Everyone has his or her own way of reacting to social situations. What drives us to behave the way we do? There are many contributing factors that determine the way we may behave in different situations, such as situational attributions (social influences), our personal filters (our life experiences on which we base our judgements), and our personal attributions (personal characteristics that are derived from our filters). Social influence and conformity play a huge role in the way people act in social situations. "...people conform because they fear the social rejection that accompanies defiance," (Kassin, 1998, p.501). As Kitzinger pointed out in her article "Born to be Good," the "bystander effect" (or conformity) caused the public not to intervene when a New York woman was in trouble, merely because the other people around them were not eit

her. However, if someone there that witnessed the situation had been through a similar experience, they may have felt obligated to help, due to his or her own personal filters.

We think that fundamentally we are born good and are pro-social beings who can act on altruistic impulses. We are all of these things, but it is our social contact that sometimes causes people to deviate from these fundamental characteristics. In our schools we see the bystander effect playing out everyday from practices of bullying to hazing. Why do good students stand by and watch while others are tormented? An example would be the Columbine tragedy. The kids that were responsible for the shootings said that they were bullied and this was their way of retaliating. We’re sure the kids that witnessed the bulling were good kids, but they apparently succumbed to the peer pressure and allowed the bulling to continue.

All people are different, and to agree with Kitzinger, people are not born to be good or bad, it is merely character traits and social influences that determine our actions. Conformity is a social norm. Some conform to avoid rejection, and some conform to display individuality. We are all human, and we decide our actions based on many life factors; not because of a trait that we were born with. Not that we are morally bad and need to learn to be good. There are many different beliefs as to what is known when we are born and what is learned from environmental surroundings and physical and emotional nourishment growing up. Scientific evidence shows tha

Some topics in this essay:
Northbrook Illinois, Ms Kitzinger, , social situations, born bad, altruistic impulses, junior girls, personal filters, bystander effect, social influences, parents caregivers, girl participate, socially acceptable,