As social psychological theories are meant to explain phenomenon, it is relatively easy to identify these theories and concepts in daily life. Events in the news are also subject to social psychological analysis. In the CNN article “Could Grisly Murder of College Student Have Been Stopped?” by Scott Glover, Glover details the events surrounding the murder of a University of California, Los Angeles student. Sarah Muhr, a student at UCLA, called the police after she heard screams coming from somewhere in her apartment building. The police showed up, and after spending less than ten minutes looking around, left due to a lack of evidence of a crime. The original caller saw smoke, called the police again, and they found the burning body of Andrea
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Proactive/instrumental aggression, which is when people inflict harm as a means to a desire end, may provide some causal explanation as to why DelVesco was killed. The suspects in her death were found with her underwear and bloody clothes in their car, as well as items from a burglary they had committed nearby (Glover, 2016). Following the theory of proactive/instrumental aggression, they may have killed DelVesco to either cover up a rape or to eliminate her as a witness to the burglary. The presence of the underwear in the car lends credence to the rape theory, while the burglarized items may indicate that they were trying to silence a witness. However, if you consider the heighten physiological arousal from committing a burglary, they may have sexually assaulted DelVesco on that physiological “high” and then killed her upon realizing that she might be able to testify against …show more content…
Groupthink, which is the excessive likelihood among members of a group to see ingroup agreement, is most prevalent when the need for agreement takes precedent over accurate or informed decision making. There are three main contributing factors to groupthink, all three of which are present in the article. First, the police officers were a highly cohesive group. In order to function effectively in emergency situations, being cohesive can sometimes be necessary. However, it also promotes groupthink. The group structure of the police officers was also conducive to groupthink. When the police officers were first looking around the apartment complex, the most senior officer among them decided that there was insufficient information to justify waking up apartment residents that early in the morning (Glover, 2016). The rest of the officers agreed with the senior officer regardless of what they thought due to his seniority and their fear of repercussions if they disagreed. The last main contributing factor to group think is the presence of a stressful situation. Being called to investigate the source of screams early in the morning constitutes as a stressful situation so it makes sense that the officers would look to the officer with the most seniority for answers as to what to do, regardless of the impacts of that
Proactive/instrumental aggression, which is when people inflict harm as a means to a desire end, may provide some causal explanation as to why DelVesco was killed. The suspects in her death were found with her underwear and bloody clothes in their car, as well as items from a burglary they had committed nearby (Glover, 2016). Following the theory of proactive/instrumental aggression, they may have killed DelVesco to either cover up a rape or to eliminate her as a witness to the burglary. The presence of the underwear in the car lends credence to the rape theory, while the burglarized items may indicate that they were trying to silence a witness. However, if you consider the heighten physiological arousal from committing a burglary, they may have sexually assaulted DelVesco on that physiological “high” and then killed her upon realizing that she might be able to testify against …show more content…
Groupthink, which is the excessive likelihood among members of a group to see ingroup agreement, is most prevalent when the need for agreement takes precedent over accurate or informed decision making. There are three main contributing factors to groupthink, all three of which are present in the article. First, the police officers were a highly cohesive group. In order to function effectively in emergency situations, being cohesive can sometimes be necessary. However, it also promotes groupthink. The group structure of the police officers was also conducive to groupthink. When the police officers were first looking around the apartment complex, the most senior officer among them decided that there was insufficient information to justify waking up apartment residents that early in the morning (Glover, 2016). The rest of the officers agreed with the senior officer regardless of what they thought due to his seniority and their fear of repercussions if they disagreed. The last main contributing factor to group think is the presence of a stressful situation. Being called to investigate the source of screams early in the morning constitutes as a stressful situation so it makes sense that the officers would look to the officer with the most seniority for answers as to what to do, regardless of the impacts of that