Prosocial behavior and Altruism

Question 1

When an act is performed in which the goal of the act is to benefit another person, it is a display of ________ behavior.

Answer 1

prosocial

Question 2

When an act is performed which benefits another person, but accrues no benefit, or has a ________ effect for the person acting, it is a display of altruism.

Answer 2

Negative

Question 3

The field of psychology which examines ____________ theory and applies it to social behavior is sociobiology.

Answer 3

Evolutionary

Explanation:

This is based around the idea that people inherit genes which promote certain social behaviors. Sociobiologists rely on genetics to explain why certain behaviors exist.

Question 4

One fundamental assumption made by sociobiologists is that people with certain _____ are more likely to perform certain social behaviors.

Answer 4

Genes

Explanation:

Furthermore, sociobiologists also assume that natural selection has resulted in some behaviors being chosen over others as they aid survival.

Question 5

The theory that prosocial behavior between genetic relatives is favored by natural selection is known as ___ selection.

Answer 5

Kin

Question 6

Kin selection refers to the theory that people tend to help their relatives as it increases the likelihood of their genetic material being passed on to the next __________. It is suggested that this may be a reason people act prosocially towards their relatives.

Answer 6

generation

Question 7

People are more likely to help their relatives when they face ____ threatening situations.

Answer 7

Life

Explanation:

People tend to favor helping relatives rather than friends during life threatening situations, but not necessarily in non-life threatening situations. This suggests that kin selection is operating in humans to some extent.

Question 8

Norm of ___________ is thought to be a genetic trait. This is because the act of treating others the way people themselves would like to be treated is hypothesized to aid survival.

Answer 8

Reciprocity

Question 9

People seem to keep track, not necessarily consciously, of the costs and rewards associated with social relationships. The _______________ theory makes the assumption that people tend to try to increase their rewards and minimize their costs.

Answer 9

Social exchange

Question 10

_______ other people can be beneficial in that it relieves a person’s distress at seeing someone in danger. However, it can also be costly as it places the person in danger.

Answer 10

Helping

Question 11

Although some people perform purely __________ acts, some prosocial behavior is influenced by a selfish desire, such as a need to relieve one’s own distress at seeing someone in need.

Answer 11

Altruistic

Explanation:

In these cases, the benefits outweigh the costs associated with helping.

Question 12

When a person puts themselves in the shoes of another person and is able to envision the experiences and emotions of another person, they are demonstrating _______.

Answer 12

Empathy

Explanation:

For example, if a person sees someone struggling to carry many packages, if they understand the difficulty associated with the task, they may feel empathy towards the other person.

Question 13

The empathy-________ hypothesis states that if a person feels empathy towards another person, they will attempt to help them, even if there is nothing to be gained.

Answer 13

Altruism

Question 14

In some situations, even if a person does not feel _______ towards another person, they may still help them out if the rewards outweigh the costs.

Answer 14

Empathy

Explanation:

For example, a person may not feel empathy towards a homeless person. However, they may give the homeless person some money if other people are nearby because they are rewarded with other people’s praise or good thoughts towards them.

Question 15

Sometimes an act which seems altruistic may actually be motivated by _____________. Therefore, there is some benefit received by performing the act.

Answer 15

Self-interest

Explanation:

For example, a person that believes in karma may help another person because they believe that good things will happen to them if they do.

Question 16

The main difference between the social exchange theory and the empathy-altruism hypothesis is that while one argues that people help others only when benefits outweigh the costs, the other argues that people help due to a sense of _______.

Answer 16

Empathy

Question 17

Adult approval is a strong reward which encourages _________ behavior in children.

Answer 17

Prosocial

Question 18

One way children may learn _________ behavior is by modeling the behavior of their parents.

Answer 18

Prosocial

Question 19

People with an ________ personality are hypothesized to be more likely to administer help to other people in various situations.

Answer 19

altruistic

Question 20

A person’s personal characteristics, as well as the _________, are thought to influence whether a person will act altruistically or not.

Answer 20

Situation

Question 21

Western women tend to perform prosocial acts which involve long-term assistance and greater __________.

Answer 21

Commitment

Explanation:

There are different norms for men and women which affects which traits and behaviors each sex values more. Women tend to be caring and nurturing in their nature, and are more likely to perform prosocial acts which require commitment or long-term care.

Question 22

Western men tend to perform prosocial acts which are chivalrous and ______.

Answer 22

Heroic

Explanation:

Men tend to perform prosocial acts based on these traits, such as generous prosocial acts or grand gestures.

Question 23

Men and women tend to show differences both in the _____ of acts they perform when helping, and who they tend to help. Women tend to help friends, while men tend to help strangers.

Answer 23

Types

Question 24

People in a good mood tend to help others more frequently. This has been coined the ‘____ good, do good’ effect.

Answer 24

Feel

Question 25

Good moods can boost a person’s eagerness to help for three reasons: people in good moods are more understanding of other people’s bad fortune; people like to extend their good mood and helping can do this; and good moods increase __________, and thus people are more aware of acting altruistically.

