OCR AS Psychology: Core Studies - Social Approach (2)

R&H/Piliavin: Similarities: They both looked at helping behaviours in people. For example, R&H demonstrated the extent to which helping within a group allowed the participants to achieve a common goal. Similarly, Piliavin looked at how likely people were at helping a collapsed stranger who appeared drunk/ill. Differences: Piliavin's study can be considered to be more ecologically valid because he conducted a field experiment on an actual train in New York, and the participants were unaware they were partaking in an experiment,which allowed for their natural behaviour to be observed. Whereas, R&H's study can be considered to be low in ecological validity because it was conducted in an artificial environment (mock-prison) which the participant's were fully aware of which causes an issue with Demand Characteristics.R&H/Milgram: Similarities: They were both conducted in artificial environments. For example, Milgram conducted his study in a smart psychology lab in Yale University which has very little relevance to the real world. Similarly, R&H used an artificial prison setting that was constructed inside Elstree Film Studios in North London. Differences: Milgram's study can be considered unethical. This is because he deceived his participants as to what the exact nature of the study was as he made them believe they were actually administering real electric shocks to a real participants. Whereas, R&H tries to be ethical in that they were monitored throughout by an ethics committee and by independent psychologists and went through a series of psychomoetric tests and only well-adjusted and pro-social were used in the study. Milgram/Piliavin: Similarities: They both have problems with ethics, e.g. Piliavin's study the participants never gave fully informed consent as they didn't know they were part of an experiment and they were also decieved and weren't debriefed which could have cause the participants distress and anxiety. Similarly, Milgram's study can be considered unethical. Differences: Piliavin's study high ev.Milgram low ev.