Ch 8 altruism: helping others Flashcards
Altruism
is the principle and moral practise of concern for the happiness of other human beings or animals, resulting in a quality of life both material and spiritual.
Evolutionary Perspectives (hint 3 types) to why we help
1) Kin selection - We are likely to provideHowToday people who are genetically related To us because our main goal is to have our gene survives
2) Reciprocal altruism - is a behaviour whereby an organism acts in a manner that temporarily reduces its fitness while increasing another organism’s fitness, with the expectation that the other organism will act in a similar manner at a later time.
3) co-operative group - we help in-group members this ensures the strength of the group and in return will increase the likelihood of survival for those individual members
non-evolutionary perspective (hint 3 types) to why we help
1) social rewards - People might benefit from praise positive attention rewards and honours that can be gained by helping others
2) Personal distress - We might respond negatively when we see others in needAnd by helping leverage use our own personal distress
3) EmpatheticConcerned - When we see someone suffering or the need of help we identify with that person, feel And understand what that person is going through
Is it a distressed or empathetic concern that motivates a helping response? Batson 1983
-All the participants for female, And we’re told that another person was arriving but was going to be late
-The participants were the observer and the Confederate was the learner
-If the learner answered something wrong David receiver shock
-she arrived but the observer saw her through a video recording they don’t know this
-She has said she had trauma when she was young, And being shocked in this study was bringing it up and upsetting her
-The experimenter asks you do you want to trade places with her And you receive the shocks
-Prior to the experiment The participants completed at pretest And told she had completed one too
-In the low empathy condition they were told that she was very dissimilar to them
-in the high empathy condition they were told that she was very similar to them
-easy escape, They were told if you don’t want to change places with her you can leave
-hard escape, You don’t have to trade places with her but youHave to stay for at least eight more trials
Found:
-easy escape and dissimilar to her then participants were likely going to change places with her
-other areas the participants were likely to help
-therefore personal distress and empathy can be motivating in helping
Eisenberg
look at your notes but basically, he found that empathy was a better predictor than distress to help people with children in the hospital and people facial responses
Bystander Apathy
is a social psychological theory that states that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when there are other people present.
ex Kitty Genovese
-one of the reason is the diffusion of responsibility, we are less likely to help when others are present
Bystander Apathy Study by Latane and Darley, 1986,
-Participant came in and thought they all were going to interact with one another
-Each of them sat in different rooms with headphones on
and thought it was a real
-a actor had taped a recording of having an epileptic seizure
-the participants could hear this
Found:
If participate thought they were alone 85% helped, However, If they thought they were with five other participants only 31% of that helped
Bystander Apathy Study by Latane and Rodin, 1969
again a very similar study as before, however, the participant sitting in a large room with a group or not heard someone yelling and need of help
Found:
-alone they helped however in a group they did not help as much. With a friend, they helped each other - were less anxious feeling embarrassed in front of a friend and we think we might look foolish in front of a stranger, high evaluation apprehension
Why does the Bystander Apathy Effect Occur? Five Stage Modoel 1
1) notice situation: If it’s a busy group situation, People are less likely to notice the situation
2) Interpret event as one requiring intervention: Sometimes it’s unclear if it’s an emergency we often look to other people for a signal. If it is an emergency everyone else is witnessing, it seems like someone hasn’t called the police or ambulance but no one has because we think others have the type of pluralistic ignorance
3) Assuming responsibility: we assume someone has taken responsibility BecauseSomeone has already helped we assume or OrWe sees other people witnessing the event and we think why should we help as many other people around. So if everyone is waiting around for someone to take responsibility then people might not Decide to help
4) Decide how to help: We see the EmergencyEvent but decide not to help because we don’t know how to help therefore there is a lack of knowledge
5) Confidence incapacity to help: We are likely sure what to do however we lack confidence in our ability to do well or they know how to help but engaged in bystander calculus this is what they want to help but they know they’ll also get hurt in return A Negative consequence
How to reduce bystander apathy?
Enlightenment and Recognize if they need help if you need help first disambiguate the situation meaning it’s clear you need help, that it is an emergency. Then the diffusion of responsibility, place the responsibility on an individual person, you are taking away the group decision
Dangerous Conformity ~ Bystander Apathy ex
fire in the room with a group of people, they did not leave quickly took around 13-15min. however, alone they left in the first few seconds (10-15)
Characteristics of helping ~ Victim characteristics
Does the victim screen - Do we notice if it’s an emergency
Gender matters - Women are more likely to get help the men
Ingroup - Evolutionary concerns we are more likely to help those in our group And it starts at a very young age
Characteristics of helping ~ Helper Characteristics (5 in total)
1) Situational constraints
2) Gender of the helper
3) Rural versus urban setting
4) Religion
5) Mood
Helper Characteristics ~ Situational constraints called the Good Samaritan Study
-those in a rush are less likely to notice and help
-participants were all studying to become clergy and told you they could either go listen to a talk about the good samaritan (bible story) or job opportunities
-They were told They going to be late and needed to go fast to get to the other building to get their talk on time
-Some were told that they were on time
-Someone told that they have lots of time
-And Others were told they had no time
-When passing to the next building there was a Confederate who was slumped in the door And was in pain, Whining
Found:
-All the participants were given a score from 0-4 on helping
-those with extra time were especially going to help if they were primed the good samaritan
-those who had some time or rushed, it did not matter which talk it was, they were unlikely to help
-people are more likely to help if they have time
-those in a rush with little time, have a high situational constraint, less likely to help
Helper Characteristics ~ Gender of the Helper
- Women are equally likely to help men and women, men are more likely to help woman than men
- However, it does depend on what type of health is being offered
- Woman tend to be more nurturing and caring able help volunteer and social support
- Men tend to be heroic or brave in hazardous circumstances
- It depends on what type of help is needed for the choice of a man or woman
