9 Markers Flashcards
1
Q
Outline and evaluate the multistore model of memory (9)
A
- The multi-store model of memory has three separate memory stores: the sensory store, the short term store, and the long term store
- First, an environmental stimuli will be processed by the sensory store by one of the 5 sensory organs
- The sensory memory store has a very large capacity and a very short duration (usually only a couple seconds)
- The coding is related to how the information is received, for example: if it is received from the eye, it will be visually encoded. If it’s received from the ear, it will be acoustically encoded
- The information will only be retained if the person pays attention to it and rehearses it
- If this occurs, then the information will be passed to the short term memory store
- The short term memory has a very small capacity of only 5-9 items or chunks of information.
- Information is stored for around 30 seconds before it is lost unless it is moved to long term memory
- Short term memory is usually encoded acoustically
- If the information continues to be rehearsed if will be transferred to the long-term memory store
- Long term memory has an unlimited capacity and duration and information stored here can last a life time
- Coding is mainly semantic (meaning)
- This is permanent memory
- When an individual wants to access a piece of information, it is drawn from the long-term memory into the short-term memory before information can be access
- A strength of the MSM is that there is evidence for the different memory stores. Suggesting that the STM and LTM are different. For example, Murdock found evidence for the serial position effect. He found that words at the end of a list are recalled first (recency effect), due to being in the STM, and words at the beginning of a list were also recalled well (primacy effect) due to being in the LTM. Whereas the words in the middle were not recalled very well. This is a strength because it supports the idea of the memory stores being totally independent. This increases the validity of the MSM.
- One weakness of the MSM model is that it is far too simple. This is because STM/LTM are actually more complex. For example, the LTM is made up of episodic, procedural and semantic. Therefore this reduces the validity of the MSM.
- Another weakness of the MSM is that the research evidence used to support it uses artificial tasks, For example, the studies required participants to recall word lists or syllables such as RPQ. This means the results do not illustrate the different ways we use memory in real life.
2
Q
Outline and evaluate Murdock’s study
A
- The aim of the study was to see how recall of lists of words relates to the serial position curve
- In a lab study, 16 participants were presented with a list of 20 words at the rate of one word per second
- Once they had heard all 20 words, they were asked to recall as many words in a free recall format
- A different list of 20 words was used each time.
- The words at the end of the list were recalled first, showing the recency effect, and words at the beginning were also recalled well, showing the primacy effect.
- One strength is that Murdock’s use of a distracter task also confirms Murdock’s conclusions on the existence of the STM and LTM. This is because the use of the distracter task showed that the words at the beginning were rehearsed, whereas towards the end, the numbers remained in the participants’ STM rather than the words said last. Hence, this proves the STM and LTM are different memory stores that do exist, and that’s why the primacy and recency effect occurred.
- Another strength of the study is that it is important. This is because we can use the findings in real life situations. For example, in education we can ensure students rehearse information so it stays in their LTM. Therefore, the study has real life application.
- One weakness of the study is that the tasks in Murdock’s study were artificial. This is because having to recall a word list in real life is unlikely. For example, when you go to the supermarket, you would write a list and use that to shop. Therefore the tasks lack mundane realism and the study lacks ecological validity.
- Another weakness of the study is the participants in the study. This is because they were all psychology students, and additionally, only 16 participants were used so they could guess the aim of the study, or there would not be a wide range of people to experiment on. Therefore, it would be difficult to generalise the results to suit a wider population.
3
Q
Outline and Evaluate Bartlett’s study
A
- The aim was to see if people when given something unfamiliar to remember would alter the information to make it make more sense to them
- In a lab experiment, participants were asked to read a Native American tale called the ‘War of the Ghosts’
- 15 minutes later they were asked to retell the story as accurately as they could to another participant
- This person then retold the story to someone else, and this process was repeated several times during the next few weeks
- After the story had been passed on 10 times, Bartlett discovered 4 key findings: the story was shorter, there were omissions, there were changes in the details, and the order of events was changed
- Bartlett concluded that our memory is not an exact copy of what we hear
- Its distorted by what we already know about the world, and hence is influenced by our own beliefs.
