In One Well-Known Study of Helping Behavior, Researchers Examined Helping

question 154

Multiple Choice

In one well-known study of helping behavior, researchers examined helping among a sample of theology students. Students were either (a) put under time pressure or not put under time pressure and (b) expecting to give a speech about the parable of the (very helpful) Good Samaritan or expecting to give a speech about something else. What did the researchers find?

• A) In this study, helping was not affected by time pressure.
• B) In this study, helping was not affected by the speech manipulation.
• C) In this study, helping was not affected by time pressure or by the speech manipulation.
• D) Helping was highest among the low-time-pressure, Good Samaritan group.

---

Definitions:

Anxiety

A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome, which can become a distressing disorder when excessive.

Unconditioned Stimulus

In conditioning, a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response without prior learning.

Extinction

In psychology, the gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus.

Neutral Stimulus

A neutral stimulus is something in the environment that initially does not elicit any intrinsic response until it is paired with an unconditioned stimulus.