Altruistic Behaviour
Autor: khadija598 • December 1, 2017 • Lab Report • 793 Words (4 Pages) • 777 Views
Altruistic Behaviour
Psychological altruism means acting out of concern for the well-being of others, without regard to your own self-interest.
Aim:
A report investigating altruistic behaviour in response to a conditioned stimulus presented by ‘actors’ who will dress in two different types of ways; one will be very formal the other will be informal. The response provided by the members of the public will be studied to report whether they respond via an act of concern or not.
Experimental Hypothesis:
To investigate the difference in altruistic behaviour based on how an individual is dressed, formally and informally.
(This is a non -directional hypothesis as the outcome has not been stated and the difference is being measured, therefore it is a two- tailed hypothesis as this is a fresh set of data.)
Method:
Type of Variable: | Identifying the variable: |
Independent variable | The volunteer participant used will dress in 2 different manners, formally and informally. |
Dependent variable | The amount of people that stop and help the volunteer participant, as well as how well they respond to the participant. |
Extraneous variable | Even a very slight change in the participants behaviour can trigger a difference response by the public. The exact same people from the public will not be present at both times therefore there will be participant variables The weather/ day may cause less people around at the situ where the experiment is taking place, so an even number of samples may not be possible to record, reducing generalisability. |
A field experiment will be used because it is necessary to carry the investigation out in a natural environment to achieve realistic results. So, the experiment will take place in the Town centre opposite the store H&M. The first condition presented on day 1 of the experiment will consist of participant dressed very formally; she will be smartly dressed in a shirt neatly tucked into her pants and her hair neatly combed and sleeked back into a ponytail. Therefore, her visual first-hand account by the members of the public will seem very professional and well maintained. On day 2 of the experiment, the same participant will be dressed completely differently, a much more dressed down, informal and casual manner; for example: joggers and an oversized hoodie teamed up with a messy up do bun. In both the conditions every other member of the public that walks past will be stopped by politely saying: “Excuse me.” The ratio of the number of people that do stop to the ones who carrying on walking by will be noted down. The people that do stop will be asked for the direction to the train station, the detail of the responses will also be considered because this will be strongly significant when it comes to comparing the results of both the conditions.
...