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32 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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prosocial behavior
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Any act performed with the goal of benefiting another person
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Altruism
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Any act that benefits another person but does not benefit the helper
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why do people help? (evolutionary theory)
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- helping family contributes to the survival of an individual's genes
- parents behave more altruistically to healthy offspring than to unhealthy ones (Dovidio et al., 1991) |
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Cunningham et al, 1995
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- Asked people whether they would be willing to help other people in different situations
- More likely to help someone in their immediate family, less likely to help acquaintances |
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Burnstein, Crandall &Kitayama, 1994
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- Difference in helping people who are more genetically similar to you versus helping someone unrelated to you become more pronounced in life or death situations
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Criticisms of evolutionary theory
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- doesn't explain why we help strangers
- social factors are more important that biology |
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Why we help people? (sociocultural perspective)
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Norm of social responsibility: we should help others who depend on us
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Norm of reciprocity
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- we should help those who help us
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Norm of reciprocity- Coke study
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- had participant in the waiting room with a confederate
- confederate buys participant a coke - confederate ask participant for donation - participant more likely to give money if the confederate bought them a coke -- reciprocate in the same amount as the coke |
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Why do we help? (norm of social justice)
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rules about fairness and the just distribution of resources
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Why do we help? Interdependence/Social exchange theory
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we want to maximize our benefit and minimize our costs
3 rewards of helping: a) reciprocity, b) relieves distress, c) social approval (this approach denies empathy approach) |
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Why do we help? Learning perspective
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emphasizes the importance of learning to be helpful
- we learn social norms about helping and develop habits of helpfulness - reinforcement: people help when they are rewarded - observational learning |
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Decision-making perspective
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A person makes an effortful decision to help or not
helpful behavior may take shape after 4 stages of decision making 1. perceiving a need: does someone need help? 2. Taking personal responsibility: am i responsible? 3. weighing costsand benefits: is helping worthwile? deciding how to help: what should i do? |
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empathy- altruism hypothesis
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- people are more likely to help someone if they feel the person deserves it
- we make attributions about other's needs then decide whether to help - we feel sympathy and concern for those who suffer through no fault of their own - when we feel empathy, we help for altruistic reasons (help regardless, even if costs outweigh benefits) - when we do not feel empathy, we help for social- exchange reasons (help only if benefits outweigh costs) |
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Toi & Batson, 1982
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Participants heard an interview with Carol, a student who broke both her legs in an auto accident
- she describes how hard it is to keep up with her psych class since the accident IV1: empathy instructions - high: imagine how carol feels - low: try to be objective IV 2: costs of helping - high: in class everyday - low: not in class DV: whether Ps agreed to help Carol a) when empathy was low, social exchange concerns took over- people based their decisions on the costs and benefits to themselves b) when empathy was high, they helped for altruistic reasons |
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When do people help?-- personality differences
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altruistic personality: the quality that cause an individual to help others in a wide variety of situations
- keep in mind, however, that situation also plays a big role |
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Gender and helping
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women are universally perceived as kinder, more soft-hearted, and more helpful (Williams and Best, 1990)
- but over 90% carnegie hero awards go to men (for saving a life) - women help those they already know, help in nurturing ways involving long-term commitment - men help strangers in emergency situations; in chivalrous, heroic ways |
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Time pressure and Helping
Good samaritan study (Darley & Batson, 1973) |
Seminary students on their way to lecture
IVs: a. Lecture (good samaritan vs control) b. early, on time, or late DV: Helping - much more likely to help if they were early |
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Mood and Helping
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people are more likely to help if they're in a good mood
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mood maintenance
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we offer help to prolong our positive emotional state
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Isen and Levin, 1972
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- Ps either did or did not find a dime in the phone booth
- confederate walked by and dropped sheets of paper - 84% of those who found the dime helped whereas only 4% of those who did not find a dime helped |
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why do good moods increase helping?
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- interpret events sympathetically
- mood maintenance - good moods can increase self- attention (we look inwards and makes us more likely to behave according to our values and ideals) |
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negative- state relief model
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people in a bad mood are motivated to try to relieve their own discomfort
- people who help report feeling more cheerful and less nervous than students who didn't |
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environment and helping
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sunshine: people are more likely to help when it's sunny and the temperature is comfortable
- strangers are more likely to be helped in small towns than large cities why? urban overload hypothesis |
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urban-overload hypothesis
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people living in cities are more likely to keep to themselves to avoid being overloaded by all the stimulation they receive
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bystander effect
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the greater number of bystanders who witness an emergency, the less likely any one of them is to help
Kity Genovese (1964) murdered in NYC, those who witnessed failed to call for help |
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causes of the bystander effect
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- people may not notice the event because they are distracted or in a hurry
-people may not interpret the event as an emergency - people may not assume responsibility (diffusion of responsibility: each bystander's sense of responsibility to help decreases as the number of witnesses increase) - people may not know how to help (they may not be qualified to deliver the right kind of help, may be afraid of looking foolish, could make them financially liable, could be dangerous), people may decide not to help |
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Smoke-filled room study (Latane and Darley, 1968)
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IV: left alone; with 2 other real participants, or with 2 other confederates who pretend nothing was wrong
DV: percentage of participants who reported smoke a. when alone people more likely to respond to smoke b. about half responded with two other real subjects c. almost none responded with 2 calm confederates |
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Seizure study (Darley and Lataney, 1968)
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participants communicated over intercom. Heard participant having a seizure
IV: # of participants DVs: % who helped; mean time to help - more likely to help when they were the only ones who could hear the participant - less likely to help as the number of bystanders increased |
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how to prevent the bystander effect
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single out one person
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who do we help?
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liking: we help those who we like
a. the closer we feel to them b. if they are attractive c. familiarity similarity: those who are similar to us deserving: we help those we think deserve it |
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receiving help
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attribution theory: people are motivated to understand why they need help and why others are offering to help them
- if we percieve that people are helping us because they genuinely care about us and our welfare, it makes us feel good -- if accepting aid implies that we are incompetent, it threatens our self-esteem - people are likely to ask for help when they think they will be able to repay it in some form (receiving help can create an imbalance of power) |
