Piliavin et al.

Question 1

What is the background to Piliavin’s research?

Answer 1

the murder of Kitty Genovese
woman in New York who was stabbed going home from work
38 neighbours heard her cry for help but no one rang the police

Question 2

What did Darley and Latane (1968) propose bystander behaviour is caused by?

Answer 2

diffusion of responsibility
more people = less help

Question 3

What is the aim of Piliavin’s study?

Answer 3

to study the bystander effect in a natural setting
if characteristics would effect behaviour

Question 4

What method design did Piliavin use?

Answer 4

field experiment
independent measures
observational technique
snapshot study

Question 5

What measures/ independent variables did Piliavin use?

Answer 5

type of victim- drunk or with a cane
race of victim- black or white
modelling- seeing someone else help
group size

Question 6

What were the dependent variables in Piliavin’s study?

Answer 6

time took for help to be offered
number of people who offered

Question 7

What was Piliavin’s sampling technique?

Answer 7

opportunity sample
passengers travelling on a New York subway from Harlem to the Bronx

Question 8

When were Piliavin’s participants studied?

Answer 8

middle of the day- 11am-3pm
2 months- 15th April-26th June 1968
weekdays

Question 9

How many people did Piliavin study? How many black and white?

Answer 9

about 4,450
about 45% black and 55% white

Question 10

What was the mean amount of people on the carriage in Piliavin’s study? How many in the critical area?

Answer 10

43
8.5 in critical area

Question 11

What was the critical area in Piliavin’s study?

Answer 11

the area in the train where the incident took place

Question 12

What were the confederates in Piliavin’s study’s characteristics?

Answer 12

all General Studies students
from Columbia University, New York
from 25-35 yrs old
four teams of 4 students- 1 male model, 1 male victim, 2 female observers
only 1 victim was black

Question 13

How many trials took place in Piliavin’s study?

Answer 13

103 separate trials

Question 14

What did Piliavin’s victim and model do?

Answer 14

after 70 seconds staggered + collapsed + remained lying on his back
if no one helped when the train was coming to a stop the model helped the victim

Question 15

What did all of Piliavin’s victims wear?

Answer 15

Eisenhower jacket
old trousers
no tie

Question 16

What did the drunk victim have in Piliavin’s study?

Answer 16

carried a liquor bottle in a brown bag
smelt of liquor

Question 17

How many trials was the drunk victim used in Piliavin’s study?

Answer 17

38 trials

Question 18

What did the cane victim have in Piliavin’s study?

Answer 18

sober
carrying a black cane

Question 19

How many trials was the cane victim used in Piliavin’s study?

Answer 19

65 trials

Question 20

How long did Piliain’s subway route/ trial run for?

Answer 20

7 and a half minutes

Question 21

How long did Piliavin’s models wait to help? How did they determine this?

Answer 21

70 or 150 seconds
preprogrammed using a random number table

Question 22

What did Piliavin’s observers record?

Answer 22

1st observer- race, sex + location of everyone in critical area
-total no. of people in the carriage
-total no. who helped the victim
-race, sex + location of every helper
2nd observer- race, sex + location of everyone in the adjacent area
- time when help was first offered
both- comments from other passengers

Question 23

How often did the cane victims get spontaneous help in Piliavin’s study?

Answer 23

95% or 62/65 of the trials

Question 24

How often did the drunk victims get spontaneous help in Piliavin’s study?

Answer 24

50% or 19/38 of the trials

Question 25

What trial did people leave the critical area in Piliavin’s study? How many?

Answer 25

particularly drunk trials
34 people, 21/103 trials

Question 26

What percentage of people helped before the model in the drunk and cane trial in Piliavin’s study?

Answer 26

87% cane victims helped
17% drunk victims helped

Question 27

What was the median time (latency) for people to help the victims in the drunk and cane times?

Answer 27

cane was 5 seconds
drunk was 109 seconds

Question 28

Were there any race differences in helping in Piliavin’s study?

Answer 28

black people received less help + less quickly then white
same-race effect- whites slightly more likely to help whites in the drunk condition

Question 29

Were there any gender differences in helping in Piliavin’s study?

Answer 29

males more helpful then females
90% first helpers female - only 60% passengers male

Question 30

Did modelling timing in Piliavin’s study have a difference?

Answer 30

early modelling (70secs) had slightly more effect than the late model (150secs)
not much info as most helped before this time

Question 31

Did group size in Piliavin’s study have a difference?

Answer 31

more passengers = more likely to help
more likely to help in groups of 7 than 3

Question 32

When were comments more likely to be made by passengers in Piliavin’s study?

Answer 32

more comments in the drunk condition than the cane
most comments made when no help was given within 70 seconds

Question 33

What area is Piliavin’s study in?

Answer 33

social area

Question 34

What theory did Piliavin conclude from his research?

Answer 34

cost reward model

Question 35

What is Piliavin’s cost-reward model?

Answer 35

emergency situation creates a sense of arousal in bystander
arousal heightened by: empathy, proximity or duration
arousal reduced by: helping directly, getting help or rejecting help-undeserving
(cost-reward matrix)

Question 36

What is Piliavin’s cost-reward matrix?

Answer 36

helping not helping

costs effort disapproval
harm blame
embarrassment guilt

rewards praise continuing other
activities