Chapters 9 & 10 Flashcards
What is Prosocial Behavior?
Behavior intended to benefit another, even if there is no benefit to ourselves
What is the crucial difference between internal and external rewards?
Whether it is expected inside or outside yourself
What do we value more internal or external rewards?
Internal
What is internal person reward?
Sending aid anonymously, so getting a reward without receiving any outside reward
What are external rewards?
Doing something for outside recognition
Why do we use helping to increase social status and approval?
Because helping is viewed positively across human cultures
What are the four goals of prosocial behavior?
Improve basic welfare, increase social status and approval, manage self-image, manage moods and emotions
What is personal vs. genetic survival?
People will accept personal risks and losses they increase inclusive fitness, we will be willing to risk out own survival to increase chances genes/relations survive
What is reciprocal aid?
More likely to help family with genes similar to you so they will survive in comparison to strangers (helping to get help)
What is inclusive fitness?
Survival of ones genes in ones own offspring and in any relatives one helps
Why do cooperators get more advantages than uncooperators?
More likely to get something in return than if they didn’t help
What is the learning process?
People can be educated to what behavior is and isn’t acceptable
What is the relation between cultures and norms?
Different cultures have different norms for who they invite in the home
What is one of many ways of increasing helping?
By convincing people we are alike
What is the expanded sense of “we”?
We help those we believe are in our inner circle
What is an egoistic interpretation?
Egotistic motives may determine whether an individual helps but empathetic/arousal reducing reasons may no longer play a deciding role once person feels concern for the victim
What happens with an egoistic interpretation?
Cultural motivation to help is no longer selfish but truly altruistic
Can pure altruism exist?
Yes
What is ensuring survival of genes?
Empathy stimulates helping b/c it informs us that recipient of our concern has large % of our genes
What is a greater sense of identity?
Take on others perspectives to feel greater sense of oneness in ourselves or another
How can you increase the experience of empathy?
Linked to genetic similarity, due to emotion that comes from things like empathetic familial communication
What is the empathy-altruism sequence?
When one emphasizes with the plight of another, one will want to help that other for altruistic reasons
What is perspective taking?
Mentally putting oneself in anothers position
What is empathetic concern?
Compassionate feelings caused by taking the perspective of a needy other
What does empathy have a strong connection to?
Prosocial action
What is pure altruism?
Action motivated only by concern for others welfare
What is empathy?
Putting one in cognitive process (in anothers shoes) and emotional result of that action (shift from selfish to selfless)
What is the first step in the process of empathy?
Perceived similarity between us & another, familial tie, or instructions to take others perspective
What is the second step in empathy?
Perspective taking (if other is in distress) causes empathetic concern
What is the third step in empathy?
Empathetic concern leads to altruistic motivation –> pure altruism
What is a gourmet?
Person who reacts with uncommon disdain/relish to an item depending on quality
What happens to a gourmet in mood?
Saddened take this approach because they are selective and discriminating, choosing what is rewarding and avoiding what is not
What is a gourmand?
Hearty appetite but indiscriminate taste, eager to take part in what the environment provides
What happens with a gourmand and mood?
Elated people want to help regardless of the rewards involved
What are gourmets and gourmands?
Elated people like and trust people more easily, elated people remember/think about more (+) and (-) features, happy people are happy helpers
What is the ability of a helping act to influence mood?
If you thought nothing could cheer you up, you wouldn’t want to help (helping action can improve mood)
What are cost/benefits?
Want to decrease mood through helping but to find the least painful routes
What happens with cost/benefits with sad people?
People who start sad are sensitive to the costs/benefits of helping, saddened individuals are more choosy and look to relieve mood rather than deepen it
What is the presence of sadness?
Prosocial action can raise one’s mood, temp, people with sadness help more and use it to feel better again
What is the mood management hypothesis?
People use helping to manage their moods (usually sadness)
What is the arousal/cost–reward model?
Helping removes unpleasant arousal that comes from witnessing a victim’s suffering (helping would eliminate cause: victim’s plight)
What is strong arousal?
The more negative arousal produced by a situation the more helping it creates
What is the “we” connection?
More willing to help someone they share an identity/similarity with, observers more aroused by plight of someone they are connected with
What is the definition of the arousal cost reward model?
View that observers of a victims suffering will want to relieve their personal stress
What are small costs and large rewards?
More helping not produced if helping act is more unpleasant than helping
What do low cost high reward people do with helping?
Reduce negative emotion prosocially, as cost of helping increases they are less likely to help and more likely to flee
What is relative deprivation?
One has less than the others to whom one compares themself
What is poverty in aggression?
When people are under financial stress they are more likely to be aggressive
What is sweltering heat and aggression?
Violent behaviors more likely during hot weather because of more people out and about, and fueling of unpleasant feelings
What is pain and aggression?
When feeling pain people become more aggressive due to the unpleasant feeling
What are feelings of arousal and irritability?
Aggression can be fueled by any form of unpleasant arousal, whether aggression is present or not
What is the excitation-transfer theory?
Anger is physiologically similar to other emotional states and than any form of emotional arousal can enhance aggressive responses
What does emotional anger produce?