Answer 25

self-attention

Question 26

The ___________ relief hypothesis is based on the idea that a person who feels sad or distressed helps out other people as it Alleviates these bad feelings.

Answer 26

negative-state

Question 27

People in rural towns are more likely to ____ others than people in urban areas.

Answer 27

help

Explanation:

There are differing viewpoints for this observation. Some people think that it may be due to a difference in values learned while growing up. That is, rural people learn more altruistic values in comparison to urban people. However, other people think it may be caused by the environment in which each group of people live– that is, a factor of the environment either encourages or discourages altruism.

Question 28

According to the ______________ hypothesis, people in cities tend to keep to themselves due to a desire to prevent being overstimulated.

Answer 28

Urban-overload

Explanation:

This theory supports the idea that a person’s environment, and not the values they learned while growing up, influences the difference between the extent to which urban and rural people partake in helpful behavior.

Question 29

When there are a large number of people who witness an emergency, there tends to be less people who help out. This is known as the _________ effect.

Answer 29

bystander

Explanation:

There have been some emergency situations during which, despite the presence of many bystanders, little or no effort was made to help. This phenomenon has been termed the bystander effect, and it has been shown that the more bystanders involved in an emergency situation, the less people tend to help out.

Question 30

When people are in a hurry, they often do not ______ an event in which someone may require assistance.

Answer 30

notice

Explanation:

This is one reason why bystanders may not help out in an emergency situation. For some reason, such as being in a hurry, they tend to be distracted from the situation and do not notice that it is an emergency situation.

Question 31

Some people do not give assistance in an emergency as they do not _________ the situation as an emergency.

Answer 31

Interpret

Not all emergency situations are explicitly emergencies. For example, people may not be sure whether a person slumped on the street is drunk, or is suffering from a medical condition. Therefore, an inability to interpret emergencies stops people giving assistance.

Question 32

In some emergencies, people fail to help out as they assume nothing is wrong. This is sometimes a result of pluralistic _________, in which no one else present at the emergency seems concerned which causes people to assume nothing is wrong.

Answer 32

Ignorance

Explanation:

People tend to look toward other people for guidance in how to act during certain situations. Therefore, if they see other people not looking concerned in a particular situation, they in turn do not become concerned. However, other people may also be unsure how to act and so are also using other people’s reactions as guidance. If no one reacts in a concerned manner, people continue to assume nothing is wrong even if the situation is an emergency.

Question 33

During an emergency situation, _________ of responsibility refers to when a person’s sense of responsibility to help out with the emergency decreases as the number of people present increases.

Answer 33

Diffusion

Explanation:

This is because they feel that they shouldn’t have to risk incurring a cost by helping out if other people could do it. However, as most of the bystanders would feel this way, no one ends up taking responsibility.

Question 34

Sometimes bystanders may fail to help out in an emergency as they have a lack of _________ or competency.

Answer 34

Knowledge

Question 35

Even when people have identified that a particular situation constitutes an emergency and feel ___________ to help, they may still resist from helping as they need to weigh the cost of helping against not helping.

Answer 35

Responsible

Explanation:

For example, people may not want to appear foolish, or risk administering the wrong type of help, and thus do not help out.

Question 36

People who know each other ____ tend to be more concerned with the long-term benefits of helping each other.

Answer 36

well

Explanation:

For example, a mother who is about to take a coffee break but is interrupted by a request to read to her child will tend to be more concerned with the long-term benefits which reading to the child will give her, rather than the short-term benefit of having a coffee break.

Question 37

People are more likely to have a communal relationship with a friend than with a _________.

Answer 37

stranger

Question 38

_________ relationships tend to give long-term benefits rather than immediate short-term benefits. Furthermore, people tend to be more concerned about long- term benefits associated with helping those close to them, rather than the immediate benefits.

Answer 38

Communal

Question 39

If a parent gives ____ towards helping their child learn to read, rather than taking a well earned break, they are displaying behavior expected in a communal relationship.

Answer 39

Time

Question 40

A person is more likely to help a friend than a stranger with a difficult task when the task is of great importance to their ________. For example, lending study notes for a difficult exam.

Answer 40

self-esteem

Explanation:

For a task which is important to a person’s self-esteem, people tend to be hurt more when someone close to them does better at the task, in comparison to when a stranger does better. Therefore, in this situation, a person is more likely to help the stranger than their friend.

Question 41

Sometimes people do not react __________ to receiving help from another person as it makes them feel inadequate or dependent upon the other person.

Answer 41

Positively

Question 42

Although someone may require help for some reason, they do not always want the help. One reason for this is that they may feel _________ if someone else is able to do something which they cannot.

Answer 42

incompetent

Question 43

Making people aware of the barriers which prevent people from helping out during certain situations tends to ________ the chance that someone will overcome the barriers.

Answer 43

Increase

Explanation:

For example, when people are informed of the bystander effect, in which the presence of other bystanders stop people from helping, people tend to overcome this effect and help out even when there are bystanders.

Question 44

In some instances, helping others can have a negative impact and may have damaging effects on a person’s _________.

Answer 44

self-esteem

Explanation:

Care needs to be taken when offering help to avoid insulting the person in need, or making them feel worthless.