Additional Reading Notes Flashcards
Muzaffar Sheriff’s Study on co-operation
- Arranged for 22 well- adjusted 5th graders to attend a summer camp
- Divided boys into two groups on opposite side of lake. Unaware of others existence
- Competition in a 4 days athletics tournament with prizes and medals
Sheriff’s discoveries on Competition
- All signs of outgroup bias emerged including ingroup favoritism and homogeneity effect
-Conflict and aggression including physical altercations
Sheriff’s findings on Co-operation
- Rigged a truck to break down and both groups had to work together to move it
- Increase in cross- group relationships
Overall Takeaways from Sheriff’s study
- Among strangers, competition and isolation created enemies
- Among enemies, co-operation created friends
Superordinate Goals
Goals that require people to co-operate tend to reduce hostility between groups
Prosocial Behaviors
Actions that benefit others such as doing favours or helping i.e. paying compliments, offering assistance and smiling
Batson on why humans are prosocial
Prosocial behaviours are motivated by empathy, in which people share other people’s emotions
Claudini on why humans are prosocial
Most prosocial behaviours have selfish motives, such as wanting to manage one’s public image or relieve one’s negative mood
Zahn- Waxier on why humans are prosocial
People have an inborn tendency to help others.
-i.e. Young infants become distressed when they see other infants crying
Altruism
Providing help when it is needed without any immediate reward for doing so
Hamilton’s contribution to psychology
Concept of inclusive fitness
Inclusive Fitness
An explanation for altruism that focuses on the adaptive behaviour of transmitting genes such as through kin selection rather than focusing on individual survival
Kin Selection
- People are altruistic towards those with which they share genes
- When your family members thrive, at least some of your genes will survive
Triver’s Contribution to Psychology
Reciprocal Helping
Reciprocal Helping
- One animal helps another because the other may return the favour in the future
- Benefits must outweigh the cost
- Likely to occur in humans where survival is dependent on co-operation
Bystander Intervention Effect
The failure to offer help by those who observe someone in need when other people are present
- Less likely to receive help when others are around
Latané and Darley on Bystander Intervention
-Male college students in a room to fill out surveys
- Some were alone, others were with naive participants and some were with calm, unperturbed confederates
- Smoke in vents
Lone Participants
-Mostly sought help
Naive Participants
Few initially sought help
Confederates
Only 10% sought help
Reasons for Bystander Effect
- Diffusion of responsibility
- Social Blunders
- Anonymity
- Weighing of Options
Diffusion of Responsibility
Bystanders expect other bystanders to help
Social Blunders
People may worry that they will look foolish for seeking/ offering help that is not needed
Anonymity
- People are far less likely to help when they are anonymous and can remain so
- Wise to point to someone specific i.e. “you with red shirt, call an ambulance”
Weighing of Options
- How much harm do they risk to themselves?
- What benefits may the forgo by helping?
- i.e. more likely to help on a boring day on the way to your least favourite class than on the morning of a big exam
Minimal Group Paradigm
- Randomly assigning participants into two groups using meaningless criteria such as flipping a coin
Role of Medial Prefrontal Cortex
- Important for thinking about other people, both generally and specifically
- Associated with in-group bias
- Less active when people consider members of outgroup, especially extreme outgroups i.e. drug addicts/ homeless
Stoner’s Impact to Psychology
- Risky- shift effect
Individuated People
We walk around with a sense of ourselves as individuals who are responsible for our own actions
Normative Influence
-The tendency for people to conform in order to fit in with a group
- Can sometimes cause people to conform even when they believe that the person is doing the wrong thing
- Helps society run smoothly
- i.e. following a trend
Informational Influence
- The tendency for people to conform when they assume that the behaviour of others represents the correct way to respond
Obedience
Following the orders of a person of authority
What type of attitudes develop the fastest
Negative Attitudes
Compliance
The tendency to agree to do things requested by others
