AICE Psychology Paper 1 Practice Exam

The research design used in the Piliavin study is a field experiment, which is particularly notable because it was conducted in a natural environment rather than a controlled laboratory setting. The study took place on New York City subway trains, where researchers observed and recorded real-life helping behavior of passengers in response to a staged emergency situation. By utilizing a field experiment, the researchers were able to capture genuine social interactions and behaviors, allowing for an ecological validity that laboratory experiments often lack.

This approach provided insight into the factors that might influence whether bystanders chose to help someone in distress, such as the characteristics of the victim and the situational dynamics in the subway environment. Furthermore, the use of a field experiment enabled the researchers to observe behavior as it occurred spontaneously, thus reflecting true human interactions in a public setting.