PRO-SOCIAL AND ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR: Factors influencing pro-social behaviour Flashcards
Describe the case study on which these factors were based upon.
Kitty Genovese murder in 1964
- After finishing work at 3am, was heading to apartment from car when she was stabbed by a man, she called for help
- 38 neighbours woke up, and only one called the police
Name the 3 large categories of factors
Situational factors
Social norms
Personal factors
Name the 3 situational factors
Noticing the situation
Interpreting the Situation
Taking responsibility for helping
Describe how the 3 situational factors are related
Only considers helping after they notice the incident, interpret that help is needed and take responsibility of helping.
Describe noticing the situation
- Must notice something is wrong in order to respond
- More likely to notice situation if on your own instead of in a group (where you’d be more likely to focus on your interactions with others)
Describe interpreting the situation
-The less ambiguous the situation, the more likely help will be offered and vice versa
-eg. Bickman (1971): females inside a cubicle heard a crash and scream, those who interpreted it as a certain emergency were more likely to help than those who were not certain or thought it was a certain non-emergency
Clark and Word (1972): confederate maintenance worker fell off a ladder and either did or didn’t scream: 100% assistance when called for help, vs 30% assistance when they didn’t
-May be influenced by the way others respond to the situation
Describe taking responsibility for helping
- Unlikely to intervene unless you believe it is your responsibility to do so
- May leave responsibility to others, even if we don’t think they have responsibility to help either
- Strongly influenced by the bystander effect
- eg. confederates dropped coins in a lift. When one person was present, the coin was picked up 40% of the time because they felt a personal responsibility to do so, and when 6 passengers were there they helped less than 20% of the time and rarely said they felt a personal responsibility
Define: bystander effect
the tendency for individuals to be less likely to help another person in need when onlookers are present, or believed to be present, as compared to when they are alone
Name the 2 social norms which influence pro-social behaviour
Reciprocity norm
Social responsibility norm
Define: social norm
standards that govern what people should or should not do in different social situations
How are social norms usually learned?
from observing the words and actions of others
In most cultures, it is expected that we …
Do what we can to help others
Define and describe the reciprocity norm
- Prescribes that we should help others who help us
- both socially acceptable and reasonable
- broken when receives without giving
- may be unable to reciprocate help (eg. elderly) so we are then influenced by the social responsibility norm
Define and describe the social responsibility norm
- Prescribes that we should help those who need help because it is our duty to do so
- usually don’t expect anything in return
- subjective; usually only given to those not perceived to have brought hardship upon themselves
Name the 3 personal factors influencing pro-social behaviour
Empathy
Mood
Competence
Describe the effect of competence
- People with abilities or training that are relevant to the situation in which help is required are more likely to help
- Higher the competence, the more effective the help
Describe the effect of mood
- Mixed/inconsistent results
- The happier you are, the more likely you are to help
- Being in a good mood may make us less egocentric - easier to empathise
- Helping someone in need can prolong one’s good mood
- If the individual feels that intervening will ruin their good mood, they might not intervene
- MIght feel guilty and compensate by helping (eg. netball thing)
- If we are focusing on our own negative situation we may be less likely to help
Define and describe the effect of empathy
Def: the ability to identify with and understand another persons’ difficulties
- More likely to help others if we feel empathy for them
- Empathic people may help people in distress for egoistic or altruistic reasons
- The more distressed bystanders become when observing the distress of others, the more likely they are to help.