The same responses as arousal does in the body
What is chronic irritability?
Extreme irritability, or feeling irritable for an extended period
What is Type A personality?
Group of personality characteristics, including time-urgency and competitiveness, that is associated with higher risk for coronary disease
What is the frustration aggression hypothesis?
Aggression is an automatic response to any blocking of goal-oriented behavior
What are the two points of the frustration-aggression hypothesis?
When seeing someone being aggressive they were previously frustrated, when someone is frustrated, some act of aggression will surely follow
What is the original hypothesis?
Aggression is an automatic response to any blocking of goal-directed behavior
What is the reformulated hypothesis?
Any unpleasant stimulation will lead to emotional aggression to the extent that it generates unpleasant feelings
What is frustration linked to?
Linked only to emotional aggression (anger) not instrumental aggression
When does frustration lead to aggression?
When it generates negative feelings
Does frustration always lead to aggressive behavior?
No, it may or it may not
What is displacement?
Indirect expression of aggressive impulse away from person/animal that elicited it
What is catharsis?
Discharge of aggressive impulses
What is the catharsis-aggression theory?
Aggressive impulses build up inside a person and need to be released
What is the first function of aggression?
Cope with feelings of annoyance
What is the second function of aggression?
Gain material and social rewards
What is the third function of aggression?
Gain/maintain social status
What is the fourth function of aggression?
Protect oneself/members of ones group
What is the death instinct?
Innate pull to end ones life
What is the death and destruction instinct?
We re-direct our self-destructive instinct to the destruction of other people
Are humans programmed to be blindly aggressive?
No
What is one strategy for survival and reproduction?
Aggression
What is aggression and adaptive goals?
Aggression is never a goal in itself, aggressive behavior is designed to serve some function
When do people use aggression?
only when all other methods have failed
What are the three criteria for defining behavior?
What is assertiveness?
Behavior intended to express dominance or confidence
What is indirect aggression?
Behavior intended to hurt someone without face-to-face confrontation (gossip)
What is direct aggression?
Behavior intended to hurt someone face-to-face (striking, kicking, biting)
What is emotional aggression?
Hurtful behavior that stems from angry feelings (throwing a chair at someone in a blind rage)
What is instrumental aggression?
Hurting another to accomplish some other (nonaggressive) goal (tripping a rival star soccer player before his game)
What is aggression?
Behavior intended to injure another, not always related to feelings of anger
What is common assumption?
Men are more aggressive than females (false),
What do sex differences depend on?
How you define and measure aggression
What happens if asking for help damages our self-esteem?
We won’t ask for help
What is the exception for wanting someone to succeed?
As long as it doesn’t damage how we view ourselves
How do we try to maintain self-esteem?
by helping less
what happens with self-focus?
If you are focused on a personal problem, self-focus would orient you away from your value of helping, making aid less likely
What do positive labels do?
they help us think more positively
What is the difference between person and social norms?
Approval/disapproval come from inside rather than outside the person
what is the person?
Standard for appropriate behavior inside individuals, not in moral rules of culture
what are religious codes of conduct?
Because religions are expected to help we might expect more help from them because of the codes and values they live by
What are the two principle ways people manage their self-image?
Enhance and verify
what is enhance?
feel need for an ego boost you can do someone a good turn and increase self-image
What is verifying?
Not to enhance self-concept but to verify yourself
who is more likely to help?
Depends on whether conformity is approved to be masculine or feminine in the situation
what is the first type of evidence?
Lists of helpers in our society who have committed heroic acts for others
what is the second type of evidence?
Studies of aid, men help more often then women
why does helping take place?
Interactions between factors in person & situation associated with goal of gaining status and approval
What are the differences in traits for genders in helping?
Men: daring, forceful, and directed to those deserving
Women: nurturing, supportive, and focused on needs of relationships
What kind of aid are women more likely to provide?
Indirect
What kind of aid are men more likely to provide?
Direct
What is the bystander effect?
Less likely to help in emergency situations if onlookers are present
What is the diffusion of responsibility?
Each group member dilutes personal responsibility for acting by spreading it among all other group members
when does the victim become less dependent on us for aid?
If presence of others diffuses helping responsibility to those others which weakens obligation to the norm
Why do observers fail to help?
Because they are unsure not unkind
When are people are more likely to obey a norm?
Immediately after something has made it more prominent
What are helping models?
Learning to help from those around us
what are the two ways the sight of others helping can influence us?
Observation go others is frequently the way people learn conduct, serve as a reminder for a norm
What is the relationship between population and helping?
Cities are less helpful places, density rather than size affects helping
What is the social responsibility norm?
People should help those who need them to help, help those that are dependent on us for help
What does the fear of social disapproval suppress?
Assistance, especially in troubling types of potential emergencies
What happens when bystanders act alarmed?
They increase the likelihood of aid and vice versa
When are bystanders more likely to help?
When a person is clearly in danger even when helping might be dangerous to themselves
What is the approval of prosocial action most relevant to?
Goal of gaining social status and approval
What is the helping norm?
If there are people in need we should help them if we can if not we get a slap on the wrist
what is the cognitive neoassociation theory?
