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Helping A Person When They Are Physically Handicapped

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In this experiment, I study how likely individuals are to help another person when they view that they are physically handicapped in accomplishing a simple task. This experiment could potentially demonstrate how people might be uncomfortable in helping a person when they are handicapped in some physical way. Within this experiment, the conceptual independent variable is using crutches while struggling to simultaneously try to pull a door open. The dependent variable is then measured when a participant helps by physically opening the door. When conducting the experiment, ten trials will be done with no obvious displays of struggling when trying to open the door, while the other ten I will demonstrate blatant struggle when trying to open the door. When obvious signs of struggle are demonstrated when using the crutches and trying to open the door, participants will help more often than when no signs of struggle are demonstrated. When people observe someone struggling in such a simple, low risk task, they feel more inclined to help. There would therefore, be no harm or high risk that could negatively affect them. In addition to this, as a society, we are taught to be nice to those who are less privileged than us. Comparing the hypothesis that more participants will help based on the low risk and the obvious signs of struggle can be validated when looking at past studies. In a study completed by Miller and Werner (2007), a significant predictor of helping behavior is that one

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