Question

Latané and Darley (1968) conducted their “seizure” study in the aftermath of the Kitty Genovese incident. Why did they conduct this study, and why is this study considered to be high in internal validity?

Answer 1

Latane and Darley conducted their 'seizure' study in the aftermath of the Kitty Genovese incident because they wanted to test the validity of the 'bystander effect' which was assumed to be the major cause for witnesses not helping Kitty Genovese. The bystander effect concludes that the more number of people observing the event, the less will come forward to help in an emergency situation. It assumes 'diffusion of responsibility'. The more number of people, the more people are going to wait for other's reactions and behaviour. Witnesses instead of helping the victim, wait for other's to come out to help.

Latane and Darley in their study, conducted an experiment on a bunch of students who were told that they would be meeting with one, two and three students respectively to discuss an assignment. However, while the participant waited for the other student to arrive, he hears the other student's plea of help as he is having seizures. It was a pre-recorded message which is intermittent and looks like a person is having real seizures. The experimental group with only one participant helped immediately. The group with three students waited and observed other's behaviour. Nobody moved for three minutes and then finally when one participant was willing to help, the others joined in.

Latane and Darley's study is considered to be high in internal validity because the result of the study yields the same results when administered in the same conditions and exert the same amount of manipulation on the dependent variable.