piliavin Flashcards
1
Q
research method that piliavin used
A
- field experiment (carried out in a real-life setting which was the carriage on a New York subway)
- snapshot study as they did not keep gong back to the same participants to see if anything has changed
2
Q
quantitative data collected by piliavin
A
- consisted of the numbers of victims who were helped the percentage of first helpers who were male or female etc.
- this was good as It meant that piliavin were able to compare results from one condition to another
3
Q
qualitative data collected by piliavin
A
- consisted of the quotes from passengers
- helped to explain some of the quantitative data they collected, especially after finding that 90% of first helpers were male
4
Q
ethical guidelines that piliavin broke
A
- participants were deceived as to why someone was collapsing in front of them as they didn’t know that the victim was only pretending to collapse as part of the experiment
- the passengers did not consent to take part in the experiment and whilst they could withdraw themselves, they are unable to withdraw what they did or said from the data recorded by the researchers
- in terms of protection from harm those participants who didn’t help the victim could have come away from the experiment with a reduced sense of their own self-worth.
- participants were not debriefed in any way even though this would have been quite feasible
5
Q
ethical guidelines piliavin followed
A
- anonymity as piliavin didn’t record the names of any the passengers or record any details about them that would have made them identifiable
6
Q
extraneous variables in piliavins study
A
- as a large number of trials were run on the same train line at the same time of day and the victim always collapsing in the same part of the carriage
- this means that results would be affected by extraneous variables and it is possible that some of the passengers might have witness this happen more than once and this could have affected how they responded to the emergency
7
Q
how is piliavins study high in ecological validity
A
- the scenario created in this study can be seen as true-to-life
- it took place in a setting which millions of people use everyday and it is nor implausible for someone to collapse in such a location and be in need of help
8
Q
how is piliavins study low in ecological validity
A
- the victim fell in a fairly dramatic way where it might seem fairly unusual and appearing to be drunk as early as 11am is less common than appearing drunk at 11pm.
- if the person who had collapsed was quite older than 26-35 years it would have also appeared more true-to-life
9
Q
how is piliavis study high in external reliability
A
- the large number of trails (103) shows how they have established a consisted and standardised effect
- although they would have liked more trials to have been run in the drunk condition, in practice a total of 38 trials is probably sufficient to establish that a victim collapsing under such circumstances is much less likely to receive help from their fellow passengers than if he appeared to be ill
10
Q
how is piliavins study high in interval reliability
A
- it had a large enough sample to establish a consistent effect
11
Q
FREE WILL
how does piliavins study link to the free will/determinism debate
A
- suggests that in a situation in which someone collapses because of illness, it is highly likely that people will go to their aid
- however as the ‘drunk’ victim only received spontaneous help on 50% of occasions, witnesses clearly have control over their behaviour and make their own decisions as to whether to help or not
12
Q
determinsim
how does piliavins study link to free will/determinism debate
A
- it is determined that people will help out when someone appears to be ill, what is unclear what the determining factor factor might be
- suggests that it is determined by a combination of physiological and cognitive factors and also the situation.
13
Q
holistic
how does piliavins study link to reductionism/holism
A
- it is taking account of a range of different factors (physiological and cognitive) rather than just explaining helping behaviour as the result of one factor alone
14
Q
reductionist
how does piliavins study link to reductionism/holism
A
- misses out other reasons why people might help, such as kindness and altruistic desire to help another person simply because they are in need
15
Q
how can piliavins study be seen as a science
A
- example of inductive research as the theory that piliavin developed about how people behave when witnessing an emergency was developed from the data they had collected and was an attempt to explain what they had seen
- opposite of deductive research in which the theory was developed first and then research is carried out to out to see if the theory is confirmed by the evidence
16
Q
how does piliavins study link to the social area
A
- investigating the impact that other people have on our behaviour and in particular whether the likelihood of someone helping out in an emergency situation is increased by the known present of other witnesses to the event
17
Q
key theme of piliavin
A
responses to people in need
18
Q
how does piliavins study link to the key theme
A
- suggests that the likelihood of being helped in an emergency does not have to be reduced by there being many witnesses present although this may be affected by bystanders being able to see how other witnesses are behaving
- suggests that people are more likely to be helped if they seem to need help due to factors beyond their control and that first helpers are more likely to be male
