Levine - CONTEMPORARY Flashcards
Background
Studies have demonstrated that helping rates differ between communities in a country.
Levine wanted to investigate other factors that might influence helping behaviour.
Measures of Helping / procedure
3 Measures of Helping
1) Man drops pen - helping was calling man or picking up and returning pen
214 men & 210 women were passed.
2) Injured (limping) man drops magazines - helping was offering to pick it up or picking it up
253 men & 240 women were approached.
3) Blind man needs help crossing - helping was informing that the light was red or guiding the man
281 trials, terminated after 1 minute or when the light turned red.
Method
Quasi experiment** in a **field setting.
+ High ecological validity
- Difficult to control extraneous variables
Covert observation/Non-participant
+ first-hand view
- subjective
Correlation study
+ shows relationships between variables
- no cause and effect
Materials
Stopwatch, Cane, Sunglasses, books, magazines.
Sampling
Large cities in 23 countries, only used people walking on their own.
Random sampling, not ethnocentric, well matched to other participants.
Generalisable, NOT BIASED.
IV & DV
IV
- Cities used
- 3 Measures of help
DV
- Rate of help, average from all conditions
Results
Brazil was the most helpful.
100% of people helped the man who dropped a pen in Brazil
Malaysia was the least helpful.
Only 26% of people helped the man who dropped a pen in Malaysia.
Countries with better economies** tended to be less helpful overall. None of the other relationships were statistically significant.
Latin American cities were all above the helping mean.
Quantative & Qualitative
_QUANTITIVE_
Strengths
- Large amounts of data can be quickly simplified
- Less ambiguous
Weaknesses
- Lacks depth and context
_QUALITATIVE_ (audio recording & log)
Strengths
- Includes depth and context
Weaknesses
- Open to bias/interpretation
Ethics
Deception - the experimenters were not truly in need
Debrief - not given
Informed consent - participants unaware
