topic 5 - Piliavin et al (1968) Good Samaritanism

Question 1

what is the background of the study?

Answer 1

Piliavin et al conducted a field experiment to investigate bystander behaviour. They were interested in the variables that people affect whether people help someone in need?

Their research came after the murder of Kitty Genovese who was attacked and stabbed in Queens, New York. She was attacked in the middle of an apartment block. Despite her cries for help, people didn’t intervene to help her.

Question 2

what was/were the aim/ aims of the study?

Answer 2

the aim was:
- to investigate helping behaviour in a natural environment and understand the conditions in which people are more likely to help.

Question 3

what was the procedure of the study?

Answer 3

-chose a natural setting in the New York Subway between 11am and 3pm.
- Almost 4500 men and women were travelling during this time and became participants in this covert observation (participants were unaware that they were being watched)
- four groups of four students were used to run the trails and to observe what would happen when a victim collapsed on the train.
- each student groups consisted of 2 male actors and 2 female observers
- one male acted as the victim and the other male acted as a model (pretend passenger)
- the victim entered the carriage of the train and stood near the central aisle handrail
- the model sat in the same area of the train and sat still or offered to help the victim after a period of time
- the two female students entered the same carriage using different doors and sat in the adjacent seating area to observe and record what the passengers did
- after the first station stop, the victim stumbled forward and collapsed on the floor.
- the female observers recorded how many people were in both areas with information such as: their race, sex, who helped and how long it took for them to offer assistance
- there were over 103 trails and the victim was either sober and carrying a cane or appeared drunk and carried a bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag
- the victims varied in race
- each victim was instructed to collapse and stare at the ceiling until assistance came
- the time it took for assistance to arrive varied as the model did not always offer help
- other times they would offer help after the fourth station stop (around 70 seconds after the collapse of the victim)
or the sixth station stop (around 150 seconds after the collapse of the victim)

Question 4

what were the results of the study?

Answer 4

• in 62/ 65 trials where the victim was carrying a can, participants helped the victim before the model planned to intervene.
• in 19/38 trials passengers helped the drunk victim before the model planned to intervene
• 81/103 trials, the victim was helped before the model was scheduled to help
• 60% of the trials, more than one passenger came to help the victim
• men were more likely to be the first people to help the victim (90% of the first helpers were males)
• 64% of the first people to help were white
• 68% of helpers who came to aid of a white victim were also white
• 50% of white passengers came to help the black victim
• race had an effect when victim was drunk: same race to help the drunk victim
• the speed at which passengers helped was greater in groups of seven or more passengers than in groups of three or four passengers.

Question 5

what were the conclusions?

Answer 5

• people are more likely to help someone perceived as ill compared to someone perceived as drunk. Due to cost of helping . explain how the cost of helping impacts this. drunk = unpredictable, possibly violent. ill person = helpless, injured etc
• men are more likely to hep than women. cost of helping for women = higher for them. the victims were males and this may have had an impact.
• small tendency for the same race helping one another particularly when the victim is drunk
• larger groups are more likely to offer assistance than small groups
• people in this study were less likely to see the situation as ambiguous/ unfamiliar as clearly the victim needed help. cost of helping in large groups was lower as the victim would be perceived as less harmful. In addition to this, the cost of not helping was high because they could be clearly seen by others for not offering assistance and may have felt guilty.
• the models offering assistance did not tend to influence other passengers, the longer the time lapse before the model helped, the greater the likelihood that passengers discussed in the situations or left the area.

Question 6

what were the strengths of the study?

Answer 6

1. the study is ecologically valid. The study took place in a naturalistic environment as the setting of the study was in a busy subway, therefore, the passengers reactions or behaviour was natural and spontaneous.
2. demand characteristics were not shown and the results were valid. the participants were unaware that they were being observed, therefore, their behaviour was natural. If the participants knew they were taking part in a study then they may have felt obliged to help the victim, not because they would have done that themselves but because they feel that, that is expected of them. As a result, participants were not displaying demand characteristics which would have ruined the findings of the study.

Question 7

what were the weaknesses of the study?

Answer 7

1. participants were unaware that they were being observed or taking part in the experiment. This means that they did not give their consent to take part and may not have chosen to do so if they were asked beforehand.
2. the situation may have caused distress to the participants. They had to witness an upsetting situation and could have felt pressure to help the victim or guilt for not helping the victim.