- One strength of Bartlett’s research is similar findings in other studies. For example in another study participants were shown a picture of a black man and a white man having an argument, and then asked to describe and retell it to the others. Just like in Bartlett’s study, there were changes in the retelling; and participants said the weapon was being held by the black man, when it was actually being held by the white man. This supports Bartletts theory of memory being an active process, as people changed what happened according to their stereotypes about black people.
- Another strength of Bartlett’s study is the methodology chosen, as he used a laboratory experiment. This is a strength because this experimental method is highly controlled, so Bartlett could use this level of control to isolate the IV and the DV. Therefore, there were less extraneous variables interfering in the relationship of the IV and the DV.
- One weakness of Bartlett’s study is the participants used were only University students. This is a weakness because the sample was biased. All the students were studying English, so they were likely to be much better at reading and verbalising a story than other people in the target population ie. Older, younger or not a student. Therefore, we cannot generalise these results
- Another criticism of Bartlett’s study is his own beliefs may have affected the results. This is because he analysed each result and decided what was accurate recall and what wasn’t. Since he believed that cultural expectations would affect results, he was more likely to see this kind of effect in his results. Therefore, we cannot fully trust and the results of his study, and this decreases validity.
4
Q
Outline and evaluate Gibson’s theory of perception
A
- Direct perception is the idea that we perceive simply by using the information we receive through our senses
- Gibson says we are active in our world where our perception changes the visual images we receive
- Things close up appear to move faster as we go past them, whereas things further away don’t seem to move as much This is known as motion parallax
- Things closer to us appear to be more detailed, whereas things further away appear to be less detailed, known as texture gradient
- This can also happen with color
- Gibsons direct theory is sometimes called ecological because he said perception has evolved to help us deal best with our environment
- For example, humans animals and birds have developed color vision to help us pick the best fruits and berries in a tree
- Gibsons theory of direct perception tells us we live in a perceptual world, not just 3D
- It relies simply on information from our senses to understand the world around us rather than making inferences of guesses, like Gregory’s theory of perception
- One strength of Gibson’s theory, is that it does indicate that some perceptual abilities – perceiving depth- might be due to nature. This is because we don’t always use past experience (nurture) to perceive the world around us. For example, the ‘Visual Cliff experiments’ on babies suggests depth perception might be innate. This increases the validity of Gibson’s theory of direct perception.
- One strength of Gibson’s theory is that it has real world meaning. This is because research was based on the experience of pilots from the Second World War. Therefore, this makes it more relevant to explain how we perceive the world on a daily basis
- A weakness of Gibson’s theory is that it struggles to explain visual illusions. This is because Gibson proposed that we will always perceive accurately whereas illusions trick the brain into misperception. Therefore, this suggests that there is more to perception than his theory suggested.
- One weakness of Gibson’s theory of direct perception is that it has been challenged by Gregory. This is a weakness because Gregory suggests that perception uses visual cues and past experiences to construct a model of reality. Therefore it would reduce the validity of Gibson’s theory.
5
Q
Outline and evaluate Gregory’s theory of perception
A
- Gregory argues that we use our past experience to make sense of the world around us
- Our brain uses incoming information from our eyes and what we already know, therefore perception is a construction
- Past experience means we can infer what should be here and draw a conclusion
- When making inferences, features of the environment give the brain information about depth/distance
- Visual illusions occur because the brain has drawn the wrong conclusions from these cues
- Gregory uses depth cues like linear perspective and cognitive strategy of size constancy to explain illusions
- He argues that we misinterpret depth cues and wrongly apply size constancy
- This distorts our perception. For example, he explains the muller lyer by using finds as depth cues
- The inwards facing finds are perceived as close, whereas the outwards facing fins are perceived as far away
- This means we use size constancy to scale the inward facing fins shape down and the outward facing fins shape up
- This makes the inward facing fins shape look smaller and the outward facing fins shape look bigger
- One strength Gregory’s constructivist theory is that there is supporting evidence to show that the way that we process information from our senses depends on past experience. This is because many studies have shown that perceptions were affected by participants’ expectations and experiences. This means that nurture affects perception
- Another strength of Gregory’s constructivist theory is that it has good support from studies that show cultural differences in perception. This is because there are many studies that show that different parts of the world interpret visual cues differently suggesting that their different experiences shape what they perceive. This means, furthermore, that nurture plays a key role in helping us understand what we actually “see” and the world around us.