Any unpleasant situation triggers a complex chain of internal events, negative thoughts/emotions
What can the effects of neoassociation be expressed as?
Aggression or flight
What is the weapons effect?
Tendency for weapons such as guns to enhance aggressive thoughts, feelings, and actions
How does the weapon effect increase aggression?
By priming aggressive associations (when already angry these associations increase likelihood of retaliation)
What are direct rewards?
Buying someone ice cream for winning a fight (direct reward for behavior)
What is watching others?
Observing others rewarded for aggression
What is the social learning theory in regard to rewarding violence?
Aggression is learned through direct reward or watching others being rewarded for aggressions
When is the social learning theory particularly applicable?
Instrumental aggression
What is psychopathy?
Violence is cool and calculated for personal gain
What is non-empathetic?
Highly empathetic people “put themselves in others shoes” and are consumed with guilt over hurting another
What is alcohol intoxications impact?
Alcohol can turn off normal empathetic feelings, removes normal restraints on negative behavior (concerns of negative consequences that follow not there)
What is a psychopath?
Lack of empathy, impulsivity, irresponsibility, high self-worth, lack of sensitivity to punishment, inclined toward acting violently for personal gain
What is meta-analysis?
Statistical combination of results from different studies of same topic
What is prevention by removing threats?
Replacing a threat with something more prosocial, gun control
What are legal punishments?
Deterrence, prevention by removing threats
What needs to happen for punishment to lower aggressive behavior?
Immediate, strong, and consistent
What is focusing on more socially acceptable behaviors?
Reward good behavior not bad, get points when good lose points when bad
What is stage 1 in self-management?
Preparing for provocation (I can mange this situation)
What is stage 2 in self-management?
Confronting the provocation (You don’t need to prove yourself)
What is stage 3 in self-management?
Coping with the arousal and agitation (Time to relax and slow things down)
What is stage 4 in self-management?
Reflecting on the provocation (I could have been a lot worse)
What are the 3 stages to hostility?
Cognition, excitation (affect), behavior
What is a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Believing that something will happen makes it true
What is guns in the home?
Bought for self-defense more likely to be used on people toy know and increase likelihood of suicide and being killed
What is defensive attributional style?
Notice threats and interpret other peoples behavior as intended to do one harm
What is the effect/danger ratio?
Assessment of the likely beneficial effect of aggressiveness balanced against likely dangers
What are everyday triggers?
Common things that trigger threat responses
What is glammorized violence in the media?
media teaches aggressive behavior may lead to rewards
What are correlational studies?
Correlations do not prove causality, even when many factors removed/tested relationship between violent behavior and television remained
What are experimental studies?
Suggested that more violent TV leads to more aggressive behavior in children
What happens in both correlational and experimental studies with aggression?
If people are exposed to models who act aggressively and get rewards, they will learn to imitate the aggressive behavior of the models
What is the relation with video games and violence?
High exposure to violent video games increased brain waves indicating desensitization to violent images, increased arousal and antisocial delinquency
What does the relationship between violence and video games suggest?
Desensitization to real world suffering
What is the relationship between pornography and slasher films?
Glamorize violent things like rape, tolerance of sexual harassment and lead men to act more violently towards women
What is glamorization?
Make aggression seem more rewarding, some choose glamorized situations of violence while others avoid them depends on which initial differences are magnified
What is differential parental investment?
Animals make higher investments in their offspring will be more cautious in choosing mates (females especially)
What is sexual selection?
Favor characteristics that assist animals in attracting mates or competing with members of own sex
What is the role of aggression?
As men enter years of reproduction they become more competitive
What is handling previous put-downs?
more likely to be aggressive to someone who personally slighted you
What is the culture of honor?
Set of norms whose central idea is that people should be ready to defend their honor with retaliation if necessary
What happens when status matters?
increases when females are harder to come by so men would need to compete more
What happens with people with high self-esteem?
More likely to act aggressively since they have more to lose
What is the competition for mates?
Violence isn’t attracted but it increases status among other men and in turn increases attractiveness to women (aggress to impress)
What is the role of testosterone?
Raised by competition/sexual behavior,
What happens with less testosterone?
Men are less aggressive and sexually aroused
What do high levels of testosterone encourage?
Behavior intended to dominate, enhance status, indirect influence on aggression due to motivation to dominate others
Helping behavior appears on the surface to be at odds with evolution: helping someone else such as giving food, might endanger one’s own survival. What best clarifies this issue?
The actions of the individual are not so much designed to ensure that the individual will survive as to ensure that the genes of the individual will survive
According to evolutionary theory, people are more likely to help those to
whom they are genetically related. Which of the following cues do people
use to determine genetic relatedness?
Similarity in appearance, similarity in attitudes, familiarity (all of the above)
Experiments conducted by Darley and Latané demonstrated that the greater
the number of people who witness a victim in an emergency,
the less likely it is that any one observer will help.
When is meta-analysis used?
To establish statistical significance with studies that have conflicting results
What is the difference between aggression and assertiveness?
Assertive behavior is all about standing up for yourself, but aggression usually involves threatening, attacking, or (to a lesser degree) ignoring others
