Exam 4 Chapter 11

Question 1

What is prosocial behavior?

Answer 1

Any act performed with the goal of benefitting another person

Question 2

What is altruism?

Answer 2

Any act that benefits another person but does not benefit the helper and may even pose some risk to the helper

Question 3

How does evolutionary psychology explain helping behavior? Why do we help people today who aren’t our relatives?

Answer 3

-We are genetically hard-wired to help other out.
-We help people who aren’t our relatives because our ancestors typically lived with our family members, we help without thinking about the fact that we are helping relatives

Question 4

What is kin selection and the reciprocity norm, and how are they related to evolutionary
psychology?

Answer 4

• Kin selection is the idea that behaviors that help a genetic relative are favored by natural selection. Kin selection is the tendency to help other who are genetically similar to us
• The norms of reciprocity is the expectation that helping others will increase the likely hood of others helping us. This is a behavior that got passed on genetically, the idea is that a group who is selfish has a more difficult time surviving than a group who has learned to cooperate.

Question 5

Why would learning norms and gratitude be associated with evolutionary psychology and prosocial
behavior?

Answer 5

-Learning norms may be genetic, it is adaptive to pick up useful norms like helping from members in a society.
- Gratitude may have evolved to facilitate reciprocity. Gratitude for helping followed by reciprocity helps groups survive.

Question 6

What are direct and indirect fitness?

Answer 6

Direct fitness:
-Asks the question if an individual has the qualities that facilitate their survival.
- prosocial behavior may not help here

indirect fitness:
- Asks the question if group members have the qualities that facilitate the survival of the group.
-Prosocial behavior will help here
-Our ancestors were related to their groups so prosocial behavior endured

Question 7

How does social exchange theory explain helping behavior?

Answer 7

The social exchange theory argues that much of what we do stems from the desire to maximize our rewards and minimize our costs.
Social exchange theory explains helping gets rewarded and that the costs are not too high

Question 8

What are some of the rewards and
costs of helping?

Answer 8

Rewards:
- Increased positive emotions from helping
- Lowered negative emotions from removing distress
- Social approval: people will like you more
Reciprocity: more likely to get future help

Costs:
- Helping may put you in danger
-The required help may be painful or difficult
-Embarrassment from offering help when it isn’t needed
-Helping may require a large time investment

Question 9

Can you explain why people feel empathy?

Answer 9

• We often match the facial expressions and body language of people around us. This can induce us to feel what they’re feeling
  -Mirror neurons can allow us to feel like we’re doing what other people are doing, even when we’re just imagining them.

Question 10

According to the empathy-altruism hypothesis, under what conditions do we help altruistically?

Answer 10

If someone feels empathy towards another person, they will help them regardless of what they can gain from it

Question 11

Toi and Batson (1982): What was the methodology?

Answer 11

• Lab experiment: Students heard and evaluated unaired news stories from the campus radio station
• One story was about a student who had broken both her legs and missed a month of class, including a class the participant was taking

Question 12

Toi and Batson (1982): What were the major findings?

Answer 12

• If escape was difficult, they were likely to help because they would feel punished if they didn’t
• If escape was easy, help depended on empathy
  -Low empathy: The cost of helping is high and they won’t be punished for not helping, so they’re unlikely to help.
  -High empathy: Even though the cost of helping is high and they can avoid punishment, they help (altruism)

Question 13

Why does altruism not exist, according to social exchange theory?

Answer 13

The social exchange theory argues that true altruism, in which people help even when doing so is costly to them, does not exist.

The social exchange theory says that if you feel another person’s pain, helping may lower their pain. This would also lower your pain, which means that you are also benefiting. It says that benefits = no altruism.

Question 14

According to proponents of
social exchange theory, why did Toi and Batson (1982) not find evidence for the empathy-altruism
hypothesis?

Answer 14

Batson is the strongest proponent of the idea that people often help purely out of the goodness of their hearts. He argues that people’s motives are sometimes purely altruistic, in that their only goal is to help the other person, even if doing so results in some cost to them.

Question 15

What are the limits of empathy (bias, single person)?

Answer 15

We are more likely to feel empathy for attractive people, people similar to us, and people from our in-group. As a result we may be selective in who we help.

Empathy connects us to a single person, but often not a larger group of people. As a result we not care about a problem facing thousands (or millions) of people.

Question 16

How are personality traits related to prosocial behavior?

Answer 16

Altruistic personality: The qualities that cause an individual to help others in a wide variety of situations.
People with high scores on person personality tests of altruism are not much more likely to help than those with lower scores

Question 17

How is prosocial behavior related to gender?

Answer 17

One gender is NOT more likely to help than the other. Gender norms influence HOW people choose to help.

Question 18

What differences in help giving do we find between
men and women?

Answer 18

-Men are more likely to help in dangerous situations
-Women are more likely to help with nurturing others.

Question 19

What kinds of cultural differences exist in prosocial behavior?

Answer 19

People in all cultures are more likely to help anyone they define as a member of their in-group than those they perceive in out-groups.

Question 20

What is simpatia?