- One weakness of Gregory’s constructivist theory is that not everyone agrees with his explanation of visual illusions as Gregory said that the Muller Lyer illusion works because the fins on each line fit in with our past experience of corners of rooms in buildings. However, this is a weakness because the illusion also works if the fins are replaced with circles , which have no depth cues. This means that the theory does not explain these illusions well.
- Another weakness of Gregory’s constructivist theory is that there are gaps in explaining how perception “gets going” in the first place. This is because there are studies that show that babies have perceptual abilities from birth, such as the visual cliff experiment and another study that shows that babies prefer human babies to random patterns. This means that Gregory might not be completely correct and that some perception might be the result of nature
6
Q
Outline and evaluate Gilchrist and Nesburg’s study
A
- Glichrist and Nesburg aimed to find out if food deprivation affects the perception of food pictures. Two groups of students: one group deprived of food for 20 hours and a control group (not hungry)
- Students were shown four slides of meals for 15 seconds per slide
- The picture was shown again and participants had to adjust the lighting to make it look the same as it did before
- Participants perceived the food as brighter if they were deprived of food
- The control group, who were not deptived of food didn’t perceive the food as brighter.
- They concluded that being deprived of food increased perceptual sensitivity
- This shows that hunger is a motivating factor affecting the way food is perceived
- One strength of Gilchrist and Nesberg’s study is that it has high reliability. This is because the researchers used controlled methods to ensure each participant had exactly the same experience within the study. For example, the amount of time the pictures were shown on the screen was always 15 seconds and the same pictures were shown even though they were told it would be different ones. This means that it would be easy for another researcher to replicate the study and find the same or similar results.
- One weakness of Gilchrist and Nesberg’s study is the sampling technique that was used. The participants were all volunteers so their behavior may not have been representative. This is a weakness because they may have been really keen to take part in the study and as such may not have shown their real behavior. This reduces the validity of the study as we cannot be truly sure if motivation affects perception
- Another strength of Gilchrist and Nesberg’s study is that similar studies have found similar results. For example, Sanford (1936) deprived participants of food for varying lengths of time and then showed them ambiguous pictures. The longer they had been deprived of food, the more likely they were to perceive the pictures as representing food. This similar results in related studies, increase the validity of the Gilchrist and Nesberg study
- Another weakness of Gilchrist and Nesberg’s study is that depriving people of food and water may not be ethical. In the study participants were deprived of food for 20 hours. Although this is not a huge amount of time, it may have caused the participants some discomfort. Participants would have given their informed consent but may not have fully understood what it would feel like to go without food. These ethical considerations are a weakness of the study, as it may notbe fair to deprive people of food for the purpose of a Psychology experiment.
7
Q
Outline and evaluate Bruner and Minturn’s study
A
- The aim of the study was to affect how expectations can affect direct perception
- 24 university students were flashed letters or numbers faster than the eye could see at 30 milliseconds and then increasing at 20 milliseconds each time
- The participants were asked to write down the letter or number as soon as they recognized it
- The test stimulus was a broken B, which meant it could be seen as a B or 13
- Half the participants were shown letters (L,M,Y,A), then the test stimulus, and then, were shown the numbers (16,17,10,12) followed by the test stimulus. They were then shown a mixture of letters and numbers before the test stimulus
- The other half of participants were counterbalanced, meaning that they did the conditions in reverse.
