Chapter 10 Flashcards
Actions intended to benefit others
Prosocial Behaviors
Preferential helping of genetic relatives, which results in the greater likelihood that genes held in common will survive
Kin selection
What are the implications of Kin Selection?
- When there is a low-risk for helping, we are willing to help friends and siblings alike
- When there is high-risk for helping, we are way more likely to help full blood siblings
Altruism involving an individual helping another & becoming more likely to receive help in return
Reciprocal altruism
Individual who helps someone becomes more likely to receive help from someone else
indirect reciprocity
principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior
Morality
Understanding or vicariously experiencing another individual’s perspective and feeling sympathy and compassion for that individual
Empathy
What are the two key components of empathy?
- Perspective taking- using imagination to try to see the world through someone else’s eyes
- Empathetic concern- involves other-oriented feelings such as sympathy, compassion, and tenderness
The theory that people help others to counteract their own feelings of sadness
Might explain mechanisms associated with volunteering and/or coping with trauma
Negative state relief model
Desire to be helpful in spite of significant potential consequences
Courageous resistance
What factors influence courageous resistance
- Contextually, long-term sacrifices can produce significant fatigue (physical, emotional, & psychologically)
- Willingness to help may depend on outcome of cost-benefit analysis
Motivated by the desire to improve another’s welfare
Altruism
Motivated by desire to improve one’s own welfare
Egoism
How does altruism and egoism influence prosocial behavior?
Someone who is acting out of altruistic motivations are more likely to act in prosocial ways
Theory that empathic concern for a person in need produces an altruistic motive for helping
Empathy-altruism hypothesis
What are the pathways a person might choose in regards to empathy-altruism hypothesis
Do we adopt the other person’s perspective
- Yes -> empathetic concern -> altruistic -> reduction of other’s distress
- No -> personal distress -> egoistic -> reduction of one’s own distress
Stocks & Colleagues (2009) Implications
Method:
1. Students were induced to experience low or high empathy toward a suffering student named Katie. They were led to believe that they would remember or soon forget what they learned about Katie.
2. The students were then given a chance to volunteer to help Katie.
Results:
1. Students in the low-empathy condition tended to not offer their help if they thought they wouldn’t remember Katie and her plight.
2. Students in the high-empathy condition offered to help whether or not they thought they would forget her situation.
Implications:
1. People who have lower empathy may act in egoistic ways
2. People who have higher empathy may act in altruistic ways
Effect where the presence of others inhibits helping, usually emerges in emergency situations involving assault, violence, and murder
Bystander effect
5 steps that lead to providing assistance but obstacles can interfere and if a step is missed, the victim won’t be helped
Latane and Darley Model
What are the different steps in the Latane and Darley model?
Step 1: Notice that something is happening
Step 2: Interpret event as an emergency
Step 3: Take responsibility for providing help
Step 4: Decide how to help
Step 5: Provide help
What conditions can lead to the bystander effect being less likely to occur or may even be reversed?
- The bystanders know or feel connected to each other.
- Effective helping would require multiple helpers.
- People feel they will be scorned for failing to help
How does each step in the Latane and Darley model increase likelihood of a bystander effect occurring?
Obstacles for each step
Step 1:
1. Distraction
2. Self-concerns
Step 2:
1. Ambiguity
2. Relationship between attacker and victim
3. Pluralistic ignorance (no one else seems worried)
Step 3:
1. Diffusion of responsibility (someone else must have called 911)
Step 4:
1. Lack of competence
Step 5:
1. Audience inhibition (I’ll look like a fool)
2. Costs exceed rewards (what if I do something wrong?)
Darley & Batson’s (1973) - Good Samaritan study Method & Implications
- Students who were studying to become pastors were to give a speech on helping others.
- Students were given time constraints a) running late b) on time c) early
- 63% helped when they had more time, but only 10% helped when they were pressed for time.
When we are pressed for time or cognitively preoccupied, we may be way less likely to help
What is the relationship between mood and helping others?
Good Moods: Reasons & Limitations
Why Feeling Good Leads to Good
Desire to maintain good mood
Positive thoughts & expectations
When Feeling Good Might Not Lead to Doing Good?
Costs of helping are high
Positive thoughts about other social activities conflict with helping
Bad Moods: Reasons & Limitations
When Bad Moods Lead to Good Acts
If we take responsibility for our bad mood
If we focus on others
If we think there is personal value for helping others
When Bad Moods Reduce Likelihood of Helping
If we blame others for our bad mood
If we become self-focused
If we focus on personal values that do not promote helping
Prosocial Media Effects
- Playing prosocial games at one point in time predicted increases several months or even two years later in empathy and in prosocial behavior.
- Playing violent video games, in contrast, predicted less subsequent helping behavior
Gentile & Others (2000) Method & Findings
- College students or young children played a video game in which the characters acted either in helpful, cooperative ways (prosocial game), violent ways (violent game), or neither (neutral game).
- They later had the opportunity to help a partner’s chances of earning money by assigning them easy puzzles in a task.
Results:
Students (graph on left) and children (right) were significantly more likely to help their partner if they had played a prosocial video game than if they had played a neutral or violent game.
What is the importance of role models?
- Research has found that observing helpful models increases helping in a variety of situations
- Similarly, seeing models of selfish, greedy behavior can promote selfish, greedy behavior in turn
How do role models inspire others?
- They provide an example of behavior for us to imitate directly.
- People who model helping behavior teach us that helping is valued and rewarding
- The behavior of these models makes us think about and become more aware of the standard of conduct in our society
Altruistic kinds of behavior that result from pressure from peers or other sources of direct social influence
Reluctant altruism
What factors affect who is more likely to get assistance?
- People who are physically attractive
- People who are perceived to be nice/ happy/ sociable
- People perceived to not be responsible for the situation they are in
