levine

Question 1

research method that Levine used

Answer 1

• this study was a correlation study: the overall percentage of people helped in each city being treated as a co-variable and this then being analysed separately against 4 other co-variables
• quasi experiment

Question 2

data collected in Levines study

Answer 2

• quantitative
• and qualitative: they may have got a greater understanding of the motives behind peoples behaviour by recording comments made by bystanders

Question 3

what were the ethical guidelines that Levine disobeyed

Answer 3

• people did not consent to take part in the research
• they were deceived as to the genuine of the persons need
• they could not withdraw their data
• participants were not mentioned to be debriefed which given some of them may have ended up feeling bad because they didn’t help can be seen as a problem

Question 4

ethical considerations that Levine upheld

Answer 4

• anonymity: levine didnt publish details about anyone that would make them identifiable (respected confidentiality)

Question 5

how is Levines study high in population validity

Answer 5

• large sample 23 different countries which means results can be generalised
• large number of cultural contexts

Question 6

how is levines study high in ecological validity

Answer 6

• setting and situation is true to life as data were collected in the field and the scenarios in which someone might need is plausible

Question 7

internal validity

Answer 7

• no cause and effect, therefore it is possible that there were other variables affecting responses to people in need, e.g. it is possible that the higher levels of helping seen in the countries with weaker economies could have been related to the traditional value system rather than to their economic well-being as such.
• There is a chance that members of the public might have seen what the data collectors were doing (dropping a pen etc.) and got suspicious about what was going on.
• Plenty of controls in place, e.g. All experimenters were male and of college age, no speaking to ps, experimenters were all trained - they practiced their roles together to ensure consistency, conducted during office hours (9-5)

Question 8

ethnocentrism

Answer 8

• ethnocentric as there is an imbalance in the extent to which different continents are represented (data is collected from only one city in Africa and one city in the Middle East Israel)
• no data are collected from any of the arabic countries in the Middle East and north Africa and any soviet socialist countries
• it remains centred on the America

Question 9

levine internal reliability

Answer 9

• the fact that levine measured helping behaviour in 3 different ways and actually attempted to measure it in 5 different ways also adds to the reliability of their findings as they were able to see the extent to which helping behaviour as consistent across a series of different measures rather than just relying on one
• the data collectors ran a large number of trials in relation to all three helping situations meant that they were able to obtain data suggesting a consistent, settled trend rather than data that could be distorted by fluke results s
• however as a large number of people were used to collect data, levine acknowledged that it is difficult to precisely assess the standardisation between experimenters in acting their parts and scoring subjects responses so it is possible that they weren’t all measuring in precisely the same way.

Question 10

sample

Answer 10

• cross-cultural study
• to a large extent, levine chose the cities through an opportunity basis, in accordance with which cities they either had students

Question 11

SITUATION SIDE

levine study link to individual/situational side

Answer 11

• culture is one aspect of the situation the chnaces of people engaging in helping behaviour
• helping behaviour varies in different cities around the world

Question 12

INDIVIDUAL SIDE

levine study link to individual/situational side

Answer 12

• the pen dropping condition portrays a more individual side as it shows how peoples characteristucs/personaloties can influcnece ones decision to help as pens being dropped isnt as an important event that occurs to help someone

Question 13

how does levines study portray a psychology as a science

Answer 13

• demonstatwed that their models were repliable by replicating them so many times in different citys
• they teained their data collectors to follow a clear guidance about what did or didnt count as an example of helping behavioir (tp try to reduce the risk of it being their opinion and more objective)

Question 14

how is levines study useful

Answer 14

• helpful to those who have a physical disorder as they can have an understanding on what countries to visit based on how likely they are to help incase they face any issues based on their disorder within that country.
• therefore countires who are less likely to help, give an idea to those who would need help to not visit that country

Question 15

how does levines study link to the social area

Answer 15

• all of the 4 variables used were all social:
• how many people live in the city
• how individualistic the people in the city are
• how quickly the people move in the city
• can be seen as investiagting the impact of other people on levels of helping behavioir

Question 16

how does levines study link to the key theme

Answer 16

• suggests that levels of helping behaviour vary around the world with the highet level being in the ‘simpatia’ cultures of latin america and spain

Question 17

how does levine change our undertstanding of the key theme

Answer 17

• helps to put the results from piliavins study in conext, suggestung that new york is a city in which people are unhelpful
• the impression given in piliavins study of people being largely helpful is confirmed by levines study

Question 18

how does levines study change our understanding of the inidivual, social and cultural diversity

Answer 18

• significant cultural differences in levels of helping behaviour between different countries around the world: teavhes us to expect cultural diversity in relation to peoples preparedness to help those in need.
• changes the understanding that we were left in pilivanins study
• piliavins study suggested that the first helpers were likley to be male whereas in levines study, results shows that there is no significant difference

Question 19

How is Levines study similar to piliviavin

Answer 19

• data was collected in the field
• participants didn’t know they were taking part in psychological research
• data were collected in urban settings
• the person seemingly in need of help was a young male

Question 20

How’s levines study different from piliavin

Answer 20

• piliavins data were all collected in one country (USA) whereas levine collected their data from 23 different countries
• piliavin were collecting their data in 1968 whereas Levine collected theirs between 1992 and 1997
• piliavin collected their data in a confined subway setting, Levine collected their data up on the street
• piliavin collected all of their data in relation just one helping scenario whereas Levine collected theirs in relation to 3 scenarios scenario

Question 21

how is levines study similar to piliavin

Answer 21

• data were collected in the field
• participants didnt know they were taking part in the psychological research
• data were collected in urban settings
• the person seeminly in need of help was a young male

Question 22

how is levine and piliavins study different

Answer 22

• all the data in piliavins study were collected in one country, levins study collected data from 23 countries
• piliavin were collecting data in 1968 whereas levine collected their between 1992 and 1997
• piliavin collected their data in a confied subway whereas levine collected their data up on the street