☆ L4: Social Bahviour (Focus on Altruism) ☆

Question 1

What is prosocial behaviour?
Why is it important for society?
Why is it important for the individual?

Answer 1

Social behaviour: voluntary behaviour for the benefit of others

Prosocial behaviour is important for society because it improves the well-being of everyone.
It is important for the individual because prosocial behaviour is associated with higher psychological and physical well-being in the helper; it feels good to be good

Question 2

Is punishment prosocial behaviour? Explain your answer.

Answer 2

Considering punishment as prosocial behaviour is controversial. Punishment may discourage bad behaviour thereby improving the well-being of society.
It could also be argued that punishment is good for the individual/transgressor because it serves as a form of education that makes the transgressor aware of their misconduct and give them the opportunity to improve.
Problematic because we tend to punish those close to us more

Question 3

Explain the connection between trait compassion, trait empathy, trait mindfulness, and prosocial behaviour.

Answer 3

Understanding suffering. They all respond to suffering in similar but unique ways

Question 4

Differentiate loving kindness meditation from mindfulness meditation. Do both practices affect prosocial behaviour?

Answer 4

LKM: Many religious, spiritual and meditative practices emphasize qualities consistent with prosociality
Focuses on emotional bonds
MM: Not as compassion-focussed

Question 5

Why are we concerned about self-report measures of social behaviour?

Answer 5

Social desirability bias may be present
▸ The participant may overestimate/overreport good traits and underestimate/underreport bad traits

Question 6

Explain why prosocial behaviour is so difficult. What specific abilities are involved?

Answer 6

Effective social behaviour requires the following skills…
Managing others feelings through our actions
Inhibiting reflexive emotional responses in favour of those who are more ideal for the situation
Social cognition
Effectively expressing yourself verbally and nonverbally

Question 7

What is social cognition?

Answer 7

Social cognition: ability to identify, understand, and respect the feelings of others
Ex: reading people
Higher trait mindfulness is correlated with social behaviour and social cognition

Question 8

Under what circumstances is social behaviour impaired or abnormal?

Answer 8

Social behaviour is impaired in…
Conduct disorders (including ADHD)
Autism spectrum disorders
Social anxiety disorders
Aggression disorders

Question 9

Compare the standard assessments of social behaviour with the ecological assessments.

Answer 9

Standard assessments are used most frequently.
Ecological assessments are measured far less often but are arguably more representative. They measure something more similar to social behaviour in the “real world”

(See next 2 cards for examples of each)

Question 10

Standard assessments of social behaviour

Answer 10

Reading Minds Through the Eyes Test (RMET):
• Meditation is associated with higher RMET scores
• Brain areas involved in social interaction (interior frontal gyrus and PFC) increase and are correlated with RMET scores
• People with autism or other social disorders may perform poorly on the RMET

Dictator/Ultimatum Game:
• In this game, meditators who directly experienced an unfair offer spent less on punishment. However, they spent the same amount on punishment when they witnessed another person experiencing an unfair offer.
▸ Meditators are more tolerant of people mistreating them than they are to people mistreating others.
• This may indicate that medication can cause automatic changes in behaviour

Charitable Donation:
Meditation increases donation
▸ Effects are greatest in young, non-college-educated populations

Loneliness Tests:
• Loneliness ≠ social isolation
▸ Social isolation can be beneficial, whereas loneliness is inherently negative
• Loneliness is increasing in the population
• Loneliness is difficult to treat

Question 11

Ecological assessments of social behaviour

Answer 11

Helping Behaviour in Public:
Ex: giving up a seat on the train
Effects may be related to levels of trait mindfulness

Marital Interaction:
• In this test, couples confront a problem. Their interaction with each other—particularly their facial expressions—are categorized and scored.
• Meditation is associated with stable hostility, whereas no treatment increases hostility
▸ Meditation doesn’t make you better with your partner, but it prevents you from becoming worse (buffering)

Question 12

Describe how meditation changes performance in tests of social behaviour. ❓

Question 13

Identify the structures in the brain’s social network that are affected by meditation.

Answer 13

• Amygdala
• Somatosensory cortex (SS)
• Cingulate cortex
• Insula
• PFC/OFC

(See next cards for descriptions)

Question 14

Amygdala

Answer 14

• Centrally involved in emotion and mood
• Meditation induced plasticity in the amygdala may contribute to improve social behaviour
• Amygdala changes are seen in depression, anxiety, autism, psychopathy, and other disorders
• Amygdala lesions affect emotional expression, ability to read emotions, and talking distance

Question 15

Somatosensory cortex

Answer 15

• Involved in tactile processing and the neural response to suffering
• Activation of the SS cortex is associated with prosocial behaviour
• Meditation activates the SS cortex
• Long-term meditation practice may increase the thickness of the SS cortex

Question 16

Cingulate cortex

Answer 16

• Contributes significantly to social behaviour and other functions, including pain
• Parts of the cingulate cortex maybe vital to the rewarding aspect of social interaction
▸ Thereby reinforcing reciprocity altruism
• Long-term meditation practice is associated with differences in cingulate cortex thickness and activity

Question 17

Insula

Answer 17

• Involved in the awareness of internal states, pain, and other functions
• Extremely sensitive to meditation; possibly the most sensitive area
• Long-term meditation practice is associated with increased thickness of the insula
• Activated in response to the suffering of others
▸ The insula‘s response to the suffering of others changes after meditation, and these changes may facilitate prosocial behaviour

Question 18

Prefrontal cortex (PFC)

Answer 18

• Centrally involved in the organization, initiation, and inhibition of behaviour
• Essential for emotional regulation and social cognition
• Also involved in attention, a key component of mindfulness that may reinforce social behaviour
• PFC damage is associated with impaired social behaviour
▸ Ex: Phineas Gage

Question 19

Describe the psychological (thought processes) and neurophysiological (brain regions) mechanisms that may explain meditation-induced increases in social behaviour. ❓

Question 20

Discuss oxytocin. Why is oxytocin of interest to meditation researchers?

Answer 20

Oxytocin: stress sensitive hormone typically associated with maternal bonding and social relationships.
Meditation researchers are interested in oxytocin because of its role in stress
▸ Studies show that stimulating the release of oxytocin reduces SNS activity