Social Area- Pilivan Flashcards
Background
Following the kitty genovase case, psychologists began to investigate why people fail to help someone in need
Daney and butane set up an experiment where people believed to hear a seizure on the phone, results concluded that more people present the less people reported the seizure
Bystander apathy definition
Where people fail to act and help someone in need when others are present
Diffusion of repsonbility
Where there is a victim and lots of bystanders are present. The responsibility for helping is shared between all bystanders so each individual doesn’t feel enough responsibility to help
4 aims of the experiment
1) would an ill person receive more help than a drunk person
2) would people help same race before helping other race
3) if a model helped victim would others be encouraged to help
4) would number of bystanders present influence how much help is given
Research method
Field experiment
Independent variables
Victim conditions: drunk or Ill & black or white
Model conditions: late(150 secs) or early(70 secs) critical area
Late(150 secs) or early (70 secs) adjacent area
Dependant variables
How quick the victim received help
Procedure
Staged a series of emergencies on New York subway, same train which had a period of a 71/2 minute captive audience. Carried out on weekdays 11-3
Four teams of students made up of: victim, model and 2 observers
They would board the train, then 70 seconds into the journey the victim would collapse
Explanation of the victim
Male, dressed in jacket, old trousers and no tie.
Aged between 26-35
3 white, 1 black
In how many trials was the victim drunk?
38
In how many trials was the victim injured with a cane?
65
Why was there an imbalance in trials
Because In one group the student didn’t like playing the drunk, so did cane trials instead
Description of model
White male, wore informal clothes
In which part of the train was the victim in?
Critical area
Explanation of observers and what they did
Two female observes sat in adjacent area:
1 recorded sex, race & location in adjacent area along with time taken for help to be received
1 recorded sex, race & location in critical area along with no of people who helped victim
Controls
Same train
70 seconds in they collapse
Same gender observer, model and victim
Male victim dressed same
Sample and sampling method
Passengers on the train, opportunity sampling
Findings
Ill victim received help 95% of time
Drunk victim revived help 50% of time
Race didn’t have large affect on who helped who
Models rarely needed as public helped quickly-area doesn’t effect help received
No of bystanders made no difference
Qualitative findings
More comments made about drunk victim than ill
Conclusions
No diffusion of responsibility
Size of group made no difference to how much help victim received
Arousal reduced by leaving or helping
Explanation of the results
Passengers trapped on train and couldn’t leave situation
Clear to bystanders what the situation was unlike kitty genovase situation
Arousal removed by cost reward model
Ethnocentrism
New York heterogenous city so lacks ethnocentrism, however not every culture was included
Ethics
Confidential- no names just sex and race
Not psychically harmed
No informed consent
Stress seeing someone harmed
Internal reliability
Same procedure carried out 103 times, therefore standardised
