness a crime or an emergency, I will not be more aware of the need to step in and help instead of looking for someone else to do so. Learning about the bystander effect can prevent stoppable crimes and deaths from occurring. In addition to knowing this myself, I will be more likely to share this information with my friends and peers so that preventable tragedies can be avoided. As a result of taking psychology 1001, I have learned that the bystander effect can be extremely dangerous and that I should step in and help in an emergency.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could determine a person's personality based on the order they were born in? Many popular books associate certain characteristics of people based on their birth order however, further research shows that this claim is not valid. Such books often categorize firstborns as being high achievers, middle children as being the peace makers, and the youngest as risk takers. Upon further examination however, these claims fall victim to the scientific principle of replicatability; it is extremely difficult to find examples of this being true in every family. For example in my own family, my middle sister is more of an achiever while my youngest brother acts as a peace keeper. This suggests that this idea does not hold true in every situation. Also correlation versus causation could also play a role as being the oldest and desiring to set a good example could result in the eldest child being an achiever not just the fact that they were born first. The theory of birth order is most likely popular because it provides an easy explanation as to why certain people exhibit the personalities that they do and helps people to make sense of each other's actions. ns. Check out this article to find out more.