Helping

Question 1

What are 3 evolutionary reasons for helping?

Answer 1

Genetic selfishness (protecting genes that are own)
Kin protection- devotion to bio relatives esp children (culture specific)
Reciprocity- mechanism for ensuring cooperation- humans that functioned well together more likely to pass on relevant genes

Question 2

What are 3 social reasons for helping?

Answer 2

Social exchange theory- costs and rewards to every social interaction that can be intrinsic/extrinsic but there should be a degree of return

Guilt- feeling bad can lead us to help to improve image

Social norms- cultural ideas about how people should behave inc social responsibility norm

Question 3

What is a biological reason for helping? Give research evidence for this

Answer 3

Genuine altruism- people are simply motivated to help as it is ‘in our nature’
Warneken et al- 18 month olds willing to help- pupil dilation (links to empathy)

Question 4

What is the taxonomy of helping (Pearce and Amato)?

Answer 4

helping can be organised based on whether it is planned/formal or spontaneous/informal, severity of problem and if it is direct/indirect

Question 5

What is the prosocial tendencies measure?

Answer 5

categorises helping into six categories: public, altruistic, emotional, dire, anonymous and compliance

Question 6

What are five main factors that may predict helping behaviour?

Answer 6

1. Personality
2. Age
3. Temperament
4. Religion
5. Gender

Question 7

What did Oliner find about personality in helping in his book the altruistic personality?

Answer 7

about 11% of people were motivated primarily by a commitment to the justice, 52% motivated by social norms as helping was seen as obligatory by friends and family etc; the remaining 37% motivated by empathy

Question 8

How does age affect who helps?

Answer 8

developmental differences- young children are motivated to help early on; older adults seen to donate more (may be due to financial stability), also life stage differences

Question 9

How does temperament affect who helps?

Answer 9

Happy people are more likely to help others (Ankin et al 2019)

Question 10

How does religion affect who helps?

Answer 10

Conflicting research on all sides but found that religious people tended to help more than less religious people; some religions are more motivated to donate at certain times of the year e.g. Christmas for Christians

Question 11

How does gender affect helping behaviour?

Answer 11

Girls and women generally more prosocial than boys/men although results are quite close (Xiao et al 2019); differences in general but more similar than different; men more likely to help women whereas women are more likely to help everyone; this could be due to… romantic interest, masculinity norms
Benevolent sexism- idea women are weaker and need men to help
men as aggressors- people more likely to help a woman on the side of the road than a man- element of danger in helping men

Question 12

What domains are considered in multidimensional prosocial behaviours?

Answer 12

Defending, emotional helping, inclusion, physical helping and sharing

Question 13

How does attribution bias influence people’s willingness to help?

Answer 13

We are more likely to help people if we believe that the situation is not their fault- who is responsible for the problem and who is responsible for the solution?
External (person can’t help it) = sympathy = helping
Internal (person can control) = no sympathy = no helping

Question 14

What four models explain the combinations of problem ressponsibility and solution responsibility?

Answer 14

1. Moral model
2. Compensatory model
3. Enlightenment model
4. Medical model

Question 15

How does the moral model explain responsibility?

Answer 15

HIGH responsibility for the problems and HIGH responsibility for solutions
getting yourelf into a mess so you have to get yourself out of it e.g. criminality

Question 16

How does the compensatory model explain responsibility?

Answer 16

NOT responsible for the problem but HIGH responsibility for solution
e.g. poverty- not resposible for being poor but they can be taught how to fish, e.g. , and help provide/treat problem

Question 17

How does the medical model explain responsibility?

Answer 17

LOW responsibility for problem and LOW for solution, generally how medical systems work as people are not responsible for problem or solution and are helped by others

Question 18

How does the enlightenment model explain responsibility?

Answer 18

HIGH responsibility for the problem and LOW responsibility for solution

Question 19

What problems can occur if you provide the wrong model in the wrong situation?

Answer 19

Mismatching can lead to further issues e.g. people not getting help when they need it/deserve it or continue to give someone help that does not help them solve the root of their problems

Question 20

When are people LESS likely to help?

Answer 20

When responsibility is diffused e.g. in the bystander effect, we are much less likely to respond by ourselves as we assume someone else will help
time pressure- we are less likely to help when rushed
cost- less likely to help if there is a high cost

Question 21

What did Gergen (1975) discover about how donors are perceived when people are being helped?

Answer 21

Poor donors are seen as more helpful than wealthy donors and repaying the poor donor is more valued than repaying the wealthy donor but there is sometimes donor distrust- anticipation of a return in the future

Question 22

How does self esteem influence helping behaviour?

Answer 22

Outcomes that can determine response to being helped inc self esteem, gender etc and if you are helped, it can lower your own self esteem and lead to feelings of incompetence, dislike the aid from the donor and avoid seeking such help again
high self esteem- receiving aid can make you feel worse whereas if self esteem is low it can make you feel better

Question 23

How does personal distress influence helping behaviour

Answer 23

Self focussed emotional reaction to seeing another person’s distress
neg relationship between personal distress and regulation
personal distress- we have more motivation to remove our own distress whereas in empathy there is more motivation to remove distress of person in need
mitigating our own feelings of personal distress can help to improve prosocial behaviour