Prosocial Behaviour

Question 1

prosocial behaviour

definition

Answer 1

any action that benefits another person

Question 2

helping

definition

Answer 2

type of prosocial behaviour that is intended to offer aid to other people

Question 3

factors influencing causal helping

6 factors

Answer 3

1. social norms (social responsibility, norm of reciprocity)
2. presense of helpful model
3. perceived responsibility of victim–Just World Theory
4. positive mood
5. embarrassment
6. identifiable victim effect

Question 4

good mood effect

definition

Answer 4

tendency to be more helpful when we’re happy

Question 5

identifiable victim effect

definition

Answer 5

tendency for people to eagerly help a single victim, while ignoring the plight of victims of a large-scale tragedy

Question 6

kin selection

definition

Answer 6

idea that behaviour that helps a genetic relative is favoured by natural selection

Question 7

reciprocity norm

definition

Answer 7

the expectation that helping others will increase the likelihood that they will help us in the future

Question 8

social exchange theory (prosocial)

definition

Answer 8

argues that much of what we do stems from the desire to maximize our rewards and minimize our costs
-> our interaction with others, we try to maximize social rewards and minimize cost

Question 9

altruism

definition

Answer 9

unselfish behaviour that benefits others without regard to consequences for the self

Question 10

empathy

definition

Answer 10

the ability to experience events and emotions the way another person experiences them

Question 11

egoism

definition

Answer 11

motivation for helping others is out of our own self-interest

Question 12

empathy-altruism hypothesis

definition

Answer 12

idea that feelings of empathy for a target can motivate purely altruistic acts

Question 13

negative-state relief hypothesis

definition

Answer 13

people help others to alleviate their own distress

Question 14

altruistic personality

definition

Answer 14

personality trait characterized by qualities such as empathy, sympathy, and felt responsibility to help others across a wide variety of situations

Question 15

ways to increase helping

5 ways

Answer 15

1. teaching moral inclusion
2. modelling altruism
3. attributing helpful behaviour to altruistic motives
4. increase awareness of barriers to helping
5. “virtuous authority” experiment -> Zimbardo shock experiment but instead acts of virtue

Question 16

Urban-overload hypothesis

definition

Answer 16

theory that because people living in cities are constantly being bombarded with stimulation, they keep to themselves to avoid being overloaded by it

Question 17

bystander effect

definition

Answer 17

the finding that the greater the number of bystanders who witness an emergency, the less likely it is that any one of them will help

Question 18

pluralistic ignorance

definition

Answer 18

phenomenon whereby bystanders assume that nothing is wrong in an emergency because no one else looks concerned

Question 19

diffusion of responsibility

definition

Answer 19

each bystander’s sense of responsibility to help decreases as the number of witnesses to an emergency or crisis increases