A Little Help Please?

Student Name Omitted

Psychology Basis
What would you do? its a question thats spawned a television reality show, a section
in Oprah Magazine and more recently an experiment at Yavapai College. Students in Nichole
Wilsons Introduction to Psychology course wanted to determine in what situations someone
would likely help a handicapped person, specifically one in a wheelchair. To what degree would
a person be willing to help? Altruism is defined as a person helping another even if it is of no
benefit to do so. In other words, the helper is thought to have a selfless concern for the wellbeing of others.
Method of Observation
A student actor poses as someone with limited mobility and sits waiting in a wheelchair
at the doors of an elevator on the Yavapai College Prescott Campus. Posted on the elevator a sign
reads: Out of Order. As people walk by the student in the wheelchair attracts their attention and
solicits help getting to the upper floor no specific solution provided, just a request for help.
Fellow students not at the scene watched from a distance and noted whether or not help was
received.
So that no injuries occurred the experiment was stopped once it was evident that the actor
would receive help. When the person was stopped in their act of kindness the actor explained that
it was a psychological experiment. None of the individuals got angry in light of the new
information, but most often expressed that they felt it was a good experiment and smiled.

Hypothesis

The majority of students in Nichole Wilsonss Introductory to Psychology class predicted

that a fair amount of people would try to help and that the most likely response would be that
people would try to find help from someone else. Students joked that it would be interesting if
anyone tried to carry the person up the stairs or push, pull the person up in the wheelchair.
Students also guessed that if persons were not willing to help they would provide an explanation
such as Im sorry but Im really late for class.
Data Analysis
There were a total of 20 attempts recorded. The unsuspecting people that stopped were
from a range of ages and from both genders and represented both students and faculty. The
results were surprising. Almost all (19/20) unsuspecting persons attempted to help in some way
(see Figure 1).
Figure 1. The percentage of people that attempted some form of help.

The students had speculated that the majority of the people would most likely try to go
get someone else to help (passive form of helping). The results displayed that a large majority of
the persons tried to physically help. A couple of individuals attempted to carry the actor while

many others tried to physically push or pull the wheelchair up the stairs and only a small handful
asked the actor to stay put while they tried to go find someone. No difference was noted
regarding the actors gender in fact, both genders received help equally from same and opposite
sex.
There were a few trials that stood out to the students in the class. These were the people
who were going to attempt to carry the actor up the stairs. One male actually picked up a male
actor (in a cradle position) and carried him up a flight of stairs before the actor convinced him
that he could be put down. To move one male actor upstairs a young man put the actor on his
back. Another male got into position to carry a female actor over his shoulders, known as a
Firemans Carry.
While the data supported the students original hypothesis on the grounds that most
helped, the data showed far more individuals attempting to physically intervene (carry an actor)
than originally speculated.
There are some possible ideas the students had regarding why so many people were
observed helping. It is possible that more people are likely to help in a smaller, rural area similar
to Prescott. This theory is supported by the Urban Overload Hypothesis. Another reason could
quite simply be the Bystander Effect, which states that the more people present, the less likely
any one of them is to help. In the observation that took place, however, the actor / actress was
alone in front of the elevator and this took place during an actual class time. This means there is
far less foot traffic going through the buildings than if the observation had been done at the time
in between classes. In other words, since there didnt appear to be anyone else present to help
the actor / actress, the unknowing participant felt a larger amount of responsibility to help.