Chapter 10-Prosocial behavior Flashcards
What is the definition of helping behavior?
Actions intended to provide a benefit or improve the well-being of others (a nurse; part of her job-not prosocial because payed)
What is the definition of prosocial behavior?
Beneficial to other people driven by selfish or selfless motivations; excluding motivations by professional obligations.
What is the definition of altruism?
Behavior benefiting others without anticipation of external rewards; exclusively empathic motivation. Clear separation between self and other.
What did Batson mean by social egoists?
We benefit from helping others because in the process we are helping ourselves feeling good about ourselves.
What is aversive-arousal reduction?
When we see others that suffer, we suffer too. In helping others we seek to relieve our own pain.
What is punishment avoidance?
We help because we fear other’s will judge us if we don’t help. We seek to avoid feeling shame or guilt at not helping.
What is reward seeking?
We help because we hope for social rewards or self rewards.
What is the negative-state-relief model? (Cialdini)
Human beings have an innate drive to reduce negative moods (feeling bad for someone). When helping someone, our mood elevates. Therefore we help for egoistic reasons.
What is reciprocal altruism?
Helping someone to get something in return. Maintain, reinforce or gain power. (Helping the weak, give up a seat on the subway to a weaker person)
What is a prosocial personality?
The tendency to think about the welfare of others. To feel concern, empathy and to act in a way that benefits them.
What determines helping behavior between countries?
The economy, not individuality and collectivism. Less rich countries usually help each other more.
Empathy-altruism hypothesis (Batson)
If you have high empathetic emotions towards a person it will evoke altruistic motivations. Either you will escape by doing nothing about it or you will help. If you have low empathetic emotions you will have egoistic motivations and therefore try to escape the situation.
Which researcher was in favour of altruism?
Batson
Experiment: arousal misattribution (Coke, Batson, McDavis)
Participants take a pill and get told it will increase or decrease their arousal: then they hear about Katie’s story and are either supposed to take an objective perspective or imagine themselves being in the situation.
It showed that people who believed they were more aroused helped less because they attributed it to the medicine.
What is pluralistic ignorance?
Bystanders look towards others in reacting to an emergency event. If each person fails to react then people interpret the situation such as non-dangerous.
