SOCIAL APPROACH

BACKGROUND TO STUDY

Core Study 3: Piliavin (1969)Subway Samaritan

Good Samaritanism: An underground phenomenon?

Core Studies: 1. Milgram (1963)2. Reicher and Haslam (2006)3. Piliavin (1969)

Approach

Main Assumptions of the Social Approach

1. All behavior occurs within a social context, which has norms and values. Therefore from an early age we are taught how to behave.

2. Other people are a major influence on people’s behaviour, especially those who are in a position of authority.

3. An individual’s behaviour is affected by situational factors such as the environment or upbringing.

Relation to Social Approach

Other people and the surroundings are a major influence on out behaviour, thoughts and emotions.

The environment and situation we are in therefore have a major influence on whether or not individuals will help another person.

Background Questions

1. What is helping behaviour?2. What is altruism? 3. What are benefits of helping someone in need? What are

the costs of helping someone in need? 4. What has previous research suggested happens when

people witness a person in need?5. What happened to Kitty Genovese? 6. What did Latane and Darley discover about Bystander

Behaviour 7. What do you understand by the following terms?

pluralistic ignorance diffusion of responsibility bystander apathy

8.  Why did Piliavin want to research helping behaviour? 9. Outline the main aim of Piliavin’s subway study

Read the scenarios and decide if you would help…

Would you help?

Context In the 2005 London

Bombings, people didn’t walk away - they risked their own lives to save the lives of

other people.

What makes people help?

Brainstorm Questions

1. Have you ever helped a stranger?

2. What factors put you off from helping?

3. What types of person would you most likely help?

4. Why do people help in certain situations and not others?

5. What are the costs and benefits to helping people?

6. What is altruism?

7. Based on what we discussed above do you think true altruism exists? Why or why not?

Key Terms

Altruism

Bystander Behaviour

Bystander Apathy

Diffusion of Responsibility

Pluralistic ignorance

Helping behaviour

Pro-social behaviour

Arousal

Cost

Reward

Using your IPADs, define the key terms

listed.

Related Studies

STUDIES

Latane & Darley (1968

Latane & Rodin (1969)

Bryan & Test (1967)

Defining…

Altruism

Bystander Behaviour

A questions…

A woman is being brutally attacked in the street where she lives. She screams for help. 38 of her neighbours witness the attack, how many of them will:-(a) Go to her assistance?(b) Call the police?

KITTY GENOVESE – NEW YORK 1964.

Research: Kitty Genovese

Who is Kitty? Where did Kitty live? What did Kitty do? What happened to kitty? When did this event happen? Where did this even happen? Who saw this? Who did this terrible thing to Kitty? What did other (‘bystanders’) people do? Why did this happen? How has psychology explained this?

Who? Topic When?

What? Where?

Why? How?

Case Study: Kitty Genovese

Grew up in Brooklyn, New York in the 1940’s.

Her family moved NY in 1974.

Kitty stayed and worked as a bar manager 5 miles from her flat.

It made her nervous to return to her apartment in the dark, but it was something she did often.

Rented an apartment located on the 2nd floor of a building in Queens. It was quiet and mostly residential. She shared her space with her friend Mary.

Along the serene, tree lined street near her apartment, Catherine Genovese began the last walk of her life. She had just left work, it was 3.15am and she was 20ft from her front door.

She saw a dark figure walking quickly towards her. She was concerned as the stranger began to follow her. The man told the court later, ‘ I ran after her and had a knife in my hand’.

Kitty ran to a police call box. The man caught her in the parking lot and stabbed her several times.

As she screamed a far light switched on and a neighbour shouted, ‘let that girl alone’. But nobody helped Kitty.

Kitty managed to crawl from her attacker and make it to the side of her building bleeding badly. Her attacker returned within 5 minutes and stabbed her again.

More neighbours curtains twitched in the safety of their own homes – the attacker ran to a car and drove away. A number of witnesses later reported having watched the scene.

Catherine made it through a door in her apartment block and lay bleeding. The man returned. He sexually assaulted her, stole her wallet and stabbed her again until she died.

38 people heard or saw some part of the attack. Nobody helped or called the police to prevent her death.

Why?

Psychological Explanations

Diffusion of Responsibility

Empathy Altruism

Pluralistic Ignorance

Theory 1: Pluralistic Ignorance

THEORY 1

Theory 2: Diffusion of Responsibility

THEORY 2

Theory 3: Bystander Apathy

THEORY 3

Researching Bystander Behaviour

How would you study obedience?- Aims/Hypothesis: What do you want to

find out?

- Method: Experiment, Observation, Self-Report

- Sample: Who, Where, How

- Procedure: Step-by-step describe your study

Usefulness of research

Why should we investigate obedience? Individual

Society/Group

Nation

Global

Why did Piliavin research?

Most current theories lacked scientific support. The scientific research that had been carried was in the laboratory – lacking ecological validity.

Piliavin wanted to test the theories in a real environment so that her findings would be more ecologically valid.

Irving Piliavin witnessed someone collapsing on his way home on the New York subway and had an idea...............

Piliavin’s Study...

Along with his wife Jane and a colleague called Judith Rodin, Irving Piliavin wanted to stage an emergency on a New York Subway.

It would be a FIELD EXPERIMENT involving participant observation.

Researching Core Study