Social psychology- Piliavin and Levine

Question 1

What is the bystander effect in Piliavins study

Answer 1

Described as the phenomenon where the presence of other people can reduce the chance that people will help someone in need

Question 2

What are the 2 explanations of the bystander effect

Answer 2

Pluralistic ignorance
Diffusion of responsibility

Question 3

What is pluralistic ignorance

Answer 3

Likely to occur in an ambiguous situation. Its when a group collectively are not clear as to whether a situation is an emergency or not so whether the person is actually in need.

Question 4

What is diffusion of responsibility

Answer 4

The idea that people are less likely to help someone if there are others present because they perceive responsibility as being shared between all present and therefore see themselves as being less personally responsible

Question 5

What was the inspiring event that inspired Piliavin

Answer 5

Social Psychologists became interested in the behaviour of bystanders following the case of Kitty Genovese. A young woman called Kitty Genovese was brutally murdered in New York in the 60s in front of her apartment block. Many of her neighbours could see and hear her being murdered but did nothing to help her when she was in need

Question 6

What happened in the Latane and Darley case in 1968

Answer 6

Lab experiment which found that bystanders hearing an epileptic fit over earphones didnt report this as they believed others were present so they would help this individual

Question 7

How did Latane and Darley lack ecological validity

Answer 7

They did not demonstrate how people would react in realistic situations. The confederates had been told prior to the study to ignore the smoke and carry on with the task. Therefore planned to investigate using a field experiment where they could observe behaviour in real everyday settings

Question 8

Outline the background of Piliavins study of the bystander effect (4)

Answer 8

Piliavin was inspired by the murder of a young girl, Kitty Genovese in New York in the 60s, 38 of her neighbours could hear her being attacked but no one did anything to help. Social psychologists would argue the neighbours displayed the bystander effect, specifically diffusion of responsibility; there were other neighbours who could help so they didn’t see it as their responsibility. Previous lab experiments such as Latene and Darley also inspired PIliavin. They found that bystanders hearing an epileptic fit over earphones did not report this, as they believed others were present so they would help this individual. However, these experiments lacked ecological validity and did not explore helping behaviour in a realistic setting. Piliavin therefore wanted to investigate this further using a field experiment in a more natural situation, a train

Question 9

What was the aim of Piliavins study

Answer 9

Piliavin set out to investigate how the nature of a situation would affect the helping behavior of those present

Question 10

What was the research method used in Piliavins study

Answer 10

It was a field experiment that took place on the New York subway. The journeys lasted approximatly 7.5 minutes

Question 11

What were the 4 independent variables in Piliavins study

Answer 11

1) The type of victim (whether they were drunk or ill)
2) The race of the victim (black or white)
3) The effect of a model (how others would respond when one person offered assistance either after 70 or 150 seconds
4) The size of the witnessing group (number of people on train)
Naturally occuring IV

Question 12

What were the dependant variables in Piliavins study

Answer 12

1) Frequency of help (how often people helped)
2) Speed of help (how quickly people responded to the incident)
3) Race of helper
4)Sex of helper
5) Movement of critical area(did they move away from the area
6) Verbal comments by bystanders (Qual data)

Question 13

What was the sample used in Piliavins study

Answer 13

4500 men and women who used the New York subway on weekdays between 11 am and 3 pm
45% of people were black and 55% of people were white

Question 14

Who was the team in Piliavins study

Answer 14

4 teams of 4 researchers- 2 female observers and 2 males one acting as a victime and one as a model

Question 15

Who were the victims in Piliavins study

Answer 15

3 white and 1 black
all of them were male
students aged between 26 and 35
dressed alike
They either smelled like liquor and carried a liqour bottle wrapped tightly in a brown bag or appeared sober and carried a black cane

Question 16

What are the 4 model conditions used in Piliavins study

Answer 16

1) Critical area-early where the model would stand in the critical area and help quickly into the journey
2) Critical late where the model would stand in the critical area and help later into the journey
3)Adjacent area-early where the model would stand in the adjacent area and help quickly into the journey
4) Adjacent area- late where the model would stand in the adjacent area and help later into the journey `

