Levine et al. 2001 continued

Hypothesis 1: To see if the tendency of people within a city to offer non- emergency help to strangers was stable across different situations in which people needed help. Results: A general tendency across situations.

Hypothesis 2: To see if helping of strangers varied across cultures. Results: There was a large variance between nations.

Hypothesis 3: To identify the characteristics of those communities in which strangers are more (or less) likely to be helped. Results: More detail is needed to discuss this aim.

Potential characteristics which may have influenced These four factors were also recorded and a correlational analysis between each factor and helping behaviours was conducted. Population size Economic indicator Cultural values Walking speed Potential characteristics which may have influenced

What influence would this have?? POPULATION SIZE While all cities had populations of more than 230,000, there were still differences in population size. Population size for each metropolitan area was taken from the most current United Nations Demographic Yearbook. What influence would this have??

ECONOMIC INDICATOR (PPP) PPP is an indicator of economic well-being that measures how much the average income in a country is capable of purchasing. For example, the US has a PPP of 25,860, whereas Malawi has a PPP of 600. Think of PPP as an indicator of how rich a country is. What influence would this have??

What influence would this have?? CULTURAL VALUES Six internationally expert cross-cultural psychologists were asked to rate the 23 countries in the sample on the dimension of individualism-collectivism. Countries were rated on a 10-point scale (1 = the most collectivistic, 10 = the most individualistic). The six expert ratings were averaged to produce an overall individualism-collectivism score for each country.

What influence would this have?? WALKING SPEED Male and female walking speed, an indicator of the pace of life, was measured over a distance of 60 feet in the same downtown locations as the helping measures. In most cities, 35 men and 35 women were timed. From this an overall walking speed for the city was calculated. What influence would this have??

Community variables results… Only one statistically significant relationship Between PPP and overall levels of helping and helping of blind person This suggests that cities with lower levels of PPP tend to be more helpful. This means, the economically poorer the city = the more helpful

Although not statistically significant, there was also a small relationship between walking speed and overall helping, with participants in cities with a faster pace of life being somewhat less likely to offer help

Conclusions PPP is negatively correlated with helping behaviour Why do you think this is? Sketch this negative correlation on whiteboards As PPP decreases, helping behaviour increases

Conclusions There was no link between countries with a high overall helping index or a low overall helping index. However, cities from Latin America and Spain showed higher levels of help than other cities

That cities from Latin America and Spain showed higher levels of help than other cities can be attributed to the importance of the cultural script (a set of instructions that people follow) of simpatia (in Spanish) or simpatico (in Portuguese) in Latin American and Hispanic cultures. These terms refer to a range of amiable social qualities – to be friendly, nice, agreeable and good-natured. Helping strangers is also part of this script.

Activity: Complete the cartoon strip activity to summarise the study

Reliability Validity Ecological validity Evaluation Ethics Other Each group will take one of these main points. You are expected to explain yourself fully and present to the class Validity Are there any issues with the experimenters? Did they control for any of these issues? Reliability Did all experimenters behave in the same way? Sample size? Ecological validity Are the scenarios for helping common in everyday real life? Are all scenarios equally common? Does this affect the results? Evaluation Ethics Did participants give consent? Were they debriefed? Did they come to any harm? Other Is this research useful? Why is it important to conduct cross-cultural research?

How does Levine link to social area? Levine et al.’s study falls under the social area because the study looks at how social variables (such as a city’s population and how well off the people in a city are) impact behaviour.

Something to think about… To what extent does the contemporary study (Levine) change our understanding of the key theme and changes our understanding of individual, social and cultural diversity?