Prosocial behavior is defined as “actions by individuals that help others (often, with no immediate benefit to the helper)” (Baron & Branscombe, 2012, p.291), and “one form of prosocial behavior that almost always makes people feel good about other people is altruism, or helping someone in trouble with no expectation of reward and often without fear for one’s own safety”. (Ciccarelli & White, 2015, p.490)
Social psychologists identify many reasons as to why people help others and in what circumstances they do that. Most of the theories suggest that the motives are “pseudo- altruistic” while some others suggest that at times altruism is true and genuine. Evolutionary psychologists have their own perspective as to why people help and they suggest that kin selection and reciprocity norm are two possible explanations as to why people help. …show more content…
Kin selection theory proposes that the purpose all organisms including humans, is to pass their genes to the next generation, therefore they help their closest relatives. They also believe that people would also help a non relative, as they aim for the survival of the more giving individuals and therefore increase genetic fitness. (Kassin, Fein & Markus, 2011). Consequently evolutionary psychologists are basically stating that human nature is egoistic and only serves the self.
The Social psychology perspective has its own theories as to why people help others. Egoism or pseudo altruism is also believed to be the major incentive for pro-social behavior and many social psychologists suggest that an act of helping, always has an ulterior motive. They argue that pro social behavior is motivated by one's desire to gain internal and sometimes external rewards that sometimes cannot be directly noticeable. “Sociologist Alvin Gouldner (1960) contended that one universal moral code is a reciprocity norm: To those who help us, we should return help, not harm” (Myers, 2010, P.449). Mark Whatley and his . colleagues (1999), discovered that students were more willing to donate money to someone who had previously bought them candy, hence they proved that the reciprocity norm applies most successfully as people respond openly to actions earlier done to them. Additionally, social responsibility norm suggests that people, have to help others in need, without expecting something in return (Myers, 2010). According to this norm sometimes people engage in prosocial behavior just because the society expects them to and because not doing so might result to some kind of punishment. On the other hand acting as the society expects them to might also result in gaining more respect or admiration. (Hogg & Vaughan, 2011). Moreover It is suggested that people will help if their rewards are greater than their costs not only when engaging in prosocial behaviour but also when deciding whether to help or not in an emergency. In addition it is proven that helping others has a positive impact on physical and psychological