Thursday, May 10, 2012

The bystander effect

Not too long ago, I was watching a television show called "What would you do?" Its a hidden camera show that has actors perform different controversial scenarios in a busy area or restaurant to see how people would react to them when they thought no one was watching. One scenario that stood out to me as a perfect example of the bystander effect was when they had two actors, a man and a woman, portray as if they were on a first date at a bar. When the woman went to the bathroom, the male actor poured a powder into her drink in plain sight. Of course it was totally harmless but that was unknown to the bystanders, to them it appeared as if he was trying to drug her. The camera panned over the bar and it showed 4 different people looking at each other with shocked looks and shaking their heads but not one said anything to the woman when she returned and started sipping her drink. She even pretended to start to feel light-headed and still no one said anything. Although this situation wasn't real this is a perfect example to me because they all seen it and looked around at each other and didn't do anything because no one else said anything. At the end of the experiment the host interviewed one of the bystanders and asked why she didn't warn the woman and she simply said " No one else said anything, I didn't feel like it was my place."

Self-Regulated Learning

The self-regulatory behavior that challenges me the most is time. Managing my time between football practice, being a parent and school work is still a really big struggle for me. Having football practice till 5 and then going home and having to balance parenting,studying and homework is overwhelming and sometimes very stressful. When start feeling that way usually end up pushing my homework to the side, saying to myself that I'll get it done and I'll make time to study later, but never really get to it. I'm still struggling with this problem but I plan on getting organized and using my time more wisely so I can be able to do everything without feeling overwhelmed.

My Reading History

When was younger and up until now, reading has only been a requirement fot me. I only do it because have to. Its not that I hate doing it, but its not like really enjoy doing it either. I do appreciate when the book im assigned to read in class is good but it doesn't inspire me to read another just because, or as a hobby. That's how its always been, more than likely it wll stay that way.