PORTFOLIO: Unit 3 Application Reflection

I have chosen to talk about the bystander effect, since I feel like it is a very intriguing topic that has always made me question what I have learned about throughout the years. I first learned about the bystander effect in middle school English class, when we talked about the story of Kitty Genovese. I remember my teacher prompting us with a question about what we do if we witnessed a stabbing, and at the time everyone agreed that we would call the police and help. But then she explained the story of Kitty and the "bystander effect", which I learned is that people are less likely to help during a crisis when more people are around since they feel less of obligation to help if they think someone else can just do it. And Kitty's story was extremely upsetting to hear when I learned that she was so close to living. Kitty had gotten off work late at night, and was going to her apartment right across the street from where she parked her car. But this man had followed her and stabbed her before running away when he heard someone yell. And as Kitty was calling for help still trying to get to front of her apartment building, many people just assumed that someone already called the police, so then a couple minutes goes by and the man comes back to basically "finish the job", before someone actually comes down to see Kitty but she was too far gone at that point, and ended up dying. This really just goes to show that no matter the situation, someone should always call for help. I think this applies to me, since if I was in any emergency situation, I would want someone to call help for me. Since certain cases happen to be life or death for many people.