Answer 20

This is prominent in Spanish-speaking countries, with which this term refers to a range of social and emotional traits, like being friendly and polite.
Levine (2003) found that people in countries that value simpatia helped a blind man on the street more than in countries that did not → 83% to 66%.

Question 21

What differences are there in the motivation for prosocial behavior between in-group and out-group members?

Answer 21

An in-group is a group with which an individual identifies as a member. An out-group is any group with which an individual does not identify. If someone is in need of help who is in our in-group, we help when we feel empathy (empathy-altruism hypothesis), and we often feel empathy for in-group members. If it is a member of our out-group who is in need of help, we help when it furthers our self-interests (social exchange theory).

Question 22

How does social learning theory explain prosocial behavior, and what evidence is there to support
this view?

Answer 22

-We don’t just learn new behaviors through rewards and punishments
-We can learn new behaviors (both good and bad) by observing others performing the behavior
If the observed behavior leads to rewards we are even more likely to perform them rather than if it leads to punishments we are less likely to perform it

Question 23

Isen and Levine (1972): What was the methodology?

Answer 23

People in a mall made a phone call on a payphone. Only some found a dime in the coin return, then a confederate walked by and dropped some papers.

Question 24

Isen and Levine (1972): What were the major findings?

Answer 24

84% of people found a coin helped the confederate , 4% of people that found no coin helped the confederate

Question 25

How is mood related to prosocial behavior?

Answer 25

It does matter what mood one may be in at a given time. Whether people are in a good, bad, or neutral mood has surprising effects on how helpful they will be.

Question 26

How do the motives for helping differ between people
in a good mood vs. a bad mood?

Answer 26

-Sadness can actually lead to an increase in helping behavior, when people are sad, they are more motivated to engage in activities that make them feel better. Feeling guilty also increases helping behavior. People often act on the idea that good deeds cancel out bad deeds. When they have done something that has made them feel guilty, helping another person balances things out, therefore reducing their guilty feelings

-Good mood: Helping can prolong a good mood. A good mood increases self-attention, therefore making us more aware of our values. When in a good mood, we see other people more positively. Reciprocity also comes into play here → the universe did me a favor, so I should return the favor.

-Bad mood: Surprisingly, negative emotions can also lead to an increase in helping, under certain conditions. Feelings of guilt can increase help giving. Harris et al (1975) found that Catholics donate less to charities after confession. This is so, because if you are feeling guilty about how you have treated someone, helping someone may repair your feelings and self-concept. The negative-state relief hypothesis states that people help in order to alleviate their own sadness and distress.

Question 27

Why are you more likely to be helped in a rural environment?

Answer 27

People are more likely to help in small towns or rural environments, because they are more likely to internalize altruistic values. Alternatively, immediate surroundings may instead be the contributor.

Question 28

How does the urban overload
hypothesis explain this?

Answer 28

Bigger cities produce environments that are not conductive to helping.
-People are in a hurry
-People are distracted
-People are overwhelmed by stimuli in the environment

Question 29

How and why is residential mobility related to prosocial behavior in a community?

Answer 29

People may be less helpful in large cities because residential mobility is higher in cities than in rural areas. People who have lived for a long time in one place are more likely to engage in pro-social behaviors that help the community.

Question 30

What is the five stage model of helping? What is the issue at each stage of the model?

Answer 30

Stage 1: Noticing- Is something going on? In order to help you have to notice something has happened. You’re less likely to notice a problem in a crows of people. Distracted by others behavior or others may be blocking your view.

Stage 2: Interpretation- Is this situation an emergency? People will not help if they don’t interpret an event as an emergency in which help is needed. Larger groups of people make you less likely to judge a situation as an emergency due to social influence. –> Pluralistic Ignorance: when you think an emergency might have occurred, you calmly look around to see how everyone else is reacting. However, everyone is calmly looking at you for the same reason. Pluralistic ignorance comes into play, regarding that everyone is concerned, but people assume that there is no emergency because everyone else is calm.

Stage 3: Assuming Responsibility: Are you responsible for doing something helpful? Once you’ve made your mind that the situation calls for help, you need to decide whether or not you are responsible for providing it. Crowds make people feel less responsible for helping. The more people present, the less likely are any one of them to actually provide help. Everyone thinks that someone else will provide assistance. Also known as diffusion of responsibility.

State 4: Knowing how to help: Knowing the Appropriate Form of Assistance: You have to ask yourself if you can do something useful to help. If you assume responsibility (step three), you will only provide help if you know what to do, and feel that you can actually do it. For example, you may ask yourself “Can I perform CPR?”, “Do I know how to swim?”, “Can I fight off a mugger?.

Stage 5: Deciding to help: Implementing a Decision/Deciding to Help: You have to ask yourself if you will choose to help. You are less likely to help if the potential costs of helping are too high. For instance, embarrassment may arise about a false alarm. Helping may put you into personal danger, and trying to help may make the situation worse.

Question 31

How and why does the presence of a large group of people make people less likely to pass through
the first three stages of the model? (Bystander effect)

Answer 31

Crowds influence responsibility, because the more people that are present, the less likely are any one of them to actually provide help. Everyone thinks that someone else will provide assistance. This is also known as the diffusion of responsibility (the bystander effect).

