Two Key Studies of Promoting Prosocial Behaviour (DP IB Psychology)

80 female students from a college in Santa Cruz, California (USA) 

The participants were all competitive swimmers

The sample was obtained via opportunity sampling

The independent variable involved the following four conditions:

• Condition 1: Each participant was approached by a female confederate as she was on her way from the swimming pool to the shower block

  • Each participant was given a questionnaire about how much water they used while showering (their water consumption)

• Condition 2: Each participant was asked to sign a poster which said: ‘Please conserve water. Take shorter showers’

  • The confederate also drew the participants’ attention to water-conservation posters which had been put up around the campus

• Condition 3:  Each participant answered the questionnaire (as for condition 1) and then signed the poster (as for condition 2)

• Condition 4: The control condition – participants in this condition were not approached i.e. there was no manipulation on the part of the researchers 

A second female confederate then occupied one of the shower cubicles in the shower block

• She timed the length of each participant’s shower once they had finished speaking to the first confederate 

The results per condition were as follows:

 The participants in condition 3 who had made the prior commitment of signing the poster and answering the questionnaire on their use of water spent less time showering than participants in the other three conditions

The manipulation of the IV using four conditions means that:

• the researchers were able to impose some degree of manipulation over the procedure

  • Operationalising the independent variable is not always possible in field experiments which makes this research quite unique

The use of naïve participants (they did not know they were participating in a study) means that the findings are high in ecological validity

• Naive participants will not exhibit demand characteristics due to their lack of awareness in being part of a study

• As far as the participants were concerned they were simply doing what they always did (e.g. showering after swimming) hence their behaviour was unforced and natural

There are real ethical concerns over the procedure:

• the students were not aware that their showering time was being timed (deception)

• their privacy was breached due to the intimate nature of the way in which the data was obtained (they were essentially being spied on)

• the participants were not able to give informed consent or be given the right to withdraw

Only one confederate timed the length of the showers:

• she may have missed the start or the end of the showering sessions

  • a second confederate should have been used to ensure reliability

68 pre-school children from a Midwestern city in the USA (mean age of 4.67 years)

59% of the sample were White, the remainder comprised a range of ethnic minority groups e.g. 6% African American; 12% Hispanic

Almost 40% of the demographic were described as ‘socioeconomically disadvantaged’

The children were randomly allocated to one of the following three conditions:

• Condition 1: Participants experienced a mindfulness-based ‘Kindness Curriculum’ which took place twice a week over 12 weeks

  • Each session lasted 20-30 minutes

  • The children were trained on how to practise mindfulness (e.g. focusing on the moment, enhancing empathy, sharing)

• Condition 2: Participants who were waiting to experience the Kindness Curriculum

• Condition 3: The control group who did not experience the Kindness Curriculum and who were not on the waiting list

The teachers observed the children over the 12 weeks and rated all of them using measures such as: 

• sharing

• delayed gratification

• cognitive tasks involving decision-making

Condition 1 (Kindness Curriculum): the children were rated by their teachers as showing definite improvement in:

• social skills and interaction with others

• learning generally 

• emotional intelligence e.g. thinking about other people, regulating their own emotions

• The children who started the experiment with the lowest levels of social skills and cognitive functioning showed the highest rates of improvement overall

Condition 3 (the control group) showed the highest levels of selfish behaviour

The study has good application to a range of settings:

• prisons and young offender institutions

• education beyond primary level

• business/workplaces generally

The age of the children means that it is unlikely that they guessed the aim of the research, thereby avoiding demand characteristics

The behavioural variables (e.g. empathy and sharing) are difficult to measure precisely and may be subject to interpretation

• Any degree of subjectivity in research affects the reliability of the findings

It is possible that the teachers rated the children’s behaviour using confirmation bias

• Some children’s prosocial behaviour may have been viewed based on their prior behaviour:

  • ‘naughty’ children’s prosocial behaviour might have been underestimated

  • ‘good’ children’s prosocial behaviour might have been overestimated