Prosocial behavior (VL 12)

Question 1

Prosocial behavior - Definition

Answer 1

A broad category that refers to all acts positively valued by society (includes Helping and altruistic behavior)

Question 2

Helping behavior

Answer 2

Refers to intentional acts designed to benefit another person, regardless of the motive (includes altruistic behavior)

Question 3

Altruistic behavior

Answer 3

Refers to behaviors motivated by the desire to benefit another with no expectation of personal gain or reward

Question 4

Evolutionary social psychology/biological approach

Answer 4

Genes and Instincts, natural selection

• Kin selection: behaviors that help a genitive relative a re favored by natural selection
• Norm of reciprocity: Helping others will increase the likelihood that they will help us in the future
• Those who have a competitive advantage are the best learners of societal norms (Simon 1990)

Question 5

Social learning theory approach

Answer 5

• Social exchange theory: Much of what we do stems from the desire to maximize our outcomes and minimize our costs
• Rewards of helping: increase the probability that someone will help us in return, relieve the personal distress of a bystander, gain us social approval and increased self-worth
• Helping can be costly and decreases when costs are high

Question 6

Integrative approach

Answer 6

combines aspects of the previous approaches and focuses on arousal and empathy

Question 7

Empathy-altruism Hypothesis (Batson)

Answer 7

When we feel empathy for a person, we will attempt to help purely for altruistic reasons, regardless of what we have to gain

Question 8

Differences in prosocial behavior

Urban vs. Rural

Answer 8

People in rural areas are more helpful

• Explanation 1: People from rural settings are brought up to be more neighborly and more likely to trust strangers
• Explanation 2: Urban overload hypothesis by Milgram, people living in cities are likely to keep to themselves in order to being overloaded by all the stimulation they receive

Question 9

Bystander effect

Answer 9

The greater the number of bystanders who witness an emergency the less likely any of them is to help

Question 10

Good Samaritan study by Darley and Batson

Answer 10

Participants were either told to hurry across campus or take their time, those not in a hurry were way more likely to help a stranger on the way and only 10% of those in a hurry helped

Question 11

Step-by-Step model by Latané and Darley to decide whether to help a stranger

Answer 11

• Notice the event (no help if distracted or in a hurry)
• Interpret the event as an emergency (no help if pluralistic ignorance – interpret the event as a nonemergency)
• Assume responsibility (no help if diffusion of responsibility – fail to assume personal responsibility)
• Know appropriate form of assistance (no help if lack of knowledge and lack of competence)
• Implement decision (no help if danger to self, legal concerns, embarrassment)

Question 12

Pluralistic ignorance

Answer 12

Phenomenon where bystanders assume that nothing is wrong in an emergency because no one else looks concerned

Question 13

Diffusion of responsibility

Answer 13

Phenomenon where each bystander´s sense of responsibility to help decreases as the number of witnesses increases

Question 14

Audience inhibition/fear of social blunders

Answer 14

The dread of acting inappropriately or of making a foolish mistake witnessed by others

Question 15

Cultural differences in prosocial behavior:

Answer 15

• People across cultures are more likely to help members of their ingroup
• People from collectivist cultures are more prone to help in-group members and less likely to help out-group members than people from individualist cultures

Question 16

Why are people in a good mood more likely to help?

Answer 16

• Good moods make us interpret events in a sympathetic way
• Helping another prolongs the good mood
• Good moods increase self-attention which leads us to be more likely to behave according to our values and beliefs