Question 17

What is a description of what happened during the procedure in Piliavins study

Answer 17

The victim stood near a pole in the critical area. After about 70 seconds he staggered forward and collapsed. Until receiving help -he remained still on the floor looking at the ceiling. If he received no help by the time the train stopped the role model helped him to his feet

Question 18

What is a description of what happened during the procedure in Piliavins study (2)

Answer 18

At the stop the team disembarked changed platforms to repeat the process in the opposite directions. Between 6-8 trials were run on a given day all using the same “victim condition”
The female observers recorded the dependant variables. One sat in the critical and one sat in the adjacent area.

Question 19

What was the apparatus used in Piliavins study

Answer 19

Black cane for the ill victim
Bottle wrapped in brown paper bag for the drunk victim
Stopwatch to measure time taken to respond
Notepad/checklist to record observations

Question 20

What were the quantitative results for Piliavins study

Answer 20

Spontaneous help without the model- 95% cane victim and 50% drunk victim
Overral help- cane victim 100% and drunk victim 81%
Slight tendency for same race helping especially in the drunk condition
Piliavin found no evidence of diffusion of responsibility was found

Question 21

What were the qualitative results for Piliavins study

Answer 21

More comments were made by passengers in the drunk than the cane condition and female passengers made comments such as “its a mans job to help” and “I would help but i am not strong enough”

Question 22

What were the conclusion made about Piliavins study

Answer 22

1) When escape is not possible and bystanders are face to face with a victim help is more likely and diffusion of responsibility is less likely
2)An individual who appears ill is more likely to receive help than one who appears drunk as being drunk is seen as self induced in a social context therefore these people are less worthy of help
3)Bystanders conduct a cost-reward analysis before deciding whether or not to help a victim

Question 23

Suggest why the study by Piliavin et al. did not provide evidence for diffusion of responsibility (2)

Answer 23

Diffusion of responsibility may not have occurred because people were in a closed situation, a train carriage. Due to this confined space, participants could not leave and therefore had no option but to face the situation and help in order to reduce the stress they felt.

Question 24

Outline why Piliavin’s study can be considered a field experiment (2)

Answer 24

It is a field experiment as Piliavin manipulated the type of situation passengers encountered (e.g. drunk/ill victim) and conducted the study in a natural setting, a train carriageway.

Question 25

Explain why model conditions were used in Piliavins study (2)

Answer 25

The reason why models were used is because the researchers wanted to investigate how other people influence helping behaviour. They wanted to see if a model intervened did this increase the number of participants who then helped.

Question 26

Outline two practical problems that may have occurred in conducting the subway Samaritan study by Piliavin (4)
 

Answer 26

One practical problem may be that the train was too crowded with people and therefore the two female observers may not be able to record helping behaviour, reducing internal validity.

Another practical problem could be that the participants see the incident more than once. As the same train line was used over a 3 month period participants may show demand characteristics and help the victim because they realise they are taking part in a study, again reducing validity.

Question 27

Define reductionism and explain how it links to the study by Piliavin. (4)

Answer 27

Reductionism attempts to break down behaviour into its constituent parts and uses single factors to account for a given behaviour. Piliavin links to the reductionism debate as he suggests that the situation a person is in, such as their enclosed environment of a train or the type of person in need (drunk or ill) is the only factor influencing helping behaviour. He ignores other individual factors, such as a person’s personality as an influence in helping behaviour.

Question 28

Explain how Piliavin links to the key theme of responses to people in need (4)

Answer 28

Piliavin measured the helping behaviour of 4500 passengers using the New York subway. A male confederate acting either ill or drunk would collapse in a carriage and after 70 or 150 seconds a second confederate would run over to help. The passengers’ behaviour was observed by female researchers, measuring variables such as gender and race as well as comments made to others around them. Piliavin found that passengers helped the ill victim more (100% of the time), in comparison to the drunk victim (81%). This links to the key theme as it shows that the nature of the person in need affects a person’s response to them. For instance, people offer help to ill victims more than drunk victims, perhaps because we view the drunk as less worthy of help, as their circumstance is self-inflicted.

