Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Social Psychology > Lecture_09_Prosocial Behaviors > Flashcards

Lecture_09_Prosocial Behaviors Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
AP® Psychology flashcards Psychology 101 flashcards GRE® Psychology flashcards
1
Q

Prosocial Behavior

A

Any act performed with the GOAL OF BENEFITTING another person
- Depends on the goal, not the effect (Based on intention)
- The individual benefitting from prosocial behavior is not part of the definition: Helping an individual who does not want to be helped

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Altruism

A
  • Helping purely out of the desire to benefit someone else
  • With no benefit (and often a cost) to oneself
  • The key is motivation to help
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Semantic Confusion about Altruism

A
  1. If a person is rewarded
  2. When others are around
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Reciprocity

A

Exchanges with others for mutual benefit
- Exchange the same thing
- Exchange the different things

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Individuals or groups help each other in the same way

A

A chimpanzee grooms a second chimpanzee, and the second chimpanzee grooms the first

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

One thing can be exchanged for a
different thing

A

I help you move to a new apartment and later you help me with my work
- More common among humans
- Training monkey to use tokens

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

3 Motives for Prosocial Behavior

A
  1. Evolutionary Psychology
  2. Social Exchange Theory
  3. Empathy and Altruism
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Evolutionary Psychology

A

The application of the principles of evolutionary biology to the field of psychology
- A meta-theory, or perspective
- Some cognitive mechanisms and behaviors are adaptations

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Adaptation

A

Products of natural selection that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Natural Selection

A

Mutations -> to changes in the structure of an organism -> affect behavior and cognition

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Levels of Analysis in Altruism

A
  1. Ultimate/distal causation
  2. Proximate causation
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Ultimate/distal causation

A

WHY
Evolutionary forces acting on mind and behavior
- Kin selection
- Reciprocal altruism
- Costly signaling

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Proximate causation

A

HOW
Immediate causes such as situations and physiology
Empathy-altruism hypothesis, social exchange theory

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

A Confusion Between Levels of How Natural Selection can Explain Altruism

A
  • Ultimate causation: Altruism is an evolved mechanism that helps unrelated individuals survive and reproduce at the cost of our own ability to survive and reproduce, then altruism cannot exist
  • Proximate causation: But people can still be altruistic in other ways.
  • Their culture or religion can drive them to sacrifice.
  • People can genuinely intend to help in situations where that help is unlikely to benefit them
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Kin Selection

A

Inclusive fitness theory
- Organisms can spread their genes by helping genetic relatives with whom they share genes
- Favor altruistic acts directed toward genetic relatives

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Criticism of Kin Selection

A

We can’t perceive whether others are related to us
- Proximate level: people they have known for many years, look like people who they have known, familiar

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

Reciprocal Altruism

A
  • Natural selection can favor behaviors where an organism temporarily hurts its ability to survive and reproduce by helping another organism
  • For this to happen, the second organism needs to be more likely to help the first organism in the future
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

2 Conditions for Reciprocal Altruism

A
  1. A way to detect cheaters who receive help but do not return the favor
  2. Many interactions between the organisms so that cheating is not an effective strategy
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

Reciprocal Altruism in Animals

A
  • Vampire bats feed unrelated vampire bats who are then more likely to feed them back in the future
  • Cleaner fish are small fish that eat dead skin and parasites from the mouths of larger fish
  • The cleaning helps the larger fish, which does not swallow the cleaner fish and protects it from predators
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

Is reciprocal altruism an example of altruism?

A

Yes
- Reciprocal altruism does not require for the helper to be consciously aware that they expect the favor to be returned
- People with minds shaped by reciprocal altruism may still just help others out of the goodness of their hearts:

21
Q

Punishment for Fail Reciprocity

A
  • Loss of relationships and future help
  • Gossip that damages their reputations and relationships
22
Q

Costly Signaling

A

Organisms often want to signal their desirable characteristics to others
- Only individuals possessing the desirable characteristic can afford to communicate it
- When we help others, we show that we:
1) have resources that we can afford to give others
2) are willing to sacrifice these resources to help others
3) value our place in our group and our relationship with people in the group

23
Q

Evidence suggesting that prosocial behavior is a costly signal

A
  • Donating money when observed by others -> improve a person’s reputation
  • The presence of others increases altruism, generosity, and cooperation
  • When people are more visible and less anonymous, they cooperate more with other people
24
Q

Social Exchange Theory

A

prosocial behavior, is shaped by our desire to maximize rewards while minimizing our costs

25
Q

The Benefits of Prosocial Behavior

A

Rewarding
- Increasing the likelihood that the person we helped will help us in the future
- Reducing the distress we feel when we see others suffer
- Increasing others’ approval of us (increasing our reputation)
- Enhancing feelings of self-worth
- People experience negative feelings when others suffer and help,
at least in part, to make themselves feel better (Contradict to empathy)