- They found that most participants drew a 13 when they expected a number to come up, and a B when they expected a letter to come up. When they were expecting either a letter or a number to come up, they produced mixed results
- The researchers concluded that the participants’ expectations had directly affected how they interpreted the stimulus figure
- One weakness of Bruner and Minturn’s study is that it was conducted in an artificial environment. This is a weakness because the research study does not reflect perception in everyday life as the participants drew their view on images after watching a screen. This reduces the ecological validity of how expectations can affect direct perception.
- Another weakness of the research study is that the sample size is too small. This is a weakness because only 24 university students took part in the experiment. This means that we cannot apply/generalize how expectations can affect direct perception to a larger population, such as…old people!
- One strength of this study is that it can explain errors that people make. Gregory argues that perception is an active process in which the person comes up with a hypothesis about what they are seeing. Gregory also says that this guess is influenced by past experience. There are many examples where expectations have led people to ‘see’ a mistaken image. For example. One well known case occurred in 1988 when a US Navy Cruiser shot down a civilian airplane having mistaken it for a military plane. The ship commander was aware that there had been military action in the area and therefore had raised expectations that it was a military plane. Therefore, this increases the ecological validity of the study
8
Q
Outline and evaluate Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
A
- Piaget studied children’s cognitive development and believed schemas were the key to how children developed as they grew up
- Schemas are frameworks of knowledge that exist because of our past experiences
- They develop in response to our experiences of the world
- He believed babies had simple schemas for sucking and grasping, and as the baby grows, more complex ones develop
- Schemas develop through assimilation or accommodation
- Assimilation means that you add to an existing schema, eg. going from dog, to golden retriever
Accommodation is when you change an existing schema to understand the world around us, eg. realizing that something flying is not a bird, but a plane - Piaget believed there were 4 stages to a child’s cognitive development. He said children pass through all of these stages in the same order and roughly the same age
- Sensorimotor stage (0-2yrs): Children develop object permanence, which is knowing that objects exist even if they are out of sight
- Preoperational stage (2-7yrs):
Children are egocentric, so they struggle to see things from others’ point of view - Concrete operational stage (7-11yrs):
Children began to learn how to conserve, meaning that they understood that the amount of something would remain the same even if it’s appearance changed - Formal operational stage (11+)
Children could use systematic problem solving. They also developed inferential reasoning, so they could understand more complex ideas like ghosts, religion, etc. - One strength of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is that his work led to an enormous amount of research, and while some supported the theory, some helped adjust ‘truths’ to his theory. For example, those studies conducted by Hughes and McGarrigle and Donaldson. They helped to refine Piaget’s theory that although young people move through the stages, some are earlier or later than others. Therefore, without research, we would not be able to test the validity of the theory.
- One strength of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is that it can be applied to education. This is because teachers can use it to plan activities that children can do in lessons. Therefore, we can makes sure that children are being taught the rights things at the right time, so this improves the quality of education that exists.
- One weakness of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is that the ages and stages are fixed. This is because some children develop at different rates. Some children will develop slower or quicker than Piaget suggested. Therefore, this decreases the validity of the theory.
9
Q
Outline and evaluate Hughes’ Policeman Study
A
- The aim of the study was to investigate if children could see things from another person’s point of view at an earlier age than Piaget suggested
- 30 children aged between 3.5-5yrs were shown a model of two intersecting walls that formed a cross
- The policeman doll was placed on the model, and the children were asked to hide a boy doll so the policeman could not see it
- The policeman was then placed in different positions in the model and the child was asked to hide the doll again
Then, a second policeman doll was introduced and the children were asked to hide the doll again - This was repeated 3 times so the children had to use different sections of the grid
- They found that 90% of the children were able to hide the boy doll from both policeman dolls
- They concluded that children aged between 3.5-5yrs could see things from other people’s point of view if the situation was familiar and the task makes sense. This was different to Piaget’s findings who said that children are egocentric till they are 7 years old
- One strength of Hughes’ study is the task given. This is because hiding a boy doll from multiple policemen was a familiar task for the 3.5-5 year old children as they were likely to be familiar with the concept of hide and seek. Therefore, it increases the mundane realism of the task
- One weakness of the study is the setting in which it was conducted (lab experiment). This is because the environment was artificial. So, participants may change their behaviour to please the researcher. Therefore, our understanding of of egocentric abilities may not be valid.
- One weakness of the study was the sample size used. This is because a sample size of 30 children aged between 3.5-5 years may be hard to generalize. Therefore, the results of knowing which children are egocentric is not representative
10
Q
Outline and evaluate McGarrigle and Donaldson’s study
A
- The aim was to investigate if children developed conservational skills at an earlier age than Piaget suggested if the change to the materials was accidental
- 80 children between the ages 4 to 6 were shown two rows of counters and were asked if there were the same amount of counters in each row
- Then a glove puppet, ‘Naughty Teddy’ accidentally messed up one of the rows of counters
- The messed up row was spread out to look longer than the other row
- The experimenter pretended to be really cross with Naughty Teddy and told it off
- The child was then asked if there were the same amount of counters in each row
- 62% of the 4-6 year olds said there were still the same amount of counters in each row, therefore they could conserve
- This is compared to only 16% of the 4-6 year olds in Piaget’s original study who could conserve when the adult changed the counters
- They concluded that children younger than 7 years can conserve if the change to the materials is accidental
- A strength of McGarrigle and Donaldson’s study is that it was a standardized procedure. This is a strength because the experiment can be replicated to find that most children can find that children below the age of 7 can conserve if the change in appearance to the materials is accidental. Therefore, the increases the reliability of McGarrigle and Donaldson’s study
- One weakness of McGarrigle & Donaldson’s study is the sample size used is too small. This is a weakness because it’s difficult to generalize the findings about children aged 4-6 and their ability to conserve. Therefore, the results are not representative to suggest that all children at this age can conserve
- One weakness of McGarrigle & Donaldson’s study is that it was conducted in a controlled environment. This is a weakness because there may be other factors that influence children aged 4-6 and their ability to conserve that were not present in the lab. Therefore, the research lacks ecological validity to suggest that not all children can conserve at this age
11
Q
Outline and evaluate Dweck’s mindset theory
A
- According to Dweck’s theory, one’s success is based on the type of belief system they have
- There are two types of mindset, fixed and growth
- A fixed mindset is when people believe that their intelligence (or any of their abilities) is fixed in their genes
- For example, they think that winning prizes of doing well in a test is evidence of their ability
- On the other hand, a growth mindset is when people believe at any time that you can always get a little bit better if you work at it
- People with a growth mindset believe in effort and actually enjoy being challenged and not always succeeding
- Dweck suggests that individuals deal with failure in different ways
- For example, if people with a fixed mindset fail, they will think that their failure is due to lack of talent, so there is no point in trying harder, whereas people with a growth mindset would think that the failure was an opportunity to learn more, and they would put in more effort
- The mindset is a continuum and people are a mixture of fixed and growth, rather than one or the other
- Whether people have a fixed or growth mindset depends entirely on the situation
- For example, if I really like jujitsu, and I lose in a round of sparring, (where my coach tells me to work on a specific skill), I will be likely to have a growth mindset and work on my technique, and hence I will put in effort and improve by the next lesson
- On the other hand, if I really hate physics, and I fail a test (where my teacher gives me resources to use in order to do better), I will be likely to have a fixed mindset, and not try harder and think that putting in effort won’t help me improve
- So, by not putting in effort, I won’t improve
- One strength is that there is evidence that a growth mindset leads to better grades. For example, a study was conducted on low achieving seventh graders. Half the students did a session where they were taught a growth mindset and the other half did a session on memory. The students in the growth mindset group had improved motivation and grades, whereas the other group did not improve. This shows that a growth mindset can be taught and improve performance.
- One weakness is that any sort of praise may be damaging. This is because in both a fixed and a growth mindset, the learner is dependent on praise from someone else (in growth mindset, this is a praise of effort and in a fixed mindset this is a praise of ability). If somebody is reliant on praise, this means that the learner works hard for someone else’s praise rather than their own satisfaction, which means they won’t be self-motivated. This shows that even praising someone’s effort may not be the best way to motivate learners
- Another strength is that Dweck’s theory can be applied to different settings like schools, sports, business and relationships. This is because in relationships, some people fail because they think that no effort is required to make relationships work. A good relationship requires hard work and effort to improve. A lot of people, when they hit ‘hard work’ believe that this shows the relationship will not work and it is better to quit now. This is an example of a fixed mindset. Seeing failure as a lack of effort rather than a lack of talent motivates future effort
12
Q
Outline and evaluate Willingham’s learning theory
A
- Willingham criticised the learning style approach to teaching as it does not improve learning
- He believed that students should be taught using the best method, based on the content being taught rather than the preferred learning style
- For example when learning about maps, visual learning style should be used, whereas for learning a new language, auditory/verbal styles may be preferable
- Willingham suggests that teaching and learning can be improved by the application of findings from cognitive psychology and neuroscience studies
- For example, psychological research has demonstrated that a key reason for forgetting is not having the right cues
- The information is in your brain but you can’t find it
- Research shows that if someone gives you a cue, then they may help you recall a particular piece of information
- Therefore, when trying to learn something, it is very important to use an associated cue to help you remember it - for example, a trigger phrase
- Like Dweck, Willingham believes that praise plays an important role, especially when the praise is unexpected
- This is because if the performance relies on the praise, then it destroys your intrinsic motivation for doing the activity
- One strength of Willingham’s theory is that the theory is based on scientific evidence. The studies on which it was based were well designed, objective investigations. This gives the claims of his theory greater validity
- Another strength of Willingham’s theory is that it has real world applicability. This is because Willingham has selected research that has clear relevance to education and has a better foundation than learning styles. His approach offers an explanation of what you learn, rather than how you learn
- One weakness of Willingham’s theory is Willingham ignored the importance of individual differences in mindsets. Dweck considered the fact that if people with a fixed mindset fail, they will think that their failure is due to lack of talent, so there is no point in trying harder, whereas people with a growth mindset would think that the failure was an opportunity to learn more, and they would put in more effort. The mindset is a continuum and people are a mixture of fixed and growth, rather than one or the other. Whether people have a fixed or growth mindset depends entirely on the situation. If somebody had a fixed mindset towards an activity, they would not improve or take in any new information, no matter what learning style was used
13
Q
Outline and evaluate Piaget’s theory of language and thought
A
- Piaget thought that children develop language by matching correct words to their existing knowledge
- They have schemas (templates of knowledge about the world) then they use words to express their understanding of it
- This means that understanding comes first then language, and language can only be used at a level that matches our cognitive development
- Sensorimotor stage: babies just simply copy sounds they hear others making, e.g. Googoo gaga, mama, dada
- Pre-operational stage: children are egocentric. They use language to voice their internal thoughts, rather than communicate with others, e.g. I am hungry, I am cold, I am tired
- Concrete stage: the ability to use language has developed a lot, but still can only be used to talk about actual concrete things, e.g. a chair, a bird, a red car
- Formal Operational stage: language can be used to talk about abstract, theoretical ides, e.g. talking about ghosts, religion, etc.
- He states that thought comes before language
- One strength of Piaget’s theory of language and thought is that it can be applied to everyday life. This is a strength because we can observe children developing language over time within the education setting and teacher’s can prepare tasks based on their stage of language development. Therefore, Piaget’s theory has a good ecological validity.
- One weakness of Piaget’s theory is that it is not the only way to understand language. This is because Sapir-Whorf’s theory says that language comes before thought. This decreases the validity of Piaget’s theory
- A weakness of Piaget’s theory is the way he collected data. This is because he used his own children and small samples which are not only unrepresentative of all children, but also because his personal biases may have affected his judgement. This decreases the reliability of Piaget’s study.
