Social Approach 3 - Piliavin et al.

Question 1

When was Piliavin?

Answer 1

1969

Question 2

What was the aim of Piliavin?

Answer 2

To research bystander effect in a natural setting and investigate the effect of four situational variables on helping behavior.

Question 3

What triggered the research into the bystander effect?

Answer 3

The murder of Kitty Genovese in NYC in 1964.

Question 4

What did Darley and Latane (1968) find?

Answer 4

Bystanders who believed that there were other people witnessing an emergency were significantly less likely to help than those who believed they were alone in hearing the event.

Question 5

What do Darley and Latane’s findings support?

Answer 5

The diffusion of responsibility hypothesis.

Question 6

What do Schopler and Matthews (1965) find?

Answer 6

The bystander effect seems to occur more when victims are not seen as responsible for their circumstances.

Question 7

What was the experiment type?

Answer 7

Field experiment.

Question 8

What was the experiment design?

Answer 8

Independent measures.

Question 9

What were the 4 IVs?

Answer 9

Type of victim (drunk or ill)
Race of victim (black or white)
Behavior of a model (close/distant to victim, helped early/late)
Size of the group of bystanders (naturally occurring depending on the size of the train.

Question 10

What was the DV?

Answer 10

The level of bystander helping.

Question 11

What was the DV operationalised as?

Answer 11

Time taken for the first passenger to help as well as the total number of passengers who helped.

Question 12

What was recorded in addition to the DV?

Answer 12

The race, gender, and location in the carriage of each helper.
Verbal remarks made by passengers during the event.

Question 13

Where and when was the study done?

Answer 13

NYC subway between Harlem and the Bronx on weekdays between 11am and 3pm.

Question 14

What was the type of sample?

Answer 14

Unsolicited or opportunity sample.

Question 15

What was the size and racial balance of the sample?

Answer 15

~4450
45% black and 55% white

Question 16

What was the mean number of passengers per carriage?

Answer 16

43

Question 17

What was the mean number of passengers in the critical area?

Answer 17

8.5

Question 18

Who carried out the study?

Answer 18

4 teams of student researchers.

Question 19

Who was a part of each team of researchers?

Answer 19

2 male and 2 female students.

Question 20

What did the female researchers do?

Answer 20

They sat in the area next to the critical area and observed the passengers and recorded data for each trial.

Question 21

What roles did the male researchers have?

Answer 21

Victim and model.

Question 22

Where were the victim and model placed?

Answer 22

The victim stood at the pole in the centre of the critical area and the model remained standing throughout.

Question 23

How long was the gap between the 2 stations?

Answer 23

7.5 minutes.

Question 24

When did the victim move and what did he do?

Answer 24

~70 seconds into the journey, the victim would stagger forward and collapse.

Question 25

Give details about the victims.

Answer 25

3 white, 1 black. 26 - 35 years old. Made to look similar. Dressed in identical, casual clothing (jacket, old trousers, no tie)

Question 26

What was different about the victim in 38 trials?

Answer 26

He smelled of alcohol and carried a bottle of alcohol wrapped in a brown bag.

Question 27

What was different about the victim in 65 trials?

Answer 27

They appeared sober and carried a black cane.

Question 28

How many total trials were there?

Answer 28

103

Question 29

Who were the models?

Answer 29

All white males aged 24-29.

Question 30

What did the model do when they helped?

Answer 30

Raised the victim to the sitting position and stayed with him until the train reached the next stop.

Question 31

What were the 5 types of conditions that the trials were split into?

Answer 31

Critical/Early Critical/Late Adjacent/Early Adjacent/Late No model

Question 32

How long did the model wait before helping in the 'early' condition?

Answer 32

70 seconds

Question 33

How long did the model wait before helping in the 'late' condition?

Answer 33

150 seconds

Question 34

What gender were the majority of helpers?

Answer 34

Male

Question 35

What percentage of victims received spontaneous help?

Answer 35

nearly 80%

Question 36

How many cases had more than 1 helper?

Answer 36

about 60%

Question 37

Which victim were people more likely to help?

Answer 37

The one with the cane (ill).

Question 38

Did spontaneous helping occur earlier in the cane or drunk trial?

Answer 38

Cane

Question 39

What were the results for the drunk condition black victim?

Answer 39

They received less help overall but these results are not significant. 73% help - no model. 67% help - with model.

Question 40

What were the results for the drunk condition?

Answer 40

white no model - 100% white with model - 77% black no model - 73% black with model - 67% some evidence of same-race helping

Question 41

What were the results for the cane condition?

Answer 41

white no model - 100% white with model - 100% black no model - 100%

Question 42

Did the research find evidence to support the diffusion of responsibility hypothesis?

Answer 42

No, in fact some results showed that more people increased the chances of helping.

Question 43

In which two types of trials were there more comments made by the passengers?

Answer 43

Those without helping and those with a drunk victim.

Question 44

What explanation did Piliavin propose for their findings?

Answer 44

The cost-benefit model.

Question 45

What does the cost-benefit model suggest?

Answer 45

Witnessing an emergency raises an individual's level of arousal. They may feel disgust/aversion or sympathy/courage. This prompts individuals to act, in order to reduce their difficult feelings.

Question 46

In what percentage of trials did passengers move away from the critical area where the incident was taking place?

Answer 46

20%

Question 47

What is a conclusion from Piliavin?

Answer 47

In a natural setting, many people would offer spontaneous help to a stranger, even in a group situation.

Question 48

What is the GRAVE?

Answer 48

MMHMM

Question 49

The longer an emergency continues, does it become more or less likely that anyone will help?

Answer 49

Less

Question 50

What are 5 strengths from the study?

Answer 50

High ecological validity Large sample Standardised Quantitative data Mostly reliable

Question 51

What are 5 weaknesses of the study?

Answer 51

Ethics Unrepresentative sample Low control over extraneous variables Medium validity Problematic reliability

Question 52

Outline one result in relation to the time taken to help the victims.

Answer 52

The average time it took people to help the ill victims was significantly faster than the average time taken to help the drunk victims.

Question 53

Outline one result in relation to participants leaving the critical area.

Answer 53

People were more likely to leave the critical area when the victim was black compared to when the victim was white.