7. Helping Flashcards
Reasons for helping
Evolutionary reasons
Social reasons
Biological reasons
Evolutionary reasons for helping
Evolutionary psychology contends that the essence of life is gene survival.
Based on this, we would expect people to be motivated to help all other people.
Genetic selfishness
The idea that we protect genes that are our own.
Kin protection
Devotion to biological children. Parents are super devoted to their children. More true in Western societies.
Filial norm
In some countries, children are very devoted to their parents.
Reciprocity
Helping others so that others will help you.
Evolved as a mechanism for ensuring cooperation.
Social-exchange theory
There are costs (guilt) and rewards. Can be intrinsic (where we feel good), can be extrinsic (we get something from someone else out of it). Has to be reciprocal for it to be sustainable.
Social norms
Cultural norms on how people should behave.
Social responsibility norm
Norm where we expected to help those who need it.
Reciprocity norm
If I help you, then you will help me.
Genuine altruism
Help because you like helping. Don’t gain anything from helping but still do it.
Warneken & Tomasello, 2008
Children intrinsically motivated to help other people.
Taxonomy of helping
(Pearce & Amato, 1980)
Planned/formal vs spontaneous/informal
Severity of problem
Indirect vs direct
Types of prosocial behaviour
Prosocial tendencies measure (Carlo & Randall, 2002)
Public
Altruistic
Emotional
Dire
Anonymous
Compliance
Public helping
Helping behaviour is visible and may be observable by others (e.g. motivated by social approval or recognition).
Altruistic helping
Desire to help others without expecting anything in return, driven by altruistic concern for others’ well-being.
Emotional helping
Concern for emotional well-being and the emotional responses (e.g. sympathy or empathy) evoked by seeing others in need.
Dire helping
Situations of extreme need or emergency, such as crises or urgent circumstances.
Anonymous helping
Help others without any desire for recognition or public acknowledgement, often in situations where the helper’s identity is kept private.
Compliance helping
Help others when asked, especially when doing so is socially expected or when there is pressure to comply with requests.
Factors which affect who helps
Personality
Age
Temperament
Religious faith
Gender
Personality
Oliner & Oliner’s book (1988) The Altruistic Personality: Rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe reported that rescuers were motivated by three primary factors:
About 11 percent were motivated primarily by a commitment to the justice principle.
Fifty-two percent were motivated by social norms. Helping was seen as obligatory by friends, family or the church. In offering help they did what they felt was expected.
The remaining 37 percent were moved by empathy, by the suffering of those whose lives were in danger.
Age
Developmental differences
Life-stage differences
Older adults have been seen to donate more than younger adults.
Possibly because older people have more financial stability. The young people may want to donate more if they have the resources.
Temperament
Happy people are helping people (Aknin et al., 2019).
Religious faith
Conflicting research but the bottom line found that people who were more religious were more likely to help.
When it was broken done into religions, Muslims were more likely on average to donate than Christians, but there were certain times of the year where Christians donate more.
Gender
Girls/women are generally more prosocial than boys/men (Xiao et al., 2019). Not drastically different but there was a difference nonetheless.
Women help everyone; men are more likely to help women (Eagly & Crowley, 1986).
Why do men help women more?
Romantic interest
Masculinity norms (men should help themselves). Less likely to go to the doctor when they’re ill or go to therapy. Women are more likely to seek help (e.g. go to the doctors).
Benevolent sexism - Women are a weaker and fairer sex and so need more help with things.
Men as aggressors - Men are just generally more aggressive so less likely to help.
Multidimensional prosocial measure
Defending
Emotional helping
Inclusion
Physical helping
Sharing
Attribution bias
We are more likely to assume that somebody else’s behaviour is due to dispositional factors rather than situational ones.
Brickman et al. (1982) - four models of helping
Moral model
Compensatory model
Medical model
Enlightenment model
Moral model
Actors are held responsible for problems and solutions and are believed to need proper motivation.
High responsibility for the problem, high responsibility for the solution.
Compensatory model
People are not seen as responsible for problems, but they are responsible for solutions.
People need power and the helper may resources or opportunities that the recipients deserve. Nonetheless, the responsibility for using this assistance rests with the recipient.
Low responsibility for the problem, high responsibility for the solution.
Medical model
Individuals are seen as neither responsible for the problem nor the solutions.
It is not our fault if we get a cold.
This approach characterises the healthcare system in all modern societies.
Low responsibility for the problem, low responsibility for the solution.
Enlightenment model
Actors are seen as responsible for problems but as unable or unwilling to provide solutions. They are viewed as needing discipline.
High responsibility for the problem, low responsibility for the solution.
Factors that affect when we will help
Time pressure - People are not more likely to help when they are rushed.
Similarity - People are more likely to help those who are similar to us.
Cost - Less likely to help when the cost to us is high.
Bystander effect
Less likely to help when there are more people around.
Reasons for not helping
For help to occur: need to notice the incident, interpret it as an emergency, and assume responsibility.
Gergen & colleagues (1975)
People feel better when the donor is poor rather than when they are wealthy. Has more of an impact as it is more difficult for them.
Even when the donor wasn’t asking for repayment, people are more likely to voluntarily repay to the poor donor.
Prefer giving and receiving in balance.
Donor distrust - Distrust of donors if there are no strings attached as they think there might be a hidden motive.
Donor distrust
Distrust of donors if there are no strings attached as they think there might be a hidden motive.
Self-esteem (Fischer, Nadler, and Whitcher-Alagna, 1982)
Help from another may make one feel incompetent.
Dislike the aid and donor.
Avoid seeking such help again.
Donor similarity lowers self-esteem.
High self-esteem = aid feels worse
Low self-esteem = aid feels better.
How do we increase helping?
Reduce ambiguity, increase responsibility - a personal approach makes one feel less anonymous and more responsible.
Concern for self-image
In online environments however, concern for our self-image hinders helping. Bastiaensens et al. (2015) report that individuals were more likely to intervene in the case of cyberbullying if they could contact the victim privately and anonymously.
Kohn’s (1990) recommendations for raising a helpful child
- Focus on the positive
- Explain the reason
- Set an example
- Let them help
- Promote a pro-social self-image
6.Model altruism
Personal distress
A self-focused emotional reaction to another person’s distress or negative emotions, such as anxiety and discomfort.
Negative relation between personal distress and regulation.
Personal distress vs empathy
Personal distress = motivation to remove our own distress; empathy = remove the distress of the person in need.
