Core Studies - Levine (Cross-cultural Altruism)

Question 1

What is the key theme of the study

Answer 1

Responses to people in need

Question 2

What is the background of the study

Answer 2

Research showed that as the size of a city increases the tendency to help strangers increases so Levine wanted to investigate that as well as other community variables which could affect helping

Question 3

What are 2 aims of the study

Answer 3

To investigate is strangers help varies cross culturally

To investigate what different community variables relate to helping behaviours across cultures

Question 4

What was the research method

Answer 4

Field / quasi experiment

Question 5

What are the 3 independent variables

Answer 5

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

Question 6

What are the 4 community variables and how were they measured

Answer 6

Pace of life - average to walk 60 feet in seconds

Population size - taken from United national demographic year book

Cultural values - 6 experts rated countries on a scale of 1 to 10 from individualist to collectivist

Economic well being - purchasing power parity ( how much average income of each country could purchase)

Question 7

How many participants were in the study

Answer 7

1198 participants from 23 countries

Question 8

How were participants selected

Answer 8

Approaching the second potential person who crossed a predetermined line

Question 9

What type of participants were excluded

Answer 9

Children under 17
Physically disabled or very old people

Question 10

What participants were selected for the dropped pen and hurt leg condition

Answer 10

Only individuals walking alone

Question 11

How was data collected in the study

Answer 11

Responsible Students who went abroad for summer holidays or returning home for summer

Cross cultural psychologists and their students who volunteered to help

Question 12

What are 3 controls of the experimenters

Answer 12

All college age
All men
All dressed neatly

Question 13

Describe the procedure if the dropped pen condition

Answer 13

The experiment walked towards a solitary participants who was passing in the opposite direction at a carefully practiced moderate pace of 15 paces every 10 seconds

When they were 10 to 15 feet from the participant they reached into their pocket and accidentally without appearing to notice dropped a pen behind him

Question 14

Describe the procedure of the hurt leg condition
How many participants were there

Answer 14

The experimenter walked with a heavy limp and wore a large clearly visible leg brace, they accidentally dropped and unsuccessfully struggled to reach down for a pile of magazines as they came within 20 feet of a passing pedestrian

240 women and 253 men

Question 15

Describe the procedure of the blind person crossing the street condition

How many trials were there

Answer 15

The experiment wore dark glasses and carried a white cane acted as a blind person needing help to cross the street

They stepped up to a corner just before the light turned green and held their cane out

They waited until someone offered help or trial terminated when light turned red so the experimenter walked away from corner

281 trials

Question 16

What are 2 controls of the experiment

Answer 16

All experimenters received a detailed instruction sheet and on site field training for their caring roles, learning the procedure for participant selection and scoring of participants

They all practiced together

Question 17

What are 3 results from the experiment

Answer 17

There was a statistically significant relationship found between economic productivity measure and overall helping (negative correlation)

More helpful countries had lower purchasing power parity

Simpatia countries were more helpful on average (83%) that non simpatia countries (66%)

Individualist counties slightly less helpful

Question 18

Evaluate the research method

Answer 18

Field experiment so natural reactions and behaviours
Some element of control as procedures were standardised - conditions clearly operationalised as to what counts as help etc

Only looked at one kind of helpness which was an everyday favour other situations could be better measures of altruism so lowers validity

Question 19

Evaluate validity

Answer 19

Natural environment so captured real helping behaviour so high ecological validity

No extraneous variables controlled ie different experimenters in each location so individual differences - low internal validity

Question 20

Evaluate reliability

Answer 20

Standardised measures taken as experimenters practiced ie walked 15 paces every 10 seconds

Experimenter different in every country

Question 21

Evaluate any sampling bias

Answer 21

Several cultures compared so useful cross cultural conclusions can be draw also a city chosen from each country that can be comparable

23 countries is a small sample so not representative of world and makes it difficult to draw conclusions

Question 22

Evaluate types of data

Answer 22

Quantitative data easy to compare ie 83% and 66%

No qualitative data so we don’t know why they helped we can only assume it was to do with the country’s values etc

Question 23

Evaluate any ethical considerations

Answer 23

No informed consent