prosocial behaviour + piliavin's subway study

Define prosocial behaviour ?

it occurs when people act to benefit others rather than themselves

Define bystander intervention ?

an example of prosocial behaviour - refers to the actions a person may or may not take when they’re a witness in an emergency situation

What was the aim of this study ?

to investigate the effect that a victim’s appearance would have on helping behaviour

What was the method of this study ?

• field experiment - subway train in NYC

• a number of diff journeys, an actor pretended to collapse in a train carriage

• each time the actors appearance changed

• some trials he appeared to be drunk - (smelt of alcohol)

• other trials he was disabled - (sober and carrying a walking stick)

• observers recorded how often and how quickly the actor was helped

What were the results of this study ?

when actor was carrying a walking stick, he was helped within 70 seconds 95% of the time

when he was drunk, he had help within 70 seconds 50% of the time

What was the conclusion of this study ?

a person’s appearance will affect whether or not they receive help and how quickly the help is given

Give one evaluation point for this study ?

point - the study had a limited sample

explanation - participants were most likely ppl who lived in NYC & they may behave differently to ppl from other countries or those who don’t live in big cities

link - make results harder to generalise cause we don’t know how other groups such as collectivist cultures would behave

Give another evaluation point for this study ?

point - the study has real life applications

explanation - the subway study was important cause it helped us understand why some victims are less likely to receive help

link - makes piliavin’s results useful in real-life context because we now have a greater understanding of helping behaviour

Give a 3rd evaluation point for this study ?

point - the study did not control EV's

explanation - the study was a field experiment which means that there was very little control of possible EV’s

link - makes results less valid as it’s not possible to know for sure if the IV was the only thing affecting the DV