Question 32

What is the bystander effect (diffusion of responsibility)?

Answer 32

The bystander effect describes the fact that the greater the number of bystanders who observe an emergency, the less likely any one of them is to help.
The diffusion of responsibility is what occurs if there are many witnesses of a situation. Each bystander’s sense of responsibility to help decreases as the number of witnesses increases. Since other people are present, no single bystander feels a strong personal responsibility to act. This is particularly likely to occur when people cannot tell whether someone else has already intervened in the situation.

Question 33

What is pluralistic ignorance?

Answer 33

This describes the concept that we often think that we are the only person who believes something. Sometimes, most people feel the same way, but nobody knows it. This is because people make assumptions since no one actually says what they are thinking. For example, “I’m the only person in this class that doesn’t understand the lecture”.

Question 34

Darley & Batson (1973): What was the methodology?

Answer 34

Experimentally tested the effect of thoughts and time pressure on helping behavior:
They wanted to know if people who are thinking about helping norms are more likely to help, and if people in a hurry are less likely to help someone in need. They had 40 theology students participate in this experiment. They manipulated thoughts. They told the control group to give a speech on seminary careers, and the helping group to give a speech on the Good Samaritan. They also manipulated time pressure. They told the hurry group that they were late, the on time group that they had several minutes, and the early group that they had plenty of time (independent variable). As participants were on the way to the talk, they passed a man slumped in a doorway. He looked sick since he had his head down, eyes closed, was not moving, and coughed twice and groaned. The dependent variable was to find what percent of participants stopped to help this man.

Question 35

Darley & Batson (1973): What were the major findings?

Answer 35

-Thought manipulation had no effect.
-In a hurry? Less likely to notice and help
-The situation had the strongest influence on prosocial behavior

Question 36

Latane & Darley (1970): What was the methodology?

Answer 36

-Subjects sat in a room with another subject (a confederate) filling out surveys (or they were alone)
-At some point, smoke starts pouring into the room through the vent
-The confederate (when present) is trained not to respond

Question 37

Latane & Darley (1970): What were the major findings?

Answer 37

-When participants in groups saw smoke, they checked others faces and concluded it wasn’t an emergency
-Participants who were alone went with their gut instincts and left

Question 38

Darley & Latane (1968): What was the methodology?

Answer 38

-Created a controlled situation in which a person must seek another person in order to be helpful
- Will more bystanders inhibit the likelihood of responding and speed of responding to an “emergency” created in the lab?
-Participants were put into a room by themselves with an intercom. They didn’t see any of the other “participants”
-Participants were told to use the intercom for a group discussion of common college student problems
-The experimenter would not listen in, and when someone was talking all the other microphones were turned off
-After the discussion started, they heard one of the group members having a seizure. Would they get help?

Manipulating Group Size
-Participants were told how many other people were involved in the group discussion
-“Two people” = participant + person having seizure. (The participant is the only person to heat the seizure)
-“Three people” = participant + person having seizure + one other participant
-“Six people” = participant + person having seizure + four other participants

Question 39

Darley & Latane (1968): What were the major findings?

Answer 39

• Additional people dramatically reduced likelihood of helping
• Participants were interviewed after the experiment was over.
• They cared about the person having the seizure and knew this was an emergency
  -They just didn’t know if they should be the one to get help

Question 40

What is positive psychology?

Answer 40

Focusing on increasing good, healthy behavior, which is the field of positive psychology.
For example, empathy drives helping. It is beneficial to see things from other people’s perspectives. For example, actively listen to what other people have to say, and do not dominate the conversation. Also, get to know people from different groups and try to see things from their perspective.

Question 41

What is the potential drawback of requiring people to engage in prosocial behavior?

Answer 41

Even if we know what kind of intervention is needed in a specific situation where help is required, we also have to weigh the costs of attempting to help.
Laws have been passed that require people to engage in prosocial behavior, such as mandatory volunteerism and duty to rescue laws. However, when people are forced to do something, they often lose their intrinsic (self-driven) interest in the activity, meaning that they will only do that activity when they are forced.

Question 42

What is compassion?

Answer 42

• Recognizing that everyone is suffering in someway
  -Making a commitment to help others with suffering
  Becoming more mindful through meditation can help make people more compassionate

Question 43

How is prosocial behavior related to religious beliefs?

Answer 43

Most religions teach some version of The Golden Rule, which urges followers to do unto others as we would have others do unto us. A very important feature of religion is that it binds people together and creates strong social bonds. As a result, religious people are more likely to help than other people are, with an important qualification: if the person in need of help shares their religious beliefs, since that can encourage cooperation with like-minded individuals, even if they were strangers

Question 44

What has been found regarding diffusion of responsibility in cyberspace?

Answer 44

When one is addressed by name on a social media site, they feel more of a responsibility to help, regardless of the amount of bystanders.

Question 45

How can media like music of video games increase prosocial behavior?

Answer 45

Playing prosocial video games may make one more cooperative, as well as listening to songs with prosocial lyrics, because people’s empathy towards someone in need of help is increased, and the accessibility of thoughts about helping others is increased.