Abstract

David Cash was a college student who found himself in the women's restroom of the Primadonna in Nevada. He witnessed his friend, Jeremy Strohmeyer raping and killing a 7-year-old girl. Cash did not take any action in trying to prevent this heinous crime. There are many elements to consider when bystanders neglect to take action. Research examining bystander apathy in critical situations is lacking, yet the number of violent crimes witnessed by others where intervention is not offered continues to escalate. Bullying often occurs in the presence of others. Bystander apathy is believed to play a passive role in most cases of bullying. This study investigated the psychological symptom patterns of intervening and non-intervening bystanders in bullying events. It was hypothesized that there would be a significant difference in the SLC-90-R profiles between intervening and non-intervening bystanders. It was further hypothesized that gender would significantly interact with the bystander response to witnessing bullying. Data were collected from undergraduate participants at the University of Central Florida through The Psychology Department's Psychological Research Participant System (aka, SONA). Psychological Symptoms were evaluated using the Symptom-Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R). Data was obtained from 135 undergraduate participants. The sample consisted of 42 males and 93 females between 18 to 58 years of age. The participants were categorized by intervening and non-intervening bystanders. A two-way between subjects MANOVA was used to assess the influence of gender and intervening and non-intervening bystanders on the nine SLC-90-R symptom domains. No significant main effects or interaction was observed. However, a review of the univariate analyses revealed a significant gender x intervening interaction on the paranoid ideation subscale, F(1, 131) = 4.823, p = .03. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Notes

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Thesis Completion

2015

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Fouty, H. Edward

Degree

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Psychology

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Sciences; Sciences -- Dissertations, Academic; Apathy; Bystander; Bystander effect; Psychological symptoms; Psychology

Location

UCF Daytona Beach

Format

PDF

Identifier

CFH0004840

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Document Type

Honors in the Major Thesis

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Included in

Psychology Commons

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