Prosocial Behaviour Flashcards
Prosocial behaviour definition
Actions that are generally valued by others in a society
Helping behaviour definition
A voluntary act that is intended to benefit another (which could also benefit the helper)
Volunteerism definition
Planned prosocial action in an organisational context which continues for an extended period
Altruism definition
Prosocial behaviour with no expectation of benefits for the helper (opposite of selfishness)
Why we help others - evolutionary heritage
- Kin selection - helping a genetic relative will increase the survival of the genetic line
- More help to relatives vs strangers
- More help to close vs distant relatives
- More help to healthy vs unhealthy offspring
Limitations of the evolutionary approach
- No direct evidence
- Cannot explain help given to strangers
- Cannot account for power of the situation
Why we help others - social norms
- Social evolution - historical development of human culture or civilisation
- Prosocial behaviour generally benefits society, thus prosociality becomes a part of our social norm
- Social responsibility - help those who need it
- Reciprocity - help those who help us
- Social justice - procedures/outcomes should be fair
Limitations of social norms
- Norms do not always lead to behaviour
- Norms can promote conflicting behaviour
- How do we learn norms?
Why we help others - social learning
- Children learn to help from various sources (parents, other care-givers, media, authority figures)
- Two general learning principles are key (reinforcement, modelling)
Reinforcement
- Prosocial behaviour is typically rewarded
- Concrete rewards are very effective
- Praise is also effective, especially when framed in dispositional terms
Modelling
- Observation of others’ behaviour can shape childrens’ own behaviour
- Social learning theory (Bandura)
Piliavin’s Bystander Calculus model
- Physiological arousal
- Try to understand why they feel arousal and label this
- Reward-cost matrix
- Likelihood of helping is determined by assessing the costs of helping vs the costs of not helping
Latané & Darley’s cognitive model
- Attend to incident
- Define the incident
- Accept responsibility
- Decide what to do
- Help is given/not given
Bystander apathy
- People are less likely to help in the presence of others, compared to when they are alone
Explanations of bystander apathy
- Diffusion of responsibility, less personal accountability
- Informational social influence, uncertainty caused by others’ initial inaction
- Normative social influence, avoid embarrassment of being the first one to help
Who we help - deservingness
- Does this person deserve our help?
- Legitimacy of the problem
- Attribution for cause of problem
Uncontrollable cause…
Perceived as deserving
Sympathy and pity
More help
Controllable cause…
Perceived as undeserving
Irritation and anger
Less help
Who we help - attractiveness
More help when physical appearance conforms to mainstream norms of attractiveness
Who we help - similarity
- More help when person in need is more similar in appearance, ideology etc
- More help to people belonging to same demographic/social etc group to us
If the cost of helping is low and the cost of not helping is also low…
Helping behaviour depends on personal norms
If the cost of helping is high and the cost of not helping is also high…
Bystander may indirectly help (calling 999) or lower the cost of not helping (justify their actions)
Mood on helping
- Good mood = more helping behaviour
- Bad mood = less helping behaviour
How long does a good mood affect helping behaviour
- Up to 7 minutes (most people helped)
- 10 minutes (half of people helped)
- Around 20 minutes (1/10th helped)
Affect-priming model
When we are in a good mood, mood-congruent information in our memory is more accessible, therefore positive thoughts and feelings, including a positive orientation to prosocial behaviour, are more likely to be activated
Affect-as-information model
We use our current mood as a piece of information to help us understand how we feel about things in our environment
Image-reparation hypothesis
Guilty people want to make up for what they have done
Negative relief state model
Because guilt leads to a negative affective state, people help in order to feel good about themselves again
Empathy-altruism hypothesis
- Batson (1994)
- Our motive for helping others is sometimes altruistic
- At other times it is egotistic
- When we see someone in distress we experience personal distress and empathy
- The more empathy we feel, the more altruistic our response will be
Gender differences in helping behaviour
- Men are more likely to help women
- Women don’t differ in helping women or men
- Women more likely to help in everyday situations
- Men behave prosocially in unusual, dangerous circumstances
Threat to self esteem model
Donor characteristics, recipient characteristics, aid characteristics and context characteristics interact to decide if the recipient feels self-threat or self-support
