Altruism

Question 1

PRO-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

Answer 1

An action that is positively valued by society

Question 2

ALTRUISM

Answer 2

An action that is performed to benefit a person without benefiting the self.

Question 3

HELPING BEHAVIOUR

Answer 3

An action that is performed to help another person.
Difference between altruism and Helping Behaviour
Altruistic behaviour does not benefit, and can be risky to, self

Question 4

Key themes of study of altruism

Answer 4

1. Bystander Intervention
2. Situational & dispositional determinants
3. Finally, Social dilemmas
   Essay introduction

Question 5

1. Bystander intervention

Answer 5

The act of helping a person in danger or distress by people who are not its cause.
Non-intervention: The case of Kitty Genovese 1964

Question 6

Bystander intervention explanations

Answer 6

Diffusion of responsibility
the perception that ‘it’s none of my business’ or ‘someone else will deal with this’ (Darley and Latané, 1968)
Social loafing?
Choke study?

Pluralistic ignorance
the situation where people wrongly assume, based on others’ actions, that they endorse a particular norm (Latané and Rodin, 1969; Prentice and Miller, 1996).
Everyone thinks others have a good reason for not acting
Smoke study?

In a hurry
Help less as might not notice the emergency (Darley and Batson, 1973)
When late people less likely to help

Motivated cognition processes
Downplay emergency seriousness to minimise anxiety and distress
Emergencies are distressing

Question 7

50,000 to 500,000 non-Jewish people risked their own and their families’ lives in Nazi-occupied Europe in order to shelter Jewish people from the death camps
true or false?

Answer 7

true
(Oliner & Oliner, 1988)
Could have been murdered if caught

Question 8

Explaining cultural differences

Answer 8

Productivity
Countries in which people earn more help less
Religion
Cultural norms
e.g. differing norms of reciprocity (Miller and Bersoff, 1994)
USA views reciprocity as choice, others as obligation

Question 9

Who helps? Evolutionary theory

Answer 9

1. Kin selection
   Acting differently towards members of the same species depending on their degree of genetic relatedness to the self
2. Reciprocal altruism
   Animals act altruistically towards members of the same species that have already helped them.
   Heightens the prospects that they will be rewarded

Question 10

Who gets help

Answer 10

Age
Less likely to request help as get older

Gender
Women more likely than men (Bruder-Mattson and Hovanitz, 1990).
For men, asking for help could be seen as weakness

Attractiveness
+ve correlation (Wilson and Dovidio, 1985)

Personality
Socially anxious and high SE less likely to help

Question 11

Social Dilemmas

Answer 11

Situations in which the interests of the individual are at odds with the interests of the group.

Question 12

Prisoner’s dilemma

Answer 12

Mutual non-confession is best
Confessions most common
Mutual suspicion
Lack of trust

Question 13

Trucking Game

Answer 13

Sharing one-lane best
Usually end up arguing over single lane
Mistrust

Question 14

Commons dilemma/Public goods dilemma

Answer 14

“Tragedy of the commons”
Prison dilemma with more people
If commons are shared, all benefit
But when overused become useless for all
Sounds like environment…
Public goods (tax, downloads)
Competition and recourse destruction  (Edney, 1979)

Question 15

Encouraging Cooperation strengths

Answer 15

Strong sense of identification with the group
Value the common interest as well as their own
Communication & group principles and ground rules before they have to make decisions
Reward co-operators and punish defectors