26
Q

The Costs of Prosocial Behavior

A

The benefits of prosocial behavior are weighed against costs
- Helping decreases when its costs are high
1) physical danger
2) pain
3) embarrassment
4) time and energy spent helping

27
Q

Criticism of Social Exchange Theory on Altruism

A

Benefits > costs
-> Altruism does not exist
-> Prosocial behavior

28
Q

The Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis

A

Human beings can help for selfish as well as selfless (altruistic) reasons.
- Feel empathy -> help without thinking of benefits
- Do not empathize -> weigh the costs and benefits (social exchange theory)

Batson argues that empathic prosocial behavior is pure and altruistic

29
Q

Empathy

A

Sharing another person’s feelings by imagining oneself in that person’s situation.

30
Q

Criticism of the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis

A
  • Sharing their suffering means that the helper would be relieving their own unpleasant emotions by helping the other person.
  • When people strongly identify with others, the other person feels like an extension of oneself.
  • Helping the other person becomes more like helping oneself.
31
Q

Carol Macy Study

A

Empathy x Cost Conditions -> Helping
- Low empathy + high cost -> help the least
- Suggesting that Social Exchange Theory happens in low empathy
- Explanation: reduces empathetic suffering, feel better, and rewarding

32
Q

Altruism debate is really about semantics

A

How we define altruism and self-interest
- If altruism is defined loosely enough to include any kind of benefit for a helper regardless of the helper’s conscious intentions, then altruism cannot exist
- If self-interest is defined broadly to include the positive feelings people enjoy after helping and the relief people feel when others are suffering less, then all prosocial behavior is at least a little bit selfish

33
Q

Practice question: According to Toei and Batson, participants overlooked the costs of helping when they empathized with Carol Macy. Imagine we further increased the costs of helping Carol Macy by saying that the participant will have to drive two hours to Carol’s house in order to help her.
- Do you think participants in the high empathy condition would still help Carol Macy regardless of the cost of helping?

A

No. Because the cost of helping might outweigh the benefits of reducing second hand suffering from empathy

34
Q

Practice question: What is the difference between reciprocal altruism and social exchange theory

A

different level of analysis
- Reciprocal altruism: survivalibility of species

35
Q

Situational factors influencing prosocial behavior (When)

A
  • Rural vs urban environment
  • Residential mobility
  • Number of bystanders
36
Q

Urban vs Rural Environments

A

People in small towns are also more likely to help
- Small, interdependent communities internalize more altruistic values
- Urban overload hypothesis: In cities, people are constantly bombarded with stimuli

37
Q

Residential Mobility

A
  • The frequency with which people move their household from one location to another
  • Living in one place ->
  • Attached to their community,
  • Interdependent with their neighbors
  • Concerned about their reputation in their community
  • Urban people also have accessibility to resource -> more individualistic
  • Rural have to depend on others -> more collective
38
Q

The Number of Bystanders (Bystander Effect)

A

The likelihood that any one person helps decreases with the number of bystanders

39
Q

5 Steps for deciding whether or not to intervene in an emergency

A
  1. Noticing the event
  2. Interpreting the event as an
    emergency
  3. Assuming responsibility
  4. Knowing how to help
  5. Deciding to implement help
40
Q
  1. Why might people not notice an emergency?
A

Busy or distracted

41
Q
  1. Interpreting the event as an
    emergency
A
  • When an event is clearly an emergency, the number of
    bystanders matters less
  • Ambiguity as a result of Informational social influence: people look to others to define reality
  • Pluralistic ignorance: mistakenly assumed that others knew more than they did
42
Q
  1. Assuming responsibility
A
  • Diffusion of responsibility
  • Avoid the costs of helping
  • Don’t know if someone has
    helped
43
Q
  1. Knowing how to help
A
  • People who do not know how to help could embarrass themselves or make the situation worse
  • In many situations, people do not need expert knowledge to help
  • If a person seems to be having a medical emergency, a person who is not a doctor can still try to contact someone who can help
44
Q
  1. Deciding to implement help
A

Why people don’t help even they know how?
- Not qualified: Do heimlich
- Afraid of:
* looking stupid
* making the situation worse
* endangering themselves
- Consider costs of helping

45
Q

Practice questions: We talked about two explanations for why people from rural areas help more than people in urban areas: residential mobility and urban overload. Can you think of another reason?

A
  • Diffusion of responsibility
  • Reputation
46
Q

Practice questions: What is the bystander effect?

A

The likelihood that any one person helps decreases with the number of bystanders

47
Q

Practice questions: What is pluralistic ignorance?

A

Making incorrect assumption about others

48
Q

Practice questions: How is pluralistic ignorance related to informational social influence?

A

Informational social influence cause pluralistic ignorance

Social Psychology (19 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions