An emergency situation took place while I was inside a building for my insurance renewal. There was this big fat lady whom I learned was an employee there. She tripped and fell flat on her face while trying to get out of the elevator. I was sitting just few meters away from the elevator so I was the first one to witness what happened. I saw her hurt and could hardly move.
That situation was a good demonstration of 5 steps to helping. First, I noticed that something was happening and since I had plenty of time and obviously was not in a hurry, I was able to act like a Good Samaritan as opposed to if I were running late that I would not have even paid attention to the lady .
After noticing that something wrong was happening and that somebody was needing help, I took the responsibility of providing initial assistance to the victim as I was the one closest to her location and I believed it would be absurd to wait for other people in the waiting area to take the initiative of helping her. Although there were few other people in the waiting area, they demonstrated the Bystander Effect, wherein the presence of a group has inhibited the rest of them from helping (Keltner & Marsh, 2006).
I also realized that she would need some medical assistance since her right arm was hurt and I was not in the right position to assist her further. Based on the 4th step to healing, one should not only help but should also know how to help. The least I could do to implement the help was to assist her in getting up and try to get further assistance from the right and trained people.
This emergency situation taught me that it is truly possible for someone to help out of altruistic motive and not just to feel good about myself or to get reciprocated for what I did .
References
Cherry, K. (2016, May 10). What is Altruism. Retrieved from https://www.verywell.com/what-is-altruism-2794828
Keltner, D. a. (2006, September 1). We Are All Bystanders. Greater Good. Retrieved from http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/we_are_all_bystanders/
Shuttleworth, M. (2008, August 8). Helping Behavior. Retrieved from https://explorable.com/helping-behavior
Wilhelm, M. (2010). Helping Behavior, Dispositional Empathic Concern, and the Principle of Care. Social Psychology Quarterly, 73(1), 11-32. doi: 10.1177/0190272510361435
