A Level Psychology OCR Practice Exam

In Piliavin et al.'s study, the independent variables were indeed the model conditions and victim conditions. The victim conditions included factors such as whether the person was ill or drunk, and whether they were of a different race than the bystanders. The model conditions pertained to the presence of a helper who might intervene or the timing of that intervention, which was manipulated to see how it influenced the behavior of bystanders.

This experimental design allowed the researchers to investigate how these different conditions affected the likelihood of bystanders helping the victim. The choice clearly ties to the central themes of the study: the behavior of individuals in emergency situations influenced by various social and situational factors.