Question 29

Outline how Piliavin links to the social area (4)

Answer 29

The social approach assumes all behaviour occurs in a social context, influenced by the actual, imagined and implied presence of others and the environment. Piliavin aimed to measure helping behaviour on a New York subway and found no evidence for diffusion of responsibility. This links to the social approach as the actual presence of other passengers influenced behaviour, in particular the nature of the victim; passengers were more likely to help an ill victim (100%) than a drunk victim (81%). Furthermore, the environment of the enclosed train carriage also influenced behaviour; passengers may have felt inclined to help as they couldn’t escape the situation or diffuse their personal responsibility to help onto others present.

Question 30

Outline how the data gathered in Piliavin’s study increases the reliability. (3)

Answer 30

The external reliability of Pilivian’s study is high as he collects quantitative data, which is data that is numerical or can be turned into numerical/statistical form. For example, Pilivian found that 100& of participants helped the ill victim and 81% helped the drunk victim; these percentages can be easily compared and analysed. Using quantitative data is a strength as it means the results can be replicated again in future research to see if the same levels of helping behaviour are found again, increasing the replicability of the research and scientific nature.

Question 31

What is an advantage of the internal reliability with Piliavin

Answer 31

Standardised procedure was used for example the victim always fell at 70 seconds and the model always offered help around 70 or 150 seconds after
So we can replicate it for consistency

Question 32

What is the disadvantage of the internal reliability with Piliavin

Answer 32

The actors of the victims did not want to participate in the drunk victime condition as much as the ill victim so the lack of balance in how many times each condition of the trials were ran makes the drunk victim trial (38) findings less consistent than the ill victim trials (65)

Question 33

What are the weaknesses of the research method of Piliavins study

Answer 33

Conducted in a natural setting so low control over situational variables like some people may be in a rush to work or may not have heard him- decreasing validity
High risk of demand characteristics as they used observation as a way of gathering data the females carried checklists and notepads so the passengers became suspicious so it shows demand characteristics as well as it was conducted over months so people who board the train more than once would have known

Question 34

What are the strengths of a sample in the Piliavin study

Answer 34

Large sample so representative of population of New York (4500)
Mix of genders so can generalise towards men and women
high population validity

Answer 35

45% black and 55% white so not representative of other cultures- ethnocentric so cant generalise to how hispanic or asian cultures would react
-Only conducted in New York so may not generalise to people so may not generalise to people of other cultures whos helping behaviors may be different
Participants were passengers between 11am and 3pm so results cant be generalised to passengers who travel at other times whose helping behavior may be different

Question 36

Give two ways in which the study by Piliavin may be considered ethnocentric (2)

Answer 36

Only black and white victims were used not of other ethnic groups
the study was only carried out in one city/one country (America)
there is a cultural assumption that being drunk is a bad thing
there is a cultural assumption that someone with a disability is vulnerable

Question 37

How do you evaluate the ethnocentrism of Piliavins study

Answer 37

Strengths- New York is a very diverse city with many tourists
45% black and 55% white so findings are not specific to one ethnic group alone
Weaknesses- However all lived within the same culture so could this still be argued to only tell us the behaviour of American people as its a very individualistic culture
The conclusions assume that being drunk is a bad thing and that someone with a disability is vulnerable which may be different from other cultures
All models were white

Question 38

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the quant data collected in Piliavins study

Answer 38

Provides numerical data so high external reliability allowing for easy comparison and analysis so we can draw conclusions to establish trends and patterns

But on its own tells us very little about why helping behaviour occurred as we dont know why some helped and why some didnt reducing validity and usefullness

Question 39

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the qual data collected in Piliavins study

Answer 39

Provides insight as to why helping behavior occurred and the bystander effect as some women didnt help because they thought it was for men to help which can be very useful and help in the development of the model in responses to emergency situations

It is difficult however to summarise, analyse and compare this data so we dont know how many women actually felt that way

