AP® Psychology · Free response

Bystanders and a dropped bag of groceries

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Q1: Article Analysis Question (AAQ) · no calculator · 7 points · about 25 minutes

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The question

Name: ______________________   Date: ____________   Bystanders and a dropped bag of groceries (7 points)

Study

Invented study: Does the number of bystanders change helping?

Introduction

The bystander effect predicts that each person is less likely to help when other people are present, partly through diffusion of responsibility. Researchers tested this in a staged, everyday situation. Hypothesis: participants waiting alone would help more often and more quickly than participants waiting with other people.

Participants

120 students at a community college in Arizona (ages 18 to 34; 66 women and 54 men; 52% Hispanic, 31% White, 9% Native American, 8% other) signed up for what they were told was a study of reading speed. The college's institutional review board approved the study, including its use of deception.

Method

Participants were randomly assigned to wait for the "reading study" in a hallway alone, with 1 other person or with 4 other people. The others were confederates who had been told to keep reading their phones. After 2 minutes, a different confederate walked past carrying a grocery bag, which split open, and fruit rolled across the floor. Helping was recorded as the participant picking up at least one item or asking whether the person needed help, within 60 seconds of the bag splitting. A hidden observer, who did not know the hypothesis, also recorded the seconds until helping began. Afterward, each participant was debriefed: told that the reading study and the bag were staged, why deception was needed, and that they could have their data removed. Two participants asked for this, and their data were removed and replaced.

Results

The percent of participants who helped within 60 seconds was 78% when alone, 55% with 1 other person and 33% with 4 other people. Among those who helped, mean time to help was 6 seconds alone, 11 seconds with 1 other and 17 seconds with 4 others. The difference in the percent who helped between the alone and 4-other conditions was statistically significant.

Discussion

The researchers concluded that helping fell as the number of bystanders rose. They noted that a dropped bag is a minor event and that results may differ in serious emergencies.

Invented study for practice.

020406080100Percent who helpedAloneWith 1 otherWith 4 others

  1. (A) Identify the research method used in the study. [1 point]

  2. (B) State the operational definition of helping. [1 point]

  3. (C) Describe what the percent who helped in the alone condition, compared with the 4-other condition, shows. [1 point]

  4. (D) Identify one ethical guideline the researchers followed, and explain how they applied it in this study. [1 point]

  5. (E) Explain the extent to which the research findings may or may not be generalizable using specific and relevant evidence from the study. [1 point]

  6. (F) Explain how at least one of the research findings supports or refutes the researchers' hypothesis that participants waiting alone would help more often and more quickly than participants waiting with others. [2 points]