Prosocial behavior Flashcards
Definition prosocial behavior
positively valued by society/ norms
Helping behavior
intentionally benefit someone or a group (subcategory)
Altruism
special form of helping, no expectation of personal gain and acceptance of costs
Biological explanations for helping
innate tendencies to help, reward and pleasure activated,
mutualsims vs kin selection
but: just predisposition, other factors also relevant
Empathy
feel another person’s experience, identify with emotions, thoughts, attitudes
Difference empathy vs perspective-taking
affect- and feeling-based, in contrast to cognition-based
Bystander-calculus model
calculation of costs and benefits of helping or not helping
- physiological arousal
- identify as emotion
- evaluate consequences
Pilivanian model
empathy costs of not helping: distress, anxiety etc
personal costs of not helping: blame etc
helping factors: clarity, severity, closeness, similarity
Batson’s theory of helping behavior
perspective taking causes personal bad feelings and egoism
whereas empathic concern activates altruistic motivation
Learning to be helpful
instructions, reinforcement, models, prosocial skills, coping, social competence learnt
modelling helps (Rushton 1980)
internalize idea of being helpful, self-perception theory (proven by experiments with children)
Just-world hypothesis
people are responsible for their fate, rape myth etc
Bystander effect
the more people present the more unlikely to do something
Bystander intervention
someone breaks out of being bystander and helps
How to reduce bystander effect
be aware of it activate social norms personally addressing others teach behavior teach skills, skills make helper feel more competent (study with students, studies with nurses)
Latané and Darley’s cognitive model
attend - define as an emergency - assume responsibility - decide what to do
