PSY 306 Final Exam

What did Latané & Rodin (1969) and Darley & Latané (1968) find when conducting studies on bystander apathy?

• they found that the more people present, the less likely someone is to help another in danger

• Study 1 (L&R): went into room and asked to complete questionnaire, resarcher left the room

  • either alone or with “stooge” confederate who did nothing

  • researcher then “fell” and yelled for help

  • alone: 76% helped by 2 minutes

  • with stooge:less than 10% helped by 2 minutes

• Study 2 (D&L): told they would be in a discussion with others via intercom

  • either 2 person group(only participant and ‘victim), 3 person group(2 confederates), 6 person group(4 confederates), confederates did nothing

  • a few minutes in the person on the other side has a “seizure”

  • alone (2 pers): 85% responded by the end of the seizure (when others voice was no longer heard)

  • with 1 other (3 pers):62% responded by end

  • with 4 others (6 pers): 31% responded by end

For Latané and Darley’s (1970) helping model, what are the five steps, and what are examples of why someone would fail to help on each step?

1. Notice event- more likely to stop to help when on time, less likely when running late (Darley/Batson)

2. Interpret event as emergency- less likely when more people around do not

   1. emergency smoke study: when smoke filled vents

      1. 10% reported when with 2 confederates

      2. 38% reported when there were 3 participants

      3. 75% reported when alone

   2. informational influence

   3. pluralistic ignorance

3. Take responsibility- less likely to help when they feel they are not responsible

   1. diffusion of responsibility

   2. Subway study:

      1. only 26% offer the correct answer when wrong information is given between 2 ‘strangers’ (confederates)

      2. 44% offer correct answer when asked along with confederate who gives wrong answer

   3. beach radio study

4. Evaluate capacity to help- less likely when we do not know how to help or feel we will make the situation worse by attempting to help

   1. if you don’t know how to swim and someone is drowning, you would be unable to physically help

5. Help- less likely to help when we feel they are undeserving of help

   1. Milgram: left letters in public adressed to : medical resarch, a person, communist party, nazi party

      1. 72% returned letter for med resarch, 71% for a person, 25% for nazi/communist party

   2. Pivalin- people on NYC subway saw someone fall to the ground: either drunk or had a cane

      1. 95% helped those with cane, 50% helped the drunk

Can you explain the findings of Darley & Batson (1973)’s Good Samaritan Study? Of Latané and Darley (1968)’s Smoke Study? Moriarty’s (1975) Beach Radio Study? Which steps of helping do they each demonstrate and why?

• Darley & Batson Good Samaritan- preist students told to give speech in building across campus, at the steps of the building was a man who was slumping, coughing, groaning

  • 3 conditions: late, on time early

  • late: 10% helped

  • on time: 45% helped

  • early: 63% helped

  • demonstrates step 1: notice event- more likely to notice when not in a rush

• Latane & Darley Smoke Study- participants sat in room to fill out questionnaire when smoke fills the room through a vent

  • 3 conditions: alone, 3 participants, 1 participant 2 confederates who did nothing

  • alone: 75% reported it, 3 participants: 38% reported, 2 confederates: 10% reported

  • demonstrates step 2: interpret event as emergency

• Moriarty Beach Radio- confederate sat on beach in NY with radio, walked away and another confederate stole it

  • 2 conditions: said “ Would you watch my things?” or had a casual conversation

  • casual conversation (no commitment)

    • male thief 20% stopped them

    • female thief 20% stopped them

  • asked to watch (commitment)

    • male theif 100% stopped them

    • female theif 90% stopped them

  • demonstrates step 3 : take responsibility

How can pluralistic ignorance, informational influence, diffusion of responsibility, and audience inhibition explain why people fail to help in an emergency?

• pluralistic ignorance- people believe others have different beleifs

• informational influence- conform to others when we think they have accurate information

• diffusion of responsibility- people do not intervene when they don’t want to take responsibility

• audience inhibition- people want to avoid feeling foolish if they are wrong

When do kin selection and reciprocal altruism predict people will act altruistically and why?

• Kin selection- when altruistic behavior benefits genetic relatives increasing survival of shared genes

  • why animals/humans help family members, even at a personal cost

  • Hamilton’s Rule: rB>C

  • r- genetic relatedness

  • B- reproductive benefit to recipient

  • C- reproductive cost to altruist

• Reciprocal altruism- when individuals act altruistically for others who arent relatives, expecting reciprocity later

  • relevent with individuals who interact frequently

According to costly signaling theory, what is a “costly signal” and what does it indicate about a person? Why are people motivated to give “costly signals”?

How is the empathy-altruism hypothesis different from the warm-glow hypothesis and the negative state relief model? What are the findings from Batson et al. (1981), and how do they support the empathy-altruism hypothesis?

What is the difference between social facilitation and social inhibition?

What did Markus (1978) find, and how does it support Zajonc’s (1965) theory of social facilitation? How does it support an evaluation apprehension effect?

What did Williams & Karau (1991) find? When did they find social loafing versus social compensation? What did Brickner et al. (1986) find reduces social loafing?

What did Myers and Kaplan (1976) find in their study about group polarization? (*note: check out 10.3 of your textbook!)

What is deindividuation, and what did Diener et al., (1976) find in their Halloween study?

What is the difference between hostile and instrumental aggression? Overt and relational aggression? How do they combine to form four types? Can you give an example of each?

What is the frustration-aggression hypothesis? What are the criticisms behind it?

What is the catharsis hypothesis and what did Bushman et al. (1999) find?

What is the effect of alcohol on aggression (note: check out 9.1 of your textbook!)

What were the findings of the Bobo Doll experiment?

According to Zimbardo (1971), how did deindividuation lead to aggression in the Stanford Prison?

What is a culture of honor, and what did Cohen et al. (1996) find in their culture of honor study?

Can you identify and generate an example of each of Bandura’s (1999) 8 moral disengagement principles?

What is the ‘prisoner’s dilemma’? Why did Axelrod (1984) find that tit-for-tat was an extremely effective cooperation strategy for the prisoner’s dilemma?

What happens when people play multiple rounds of the public goods game and the common’s
dilemma (/the harvesting dilemma)?

What are three challenges to cooperation that we evolved to solve?

What did Fehr & Gächter (2000) find when they introduced punishment to the public goods game?

What are the six moral foundations? Can you give an example of a behavior that would violate each moral foundation?

What is moral dumbfounding?

According to the social intuitionist model, what is the role of emotion and conscious reasoning in moral judgment? What does it mean that conscious reasoning is more like a “lawyer” than a “judge”?

What is the difference between the trolley dilemma switch case and the trolley dilemma footbridge case? What do people generally think is permissible to do in each?

Which groups of people think it’s permissible to push the man in the footbridge case?