Prosocial Behaviour Flashcards
Define a “Prosocial Behaviour”.
A behaviour which is done by an individual to benefit someone else.
Define “Altruistic Behaviour”
A prosocial behaviour in which the person has the desire to help, and is not expecting anything in return.
Define “Empathy”
The ace of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and understanding how someone must be feeling. But also share emotions with the other individual.
State and define the 3 types of prosocial behaviours done by 18 - 30 month olds.
- Instrumental helping: Assisting another person to achieve an action-based goal.
- Empathetic helping: Showing concerns for another person.
- Altruistic helping: Giving up an object owned by the child.
Where does most of the children’s “altruistic behaviours” come from exactly?
Most children do not help to be altruistic, but rather because they want to participate in other’s activities.
Can a mother and father affect how the child acts towards altruistic behaviours? If so, why?
Yes, because:
- Studies have shown that a mother and father showing warmth to their child, increases prosocial behaviour done by their child.
- Genetic factors also play a role.
Name the stages in the development of empathy, and give their definitions
- Global Empathy (1st Year) - Infant matches someone else’s emotion.
- Egocentric Empathy (12 mts - 18 mts) - Child tries to console someone else by what they find comforting.
- Empathy for feelings (2yrs - 3yrs and onwards) - Noticing one’s feelings, matches their feelings and tries assisting in non-egocentric ways.
- Empathy for life conditions (Late childhood) - Responding to immediate and life conditions.
What do evolutionary psychologists believe regarding to individuals and their genetics?
Evolutionary Psychologists believe that people make sure that their genes survive, sometimes this is done unconsciously.
Define “Inclusive Fitness” and “Selection Kin”
- Inclusive Fitness is the belief that natural selection favours organisms that maximise the replication of their genes.
- Selection Kin is the belief that individuals act altruistically towards relative to spread their genetics (by encouraging relatives to breed).
What is “Interdependence hypothesis” and where does it originate from?
This is the idea of how our anscrstors acted altruistically because they saw how much mutual collaboration benefitted them.
Define “Reciprocal Altruism”, and state 2 point of why people think/act that way.
Reciprocal altruism is a type of altruism which is done by someone to a non-relative, in which a person help a stranger to gain something back.
People act this way for 2 reasons:
- The costs of helping are fairly low, but high benefits.
- The person helping may expect something else in return.
Some people behave altruistically without expecting anything ins return. Why does this happen?
According to Fear and Fischbacher, people act altruistically without expecting anything is return because they want people to have a good image of them, therefore they will be helped by people, if they need the help.
Define the “Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis” (Batson).
This is when you empathised someone’s situation, and the empathy motivates you into helping the individual for their own good.
Define the “Negative State Relief Model” (Cialdini)
Prosocial behaviour is done from egoism, or to relief your own stress cause by the bad situation.
Define “Third Party Punishment”.
A type of punishment in which a person punishes an individual for their bad behaviour, when the punisher may not be involved in the bad behaviour of the person.