Question 40

Evaluate the ecological validity of Piliavins study

Answer 40

• Study is in a natural environment therefore relates to real life because participants are unaware they are taking part therefore natural helping behavior is being studied
• In other real life situations people are able to walk past an emergency situation or leave the area of emergency. However they could not as they were confined so only generalises to helping behavior in confined spaces which could explain the lack of diffusion of responsiblity

Question 41

How does the individual debate link to Piliavins study

Answer 41

Although this study doesnt explore the individual differences between people directly you could argue that people conduct a cost benefit analysis when faced with an emergency situation. For example a female may feel that there is more risk involved when helping a drunk man than another male would

Question 42

How does the situational debate link to Piliavins study

Answer 42

The situational explanation helps us to understand the behaviour explained by the passengers. We could argue that the enclosed environment of the train carriageway meant that passengers couldnt escape the situation entirely and could have contributed to why they helped. Other situational variables like their close proximity to the victim may have also been a contributing factor

Question 43

How is Piliavins study useful

Answer 43

This research is highly useful as it enhances our knowledge into helping behaviour and the bystander effect in a natural environment a train. This allows us to use the findings and generalise them to real life situations of helping so we can make practical applications

Question 44

How is Pilavins study limited in usefulness

Answer 44

The sample lacks usefullness such as it being ethnocentric so we cant generalise it to other cultures outside of New York making it harder to make practical applications
Due to the natural setting it is impossible to control all extraneous variables such as if a passenger witnessed the event more than once potentially confounding the results. Issues such as this could impact the validity of the results and therefore limit the usefullness of the study into helping behaviour

Question 45

What ethical guidelines were followed for Piliavins study

Answer 45

Privacy and confidentiality- He didnt record the names of any of the passengers or any identifable details

Question 46

Describe one ethical issue that was a problem in this study (2)

Answer 46

One ethical issue that was a problem in this study is deception as the participants did not know the confederate was an actor and not a real person in need of help. Participants’ therefore thought event was real emergency and that it was a real drunk or ill person collapsing.

Question 47

What other ethical guidelines were not followed in Piliavins study

Answer 47

Protection of participants- Ps thought the event was a real emergency and that it was a real ill or drunk person collapsing so they may have been distressed by witnessing the victim fall over especially if they felt like they couldnt do anything to help (noted by some of the women passengers)
No R2W because no consent

Question 48

What has been found about helping behaviour in cross cultural means

Answer 48

Numerous pieces of research have found that living in urban areas tend to be less helpful than in rural areas
research as mainly focused on the population size most often testing the theory that the tendency to help strangers decreases as the population of the area increases

Question 49

What did steblay find in 1987

Answer 49

Found that general support for this hypothesis with the decline in helping rate beginning at populations of 300,000. She also found that urban environments of 300,000 people or more and rural environments of 5000 people or less were the worst places if one was lkking for help

Question 50

What is collectivism

Answer 50

Attending more to the needs and goals of the group they belong to

Question 51

What is individualism

Answer 51

Focuses more on their own needs rather than the needs of the group

Question 52

What is simpatia

Answer 52

Cultures that value friendliness, family and helping others. This is paticuler with Hispanic communities

Question 53

Outline the background of Levine’s study on helping behaviours (4)

Answer 53

Levine was interested in the cultural differences in helping behaviour. Population size has been suggested as one of the reasons for this. Research suggests that people living in urban areas are less helpful than those in rural areas and this is supported by Steblay who found that urban environments of 300,000 people or more were some of the worst places if someone was looking for help. In addition to this, cultural values are also thought to influence helping behaviour. Individualistic cultures focus on independence and the needs of their own in comparison to collectivist cultures that focus on the needs of the group and community. Much of the research into helping behaviour has focussed on single communities or countries, therefore, Levine wanted to investigate cross-cultural differences in helping behaviour, focussing on a number of factors which could affect helping rates.

Question 54

What were the 3 main aims of Levines study

Answer 54

1) To see if helping behaviour is consistent in a culture regardless of the situation
2) To see if helping behaviour is different across cultures
3) To see if any community variables impacted helping behaviours

Question 55

What were the 4 community variables in Levines study

Answer 55

Population size for each of the 23 countries
Economic well being- wealth of the city
Cultural values- Rating of the 23 countries in a sample on the dimension of individualism or collectivism or simpatia countries were rated on a 10 point scale
Pace of life measured by walking speed

Question 56

What was the research method used in Levines study

Answer 56

It was a cross cultural quasi experiment conducted with an independant measures design.
Conducted in a field setting which was the 23 large cities around the world including Rio de Janeiro, New York and Kuala Lumpur. Therefore the naturally occuring IV was the cities

Question 57

What was the dependant variable of Levines study

Answer 57

The helping rate of the 23 individual cities
This helping behaviour in the 3 emergency situations was correlated with the 4 community variables

Question 58

What were the 3 emergency situations in Levines study

Answer 58

Whether the victim dropped a pen
Whether the victim had an injured leg
Whether the victim was blind and trying to cross the street

Question 59

Who was the sample in Levines study

Answer 59

Participants in this study were large cities in each of 23 countries
For the dropped pen and hurt leg situations only individuals walking alone were selected.
Children under 17 and people who were physically disabled very old carrying packages were excluded as they may have not been able to help

Question 60

Who was the data collected by in Levines study

Answer 60

Collected by students who either travelling to these countries or returning to their home countries for the summer.

Question 61

How would you describe the experimenters in Levines study

Answer 61

All were University age and dressed neatly and casually . To control for any issues related to gender all experimenters were men

Question 62

How did Levine ensure standardisation and minimise experimenter effects

Answer 62

All experimenters received a detailed instruction sheet and on site field training for their roles learning the procedure for P selection and scoring of Ps
The experimenters practiced together
No verbal communication was required by the experiment

Question 63

Describe the dropped pen for Levines study

Answer 63

Experimenters walked towards a pedestrian on their own passing in the opposite direction
When P was close the experimenter reached into his pocket and accidentally dropped his pen behind him in full view of the P and continued walking
Ps were scored as having helped if they called back to the experimenter that he had dropped the pen and picked up the pen and brought it to the experimenter

Question 64

Describe the hurt leg situation in Levines study

Answer 64

Walking with a heavy limp and wearing a large leg brace experimenters accidentally dropped and unsuccessfully struggled to reach down for a pile of magazines as they came within 20 feet of a passing pedestrian
Ps were scored as having helped by offering to help and/or beginning to help without offering

Question 65

Describe the helping a blind person across the street condition in Levines study

Answer 65

Es dressed in dark glasses and carrying white canes acted the role of a blind person needing help across the street.
Es attemped to locate downtown corners with crosswalks traffic signals and moderate steady pedestrian flow.
They stepped up to the corner just before the light turned green help out their cane and waited until someone offered help
Ps were scored as having helped if they informed the experimenter that the light was green to stop them from walking into the road

Question 66

What was the apparatus used in Levines study

Answer 66

Dark glasses
White cane
Magazines
Pen

Question 67

What was Finding 1 in Levines study

Answer 67

Statistical analysis of the results found a moderate degree of consistency across the 3 measures of helping behaviours in other wwords where people tended to help in one situation they also tended to help in others

Question 68

What was finding 2 in Levines study

Answer 68

Countries differed greatly in the amount of help offered to a stranger. The overral helping rate ranged from a 93% in Rio to a low 40% in Kuala Lumpur
The cultural behaviour of simpatia emphasise prioritising being friendly. Could explain the helpfullness of the cities form Latin America and Spain compared to countries with no such tradition

Question 69

What was finding 3 from Levines study

Answer 69

There was a significant negative correlation between a countries helping behaviour and their economic productivity. Countries with residents were more wealthy tended to be less helpful overrall

Question 70

What were the conclusions found in Levines study

Answer 70

Goal 1- The helping of strangers is a cross culturally meaningful charecteristic of a place
Goal 2- There are large cross cultural variations in helping rates. Countries with cultural tradition of simpatia are on average more helpful than countries with no tradition
Goal 3- Helping across cultures is inversely related to a countrys economic productivity

