social areas classic studies (piliavin) unit 2 Flashcards
why did this research take place
kitty genovese - woman was attacked and killed 38 people reported they had overheard the attack but did not intervene.
what were the four aims of piliavins study
to investigate the effect on helping behaviour of four different variables
- type of victim
- race of victim
- someone setting an example of helping behaviour
- the number of witnesses
bystander effect
where people fail to act and help someone in need when others are present
diffusion of responsibility
where there is a victim and lots of bystanders are present each individual takes less responsibility so no one helps
altruism
doing a good deed without getting any personal reward
research method
field experiment - participants behaviour was measured in a natural environment and participants were unaware they were being observed
what were the independent variables
victim conditions
- drunk
- ill
- black
- white
model conditions
early - 70 s
late - 150 s
critical
adjacent
dependant variables
They would talk to and write down comments from other passengers.
They also recorded details such as: the race, sex and location of every passenger in each area of the carriage, the race, sex and location of every helper, the total number of people who helped the victim, the length of time taken for the first helper to arrive, and the time taken to help after the model intervened.
participants
4450 passengers (55% white 45% black)
sampling method used
opportunity sampling
procedure
There were four teams of researchers (university students) who collected the data and each team consisted of: one male student who played the role of the victim, another male student who played the model, and two female observers who recorded the behaviour of passengers.
The scenario was staged on the New York 8th avenue subway express train. This was chosen as it involved a 7.5 minute non-stop journey. This was done 103 times in total over the course of several months.
The team of researchers would board the subway train and take their places, the victim standing next to the pole in the centre of the end section of the carriage.
At 70 seconds into the journey, the victim would stagger and fall over. He would then remain lying on the floor, facing the ceiling until he received help.
In some trials the victim would appear drunk, smelling of alcohol and carrying a bottle of alcohol in a paper bag (38 times), while in other trials, he would appear sober and carrying a black cane
[n.b. There was supposed to be an even number of drunk and ill trials but one of the students did not like playing the drunk victim]
Where a model had a chance to intervene, they would arrive either: 70s (early) or 150s (late) after the victim collapsed and either came from the critical area (where the victim had collapsed) or the adjacent area of the carriage.
The observers would then recorded how passengers reacted to the situation and any comments they made
quantitive findings
The ill (cane) victim was helped spontaneously by passengers on 62/65 trials
compared to only 19/38 trials for the drunk victim
The median time taken to help the cane victim was 5 seconds compared to 109 seconds for the drunk victim
90% of the first helpers were male
Across all trials, a total of 34 people chose to leave the critical area
They also found that in the drunk trials but not the cane trials, there was a tendency people helping a victim of the same race
Victims were helped much faster when there were seven or more male passengers in the critical area (compared to when there were only one to three male passengers present)
qualitative findings
comments made by passengers were
“its for men to help him”
“I wish I could help but I’m not strong enough”
conclusion
The findings suggest that the level of helping is influenced by factors such as the appearance of the victim, and to some extent their race. They also found that men are more likely to help than women.
The findings contradict previous research by showing that diffusion of responsibility did not take place: the victim was helped faster when there were more passengers in the critical area
strengths of study
There were several controls
They repeated to scenario 103 times to make sure it was showing a consistent pattern
They recorded qualitative comments to explain the findings
It consisted of a large sample of participants (4450),
It was a field experiment
weaknesses
The participants were not aware their behaviour was being observed so could not give consent
Seeing someone collapse in front of them is also likely to cause them distress
could not control everything about the environment
study was only done 22 times with a black victim
