An oceanographer from France abandoned a historic deep-sea descent to rescue a trapped Japanese researcher whose submersible became wedged in a trench wall yesterday.
The Japanese researcher was leading the dive to retrieve rare hydrothermal vent organisms but lost control during a sudden undersea thermal surge and became wedged in a narrow crevice. The French oceanographer, piloting a nearby vessel, immediately aborted their own sampling run, risking their vessel to tow the trapped submersible to safety and forfeiting years of research. Meanwhile, a Canadian oceanographer in a third vessel bypassed the incident to complete the sampling run, securing a prestigious international research grant.
When interviewed, the French oceanographer explained: "In our maritime community in Brittany, the 'code of the sea' is absolute. You never leave a fellow mariner stranded, regardless of the scientific or financial stakes. It is a deeply ingrained social norm."
The Canadian oceanographer, when asked why they did not assist, stated: "It was his own poor navigation decision to dive so close to the active vent; he clearly lacked the technical piloting experience required for such extreme depths. Besides, our lab director gave me absolute instructions that securing the biological specimens was our sole priority to guarantee next year's funding. I was simply following the official command structure."
Briefly consider the individual/situational debate in relation to the article above. Support your answer with evidence from the article.
276 exam-style questions on OCR A Level Psychology Debates, covering Nature/nurture, Freewill/determinism, Reductionism/holism, Individual/situational explanations, Usefulness of research, Ethical considerations, Conducting socially sensitive research, and Psychology as a science. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.