Question 71

Explain how Levine links to the key theme of responses to people in need (4)

Answer 71

Levine measured the helping behaviour of 23 cities in countries across the world such as New York, Rio de Janeiro and Rome. Students in the various countries would display 3 emergency situations; dropping a pen, hurt leg and blind crossing the street. For each helping behaviour was measured and correlated with 4 community variables (such as cultural values) to see if there were any cross-cultural differences in helping behaviour. Levine found that Rio de Janeiro was consistently the most helpful country in comparison to Kuala Lumpar who was consistently the least helpful. This links to the key theme as it shows that a persons country of origin or culture affects their response to those in need; for instance those with a simpatia cultural value as being more helpful than others.

Question 72

Outline how Levine links to the social area (4)

Answer 72

The social area suggests that all behaviour occurs within a social context; the presence of others and environment influence behaviour. Levine aimed to measure helping behaviours across 23 countries, finding that Rio de Janeiro was consistently the most helpful country in comparison to Kuala Lumpar who was consistently the least helpful. This links to the social approach as the environment of a person country influenced their behaviour; a cities helping behaviour was consistent across the 3 emergency situations and so suggests cultural values (such as simpatia) influence somebody’s decision to help.

Question 73

Outline one similarity and between Piliavin and Levine

Answer 73

One similarity between Piliavin and Levine is that they are both useful, as they enhance our understanding of responses to people in need. For example, Piliavin measured helping behaviour of 4500 New York subway passengers and found that people were more likely to help the ill victim than the drunk victim. This enhances our knowledge that the nature of the victims need effects the likelihood of someone helping. This is similar to Levine, who measured helping rates of 23 countries across the world finding that Rio de Janeiro was consistently the most helpful country in comparison to Kuala Lumpar who was consistently the least helpful. This enhances our knowledge that different countries are more helpful than others, possibly because of their cultural values.

Question 74

Outline one difference between Piliavin and Levine

Answer 74

One difference between Piliavin and Levine is that Piliavin uses both quantitative data and qualitative data whereas Levine only uses quantitative data. Quantitative data was used in both studies to count the number of helpful behaviours and qualitative data was used in Piliavin’s study to develop a deeper insight into the reasons why people did or did not demonstrate helping behaviour. For example, in Piliavin’s study, the percentages of how many people helped the drunk victim was compared to how many people helped the ill victim as well as comments that were overheard from bystanders such as “It’s a man’s job to help”. On the other hand, Levine only collected the percentages of the amount of people that helped in each emergency scenario for each city with no further qualitative data to provide insight into why.

Question 75

What is another difference between Piliavin and Levine

Answer 75

One difference between Piliavin and Levine is that Piliavin supports the situational debate whereas Levine supports the individual debate. The situational debate draws on circumstances around individuals; for example, their group members or the environment context whereas the individual debate looks to the person as the cause of behaviour, specifically their personalities or dispositions. Piliavin supports the situational debate as the environment of the closed, confined space of the train carriage influenced passengers helping behaviour; passengers may have felt more inclined to help as they couldn’t escape the situation, which explains why Piliavin found no diffusion of responsibility. This is in comparison to Levine, who supports the individual debate looking at a person’s cultural value as a reason for helping behaviour. They found that Rio de Janeiro was consistently the most helpful country in comparison to Kuala Lumpar who was consistently the least helpful, because Rio has the cultural value simpatia which promotes friendliness and helping.

Question 76

To what extent does the study by Levine enhance our understanding of responses to people in need? (5)

Answer 76

To a large extent Levine enhances our understanding of responses to people in need as they look at cultural differences in helping rates in multiple countries and cultures of 23 cities, compared to Piliavin who only used participants from New York. For example, Piliavin only measured helping behaviour in America by observing helping rates on a New York subway, finding that passengers were more likely to help an ill victim than a drunk victim. In comparison, Levine enhances our understanding in their cross-cultural study into helping behaviour. Levine used 23 different cities across the world, with 3 different helping behaviours, finding that Rio de Janeiro was more helpful consistently across all 3 in comparison to Kuala Lumpa who were consistently unhelpful. This enhanced our understanding of cultural diversity; how different countries and cultures differ in their response to someone in need, for instance, simpatia cultures being more helpful. This is highly useful as helpful countries can be used to improve responses of unhelpful countries and promote simpatia values in more individualist cultures.