- Another weakness is that schemas cannot be scientifically measured. This is because it is very difficult to know if schemas exist because we cannot directly measure them. This shows that Piaget’s theory of language and thought is not based on solid scientific evidence.
14
Q
Outline and evaluate Asch’s conformity study
A
- The aim of the study was to investigate if people would be influenced by other people’s opinions to give an answer they knew to be wrong
- 123 male participants were shown sets of 4 lines
- For each set, participants had to say whether line A,B or C was the same length as the test line
- Each participant was tested along With 6-8 confederates who the naïve participant thought were just other students
- There were 18 trials in total
- Confederates were instructed to give the correct answer on the first few trials, but then the confederates were asked to give the same wrong answer on the 12 critical trials
- The naïve participant was always positioned as one of the last to give their response after hearing the majority of the groups incorrect responses.
- On 36.8% of the trails where the rest of the group gave the wrong answer, the participant conformed and gave the same wrong answer as the rest of the group, rather than the obviously correct answer
- 76% of the participants gave at least one wrong answer
- 24% of participants resisted the pressure to conform and gave correct answers in all 18 trails.
- Asch concluded that people conform to fit in with a group, even when they know they are giving an incorrect judgement
- One weakness of the study is that it uses a bias sample of American college students, all of roughly the same age. This means that the study lacks variety in its sample, and the results cannot therefore be generalized to females, or older/younger groups of people.
- Another weakness of the study is that the task used to investigate conformity was not an everyday task that people would have to make a choice in. This is a weakness because it means that the task of comparing line lengths lacks mundane realism and hence the study as a whole lacks ecological validity.
- One benefit of the study is that it was conducted in a laboratory environment. This is a strength because it means that any extraneous variables that may have affected the response of the naïve participant are controlled. Therefore Asch’s study has higher validity.
- Another strength of the study is that it demonstrates the extent to which people show conformity in social situations. When participants completed the line task alone, the error rate was less than 1%, however it rose to 36.8% when performed in a group setting. Interviews done afterward showed that participants knew they were right but said the wrong answer just to fit in with the group.
15
Q
Outline and evaluate Piliavin’s study
A
- The aim was to investigate whether the appearance of a victim would influence helping behaviour.
- The method was, on a New York subway train, a confederate pretended to collapse. His appearance was altered in different ways. In 38 of the trails he appeared to be drunk- he smelt of alcohol and carried a bottle of alcohol wrapped in a paper bag
- In 65 trails he appeared to be sober and carried a walking stick
- Observers recorded how often and how quickly the victim was helped
- When the victim carried a walking stick, he received help 95% of the time
- When he appeared to be drunk he received help 50% of time
- Also people were more quick to help the man with the walking stick as 87% helped within 70 seconds, whereas only 17% helped the
apparently drunk man within 70 seconds - Piliavin concluded that a person’s appearance will affect whether or not they receive help and how quickly this help is given.
- One strength of Piliavin’s study is the type of experiment that was conducted. This is because in a field experiment, participants are more likely to display their natural behaviours, and less likely to display demand characteristics. Therefore, this increases the ecological validity of the study.
- Another strength of Piliavin’s study is that it was under the researcher’s control. This is because the researchers ensured that for each trial the confederate behaved in exactly the same manner so that the only thing different was their appearance. This means that the procedure was standardized and can be repeated to obtain similar results, which increases the validity of the study
- However, the type of experiment conducted could also be a weakness. This is because extraneous variables outside of the researchers control may affect the participants’ behaviour and response time. Therefore, this could decrease the validity of the study
- Another weakness of the study is the location it was conducted in. This is a weakness because NYC is a city within an urban area. People in cities are probably more used to seeing emergency situations, so may be less likely to help. This means that Piliavin’s study may not accurately predict bystander behaviour in a rural area, making results harder to generalise.
