Personal Investigation 1

Question 1

Understanding Helping Behaviour

Answer 1

Variables: IV- Whether the person is vulnerable or not, sling no sling. DV- How many people helped pick up the books

Hypotheses: More people will help the person pick up the books dropped in the sling over helping the person without. This known from other research that people will help more vulnerable people.

Null hypothesis: There will be no difference between the number of people who will help pick up the books.

Sample: Opportunity sampling- Student and staff in the college at the moment of the confederate dropping the books. Natural reactions needed.

Design: Independent groups- PPS could be seen in either situation, not know who will help or if they will see them in a sling or not. Same PPS not seen twice.

Procedure: Consent may be needed. Experiment will require the confederate to be happy to engage. Scene will be set up with confederate ready to leave library at a specific busy time. Drop books in main area to catch attention.

Question 2

Findings

Answer 2

Condition 1: drops books outside library- 8/30 helped. 22 did not. Condition 2 with sling- 25/30 helped, 5 did not.

Stats: Mode. Bar chart. Ordinal data- place in ascending or descending order. Mann Whitney U as it is used to compare the difference between independent groups. It will compare whether the distributing of the amount of people who help pick up the books is the dame for the two groups.

Question 3

Evaluation

Answer 3

Evaluation: Predictive validity- More likely to help confederate in sling due to human nature and instinct to help an injured person. Potential researcher bias. Inter-rater reliability- Compare knowledge, based hypothesis on previous research, how does vulnerability affect help behaviour.

Ethical Issues: gain consent from the college to conduct experiment, inform students that it is happening but not when. Debrief PPS afterwards.