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Summary Psychology OCR A-level notes on Pilliavin
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- A level Psychology
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- A Level Psychology
Psychology OCR A-level notes on Pilliavin, condensed notes
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PiliavinKey Words
Bystander Effect, Diffusion of responsibility, Pluralistic ignorance, helping behaviour
Background Piliavin was inspired by the murder of a young girl, Kitty Genovese in New York in the 60s, 38 of her neighbours could hear her being attacked
but no one did anything to help. Social psychologists would argue the neighbours displayed the bystander effect, specifically diffusion of
responsibility; there were other neighbours who could help so they didn’t see it as their responsibility. Previous lab experiments such as the
smoke filled room by Latane and Darley found evidence for diffusion of responsibility; the majority of people don’t ask for help when a room is
filling with smoke because no one else does. However, these experiments lacked ecological validity and did not explore helping behaviour in a
realistic setting. Piliavin therefore wanted to investigate this further using a field experiment in a more natural situation, a train.
Aim To investigate the rate of helping behaviour in different social contexts and situations.
Sample 4,500 men and women on the New York subway during a 3 month period
Apparatus Cane for the ill victim, bottle wrapped in brown paper bag for the drunk victim
Research This was a field experiment as it took part in a natural setting, a New York subway train during the hours of 11am-3pm when many people would
be riding the train. The task was also true to real life, witnessing someone collapse on the train and deciding whether to help or not.
Method IVs- drunk or ill victim, effect of model (how soon the model helped 70 seconds of 150 seconds and from adjacent or critical area), race of the
victim (black or white), size of witnessing group
DVs- were measured by 2 female observers: any comments made, the race of the helper, the speed of help given, the frequency of help given,
the gender of the helper, movement out of the critical area
Procedure Piliavin standardised the behaviour of the confederates before the experiment began.
In groups of 4 (2 male confederated and 2 female observers) each group of researcher would get onto the train, one male would act
as the ill or drunk victim and one male the model. The 2 females would sit either in the adjacent area of the critical area, the victim
would stumble and fall over the stay on the floor until someone helped.
If no one helped then the role model would intervene
The ill victim held a cane and the drunk victim a bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag
They would then get off the train and start all over again
Results Helping rate for the ill victim was 100% whereas for the drunk it was only 81%
There was more same race help
There was more males who helped than females
Many females were recorded saying (qual) that it wasn’t their job to help it was a mans
Conclusion Piliavin suggested that when there is no escape to a social situation and the victim who needs help is in front of you, then diffusion of
responsibility is much less likely, regardless of how many people are around, which disagrees with the previous belief.
More people are likely to help an ill person than a drunk person, as being drunk is seen as self-induced in a social context, therefore, these
people are less worthy of help
Strengths The study was highly standardised- internal reliability
The study collected quantitative data which can be checked for consistency
The study also collected qualitative data which allowed for insight into the reasons why many women didn’t offer help
The study was highly useful as it enhanced our understanding of the bystander effect and how it differs in situations were escape is
not possible
The study was scientific in many ways as it collected quantitative data and piliavin tried to control the situation by using confederates
and training them before they began so that their behaviour didn’t impact on the cause and effect between the situation and helping
behaviour
The study considers the free will of the participants as it shows that many of them didn’t help when the victim was drunk as they saw
this as self-induced
The study addressed the situational debate and enhanced our understanding of the power of the situation and how it impacts helping
behaviour, which can be practically applied to encourage helping strangers in need
Weakness There was a lack of control against situational and individual variables as the experiment was a field e.g. many people may have seen
the scenario twice if they got on the train more than once
The procedure may have caused harm to the participants as they may have felt anxious when observing the confederate fall over
The sample may have involved many tourists and people who do not work, which is unrepresentative of the population of New York,
lacks population validity
The results do not explore the nature debate, as individual factors such as anxiety, disability or cultural background may have led to
the participants not offering help-reductionist
The study may be seen as ethnocentric as it only takes place in New York and it doesn’t consider other cultural norms outside of black
and white people e.g. Hispanic/Asian
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