University Psychology: Self-Assessment Paper - Personal Reflection

This self-assessment paper reflects on a past experience where the student witnessed a car accident and the subsequent inaction of bystanders. The paper analyzes this event through a psychological lens, exploring concepts like the bystander effect and altruism, and the impact of these concepts on the student's actions and emotional state. The student connects the experience to their understanding of social psychology, including the roles of group cohesiveness, anonymity, and diffusion of responsibility. The paper also discusses the development of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and the lasting impact of the event on the student's perspective, leading to a commitment to proactive behavior in similar situations. The student uses course material to analyze the event and its impact.

Running head: SELF ASSESSMENT PAPER
SELF ASSESSMENT PAPER
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1SELF ASSESSMENT PAPER
Introduction.
As humans, our actions and behaviors are not free from external influencers. Most of
what we behave can be considered a response to some form of stimuli. At the same time, looking
back at these experiences we are able to realize that the behavior or action also embed certain
key psychological principles that we correspond to unknowingly. In this assignment I have
looked back on my past experiences and tried to select an event which I can analyze from a
psychological perspective. I have been aided in this process by everything that I have learned in
this course. The knowledge that I have gained in this course has significantly helped me
understand the experience better and analyze the event in a manner that makes it sensible from a
psychological perspective. It has also made me wary of my actions and more sensitive towards
making reflective analysis so that I can implement some of my gained understanding in the real
life context as well.
Discussion.
What happened in my life has significantly altered who I am today. The incident that I
have selected for analysis is from approximately five years ago when I witnessed a gruesome
accident on the road. In the event, a small car was trying to take a turn while overtaking a truck
while a second truck was coming from the opposite side. It was unclear what happened because I
wasn’t able to see the car for a brief moment, but I heard a crash and I saw that the small car was
lying upside down. There were two passengers in the car including the driver. The driver was
dead on spot and the other passenger was taken to the hospital in a critical condition. Both of
them were in their early twenties. There were a lot of other smaller incidents associated with the

2SELF ASSESSMENT PAPER
major incident that would not have made any significant impact at that point in time, but looking
back made me realize that those smaller factors, particularly the people’s behavior as well as my
own, makes a lot of difference.
The event displayed certain key attributes from a personal psychological as well as social
psychological perspective. One of the crucial associated events that significantly impacted me
was the inaction of the crowd gathered at the spot. Immediately after the accident, there was a
crowd of more than a dozen people at the spot. They were all speaking to each other, taking
photos on their phones, but nobody immediately proceeded to help the people stuck inside the
car. This is the junction where the conflict between two common social psychological aspects
can be observed – the notion of altruism and that of the bystander effect. Altruism refers to the
voluntary and selfless act of helping other people, often at the risk of one’s own self-interests
(Yamagishi & Mifune, 2016). The bystander effect on the other hand refers to the phenomenon
where, in the period of a certain crisis, the presence of people in the vicinity makes it less likely
for the person in need to receive help (Fischer et al., 2011). Current studies have shown that the
bystander effect has become a more common phenomenon than altruism (Fischer et al., 2011).
The event that I have described above stands as a burning evidence for the predominance of
bystander effect in the society. Needless to say I myself was stunned at the moment because f
which I did not act myself. After two men got close to the car and started trying to get the door
off its hinges, a few other people form the crown advanced to help them and someone from the
crowd called an ambulance.

3SELF ASSESSMENT PAPER
The social psychological view in analyzing this event shows that people live with the
preconception that their help in certain moments would not count to anything, therefore they try
to stay away and not help. Furthermore, research also shows that bystander effect is correlated
with three specific factors – group cohesiveness, anonymity and diffusion of responsibility
(Philpot et al., 2019). Collectively they contribute to the mutual denial of the severity of a
situation. I can understand this proposition because, in such a situation, I would also normally try
to not get too involved. This gives rise to the feeling of stronger anonymity and denial of
responsibility. Furthermore, if I notice that nobody else from the group is not lending the first
helping hand, I would stay back as well. Thus group cohesiveness comes into play. I did not have
enough awareness of the situation (Van Bommel et al., 2012) as well because of which I mostly
remained aloof.
The aspect of this event which changed my perspective in life came as an information
afterwards. We were informed that the driver died because of an obstruction to breathing caused
by the seat belt somehow choking him. When I got this information, I was shocked because, if I
had taken the first step and helped the person a minute earlier, he might have been saved. After
this realization, I was unable to properly function for a few days, with repeated instances of
nightmares, prolonged insomnia and perpetual stress. I was starting to show the signs of post –
traumatic stress disorder (Sherin & Nemeroff, 2011). I was also taking a lot of guilt assuming
that my inaction in doing my social role resulted in the death of a person.

4SELF ASSESSMENT PAPER
Conclusion.
This stressful period lasted for approximately two weeks before it started getting better.
However, that event significantly changed my life and perception of the real life world. I can
safely conclude that this event from my past has been one of the most influential ones in my life.
In the current context, reflecting upon this incident and analyzing it has led me to understand the
transition to personal mental health deterioration from a social psychological viewpoint. I
decided that in the future, I would ensure that I place my actions on the top of the priority. I need
not be altruistic all the time, but by doing my part appropriately, I would be able to prevent the
onset a variety of other associated issues as well.

5SELF ASSESSMENT PAPER
References.
Fischer, P., Krueger, J. I., Greitemeyer, T., Vogrincic, C., Kastenmüller, A., Frey, D., ... &
Kainbacher, M. (2011). The bystander-effect: A meta-analytic review on bystander
intervention in dangerous and non-dangerous emergencies. Psychological
bulletin, 137(4), 517.
Philpot, R., Liebst, L. S., Levine, M., Bernasco, W., & Lindegaard, M. R. (2019). Would I be
helped? Cross-national CCTV footage shows that intervention is the norm in public
conflicts. American Psychologist.
Sherin, J. E., & Nemeroff, C. B. (2011). Post-traumatic stress disorder: the neurobiological
impact of psychological trauma. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 13(3), 263.
Van Bommel, M., van Prooijen, J. W., Elffers, H., & Van Lange, P. A. (2012). Be aware to care:
Public self-awareness leads to a reversal of the bystander effect. Journal of Experimental
Social Psychology, 48(4), 926-930.
Yamagishi, T., & Mifune, N. (2016). Parochial altruism: does it explain modern human group
psychology?. Current Opinion in Psychology, 7, 39-43.