Helping Flashcards
What are 3 evolutionary reasons for helping?
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
What are 3 social reasons for helping?
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
What is a biological reason for helping? Give research evidence for this
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)
What is the taxonomy of helping (Pearce and Amato)?
helping can be organised based on whether it is planned/formal or spontaneous/informal, severity of problem and if it is direct/indirect
What is the prosocial tendencies measure?
categorises helping into six categories: public, altruistic, emotional, dire, anonymous and compliance
What are five main factors that may predict helping behaviour?
- Personality
- Age
- Temperament
- Religion
- Gender
What did Oliner find about personality in helping in his book the altruistic personality?
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
How does age affect who helps?
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
How does temperament affect who helps?
Happy people are more likely to help others (Ankin et al 2019)
How does religion affect who helps?
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
How does gender affect helping behaviour?
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
What domains are considered in multidimensional prosocial behaviours?
Defending, emotional helping, inclusion, physical helping and sharing
How does attribution bias influence people’s willingness to help?
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
What four models explain the combinations of problem ressponsibility and solution responsibility?
- Moral model
- Compensatory model
- Enlightenment model
- Medical model
How does the moral model explain responsibility?
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
How does the compensatory model explain responsibility?
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
How does the medical model explain responsibility?
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
How does the enlightenment model explain responsibility?
HIGH responsibility for the problem and LOW responsibility for solution
What problems can occur if you provide the wrong model in the wrong situation?
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
When are people LESS likely to help?
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
What did Gergen (1975) discover about how donors are perceived when people are being helped?
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
How does self esteem influence helping behaviour?
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
How does personal distress influence helping behaviour
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