Question 77

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research method used

Answer 77

Quasi experiment- High eco validity as conducted in a natural setting but low control over extraneous variables like situational variables or demand charecteristics
However correlational method was used to analyse data so this means we cannot establish cause and effect regarding the helping behaviours of strangers as they are able to find a negative correlation between helping behaviours and PPP but they dont know that people in these cities lack purchasing power because they are too busy helping eachother if they help eachother because theyre unemployed

Question 78

Evaluate the sample used in Levines study

Answer 78

Large sample used as managed to collect data from 23 cities around the world so a cross cultural study
In popular cities a lot that were tested were capitals so not representative of rural areas outside of these cities
Oppotunity sample used as using people readily available to them so only generates data from people from them

Question 79

What are the strengths and weaknesses of quant data

Answer 79

Strengths- All quant data so good for analysis consistency and objectivity so allows for comparison in order to establish trends and patterns. Increases external reliability

Weaknesses- Does not provide insight into our thoughts feelings and behaviour in helping as we do not knolw why these people intended to or did not help. Reduces internal validity

Question 80

Evaluate the validity of Levines study

Answer 80

Weakness- Demand charecteristics may have been displayed by participants as seeing someone repeadtedly drop pens or magazines with a broken leg may have made them suspicious and allows them to guess what the researcher is doing

Strength- High in ecological validity due to the natural setting used and the scenario was very realistic.

Question 81

How is Levines study ethnocentric

Answer 81

The data isnt fully balanced between continents as we only see data from one city in Africa and one city in the Middle East and no data from cities in north Africa or arabic countries
It assumes these behaviours deserve help which may not be in some cultures

Question 82

Evaluate the internal reliability in Levines study

Answer 82

All measures were extremely standardised as the Es received a detailed instruction sheet and on site field training for acting their roles which ensures a consistent measure of behaviour
3 research aims show how Levine attempted to measure helping behaviour in 3 ways which allows us to see how helping behaviour is consistent across different helping measures

Possible they all were not measuring in a precise way as Levine acknoledges it is difficult to measure standardisation between Es acting their parts and scoring subjects as they were not present

Question 83

How does Levine fit the nature debate

Answer 83

It could be argued that the difference between a countries rate of helping behaviour is the innate difference of cultural value like someones personality of being friendly meant they were more likely to help

Question 84

How does Levine fit the nurture debate

Answer 84

The fact that cities with the cultural tradition of simpatia like Rio are more helpful than cities with no tradition shows that culture impacts a persons helping behaviour as it is based on upbringing.

Question 85

How is Levines study useful

Answer 85

Enhances knowledge on cross cultural helping behaviour and in a situation where an individual could walk on by. This is an enhancement of knowledge from previous research such as Piliavin which only looked on helping behaviour from New York

Question 86

How is Levines study limited in usefulness

Answer 86

The correlation method does not allow cause and effect to be established as to why people helped. This means a relationship could be identified between certain variables like economic productivity but the reasons for the helping behaviours could not be explored in depth

Question 87

How can Levines study said to be reductionist

Answer 87

Helping behaviour can be reduced down into single factors and broken down into its constituent parts like environment for example. Peoples upbringing could affect their helping behaviour whether they come from individualist collectivist or simpatia cultures like hispanic cultures.

Question 88

How is Levines study said to be holistic

Answer 88

It considers the combination of 4 community variables as to why people may be more likely to help

Question 89

How is Levines study said to be deterministic

Answer 89

It suggests our culture value determines our helping behaviour like simpatia values in Hispanic communities or the presence of the person asking for help

Question 90

How is Levines study said to be freewill

Answer 90

Some people can still exercise their free will even in Rio De Janiero when they did not help 100% of the time which means they do have control over their behaviour