prosocial behaviour and altruism

Question 1

define prosocial behaviour

Answer 1

voluntary behaviour intended to benefit another
e.g. comforting, sharing, helping
children engage in more prosocial behaviours with age
can be for selfish purposes

Question 2

define altruism

Answer 2

prosocial behaviour performed for unselfish motives
acts motivated by the welfare of others
relatively common in infancy

Question 3

prosocial behaviour: comforting definition

Answer 3

addressing a negative emotional state

there are individual differences from differing affective responses to other’s distress

Question 4

prosocial behaviour: comforting with age

Answer 4

younger children struggling to process or act on emotions - therefore seem to show no concern or comforting

rate of comforting others in pain or distress increases between age 1 and 2
age 3 = reasoned responsiveness to distress

Question 5

prosocial behaviour: comforting - genetics

Answer 5

94 MZ and 90 DZ twins studied during second year of life with reactions to adults pretending to be distressed

used heritability estimates and found genetic factors have a modest role in toddlers prosocial action and concern
* perhaps from genes influence on neurohormonal system which influences response to others distress

Question 6

prosocial behaviour: comforting - sympathy - 2 factors as to who would feel/act sympathetically

Answer 6

those who aren’t overwhelmed by emotions are more likely to feel sympathy

when not overly inhibited (e.g. not too shy) = more likely to act on sympathetic feelings

Question 7

prosocial behaviour: comforting in chimpanzees

Answer 7

chimpanzees and bonobos comfort/reassure others
this occurs later in development than humans

understand human prosociality through when abilities emerge, not if they do

Question 8

prosocial behaviour: helping definition

Answer 8

addressing instrumental need
assisting others

Question 9

prosocial behaviour: helping - infants without language

Answer 9

12 month olds help by pointing informatively e.g. show adult where object is
helps others achieve instrumental goal - even without physical assistance

18 month olds spontaneously help an adult pretending to be struggling without instruction

Question 10

prosocial behaviour: helping - chimpanzees

Answer 10

help in similar situations where the goal of the other person is easy to infer
debates over prosociality in chimpanzees - majority view is they do show prosocial helping behaviours

Question 11

prosocial behaviour: helping - caregivers promoting helping study

Answer 11

caregivers get 18 and 30 month olds to help clean up
observed maternal behaviours and then child had opportunity to help another adult

promoted help =
* 18 months -> commands or requests, scaffolding (support relevant to activity)
* 30 months -> scaffolding, negotiation (e.g. clean up now so we can play something else)

did not promote help =
* reasoning - explaining need - reasoning develops around 36 months at least
* praise and positive comments - too generic, promotes self-esteem
* character attribution (e.g. you’re so good at this) - promotes self-esteem not helping

Question 12

prosocial behaviour: sharing - definition

Answer 12

address material need/desire even at a personal cost

Question 13

prosocial behaviour: sharing - affiliative sharing

Answer 13

shared attention and interest from around 6 months
start actively giving objects around 9-10 months
introduction of ideas of “mine” and “yours”

Question 14

prosocial behaviour: sharing - resource sharing at 18 and 24 months

Answer 14

18 months
* start sharing resources e.g. food, toys
* initially requires lots of scaffolding from adults
* behaviour is uncommon, rarely spontaneous, and not very generous at this stage

24 months
* sharing is quicker, more often, more generous, and requires less promoting
* driven by increased social understanding - start saying “mine” between 18 and 24 months

Question 15

prosocial behaviour: sharing - fairness and reciprocity behaviours

Answer 15

3 years = more discerning about who should benefit from their kind acts
think people should prefer to share resources with: family and friends, people who have shared with them (reciprocity) and people who have shared with others (indirect reciprocity)

children show strong reciprocity
sacrifice resources to punish and reward others

Question 16

prosocial behaviour: sharing - fairness and reciprocity study (puppet)

Answer 16

game based around coins children could trade for small prizes
game played by the child and one generous and one stingy puppet
each player got to split 9 coins between the 3 of them
generous = 4 to child, 4 to other puppet, kept 1
stingy = kept 7, 1 to others

3 year old = self-maximising (take most coins for self)
5 year old = more even sharing (still more to self)

punishment: had opportunity to sacrifice one coin (cost to self) so puppet loses 5 coins
5 year olds consistently punish the stingy puppet

Question 17

prosocial behaviour: sharing - fairness and reciprocity study cultural variations (puppet)

Answer 17

stingy puppet study done on Samoan children (more collectivist than USA original)
* children were less self-maximising
* less likely to punish the puppet
* didn’t show reciprocity tendency to target stingy puppet at 5 years old

suggests attitudes to reciprocity/fairness are modulated by cultural context

Question 18

prosocial behaviour: sharing - inequity study

Answer 18

studies 4-15 year olds in 7 societies
two kids sit opposite each other with 2 bowls with sweets on and levers
green lever = both get sweets on own side
red lever = neither gets any sweets

advantageous inequity = child in control is given more sweets
disadvantageous inequity = child in control is given less sweets

results
disadvantageous inequity aversion emerged in all populations by middle childhood - reject when they have less sweets

advantageous inequity aversion emerged in 3 populations later on in development - rejecting when they have more sweets

Question 19

prosocial behaviour: sharing in apes

Answer 19

female chimps share food - more common in bonobos
bonobos voluntarily hand food to others - not toys or tools

Question 20

prosocial behaviour: sharing - which behaviours are culturally variable

Answer 20

not variable:
* self-maximising 3 year olds
* fairness and disadvantageous inequity aversion by 5 years old

variable:
* self-maximisation
* advantageous inequity aversion
* strong reciprocity

Question 21

infants altruistic behaviours

Answer 21

toddlers help others even anonymously - whether adult is there to watch or not
2 year olds remedy unnoticed accidents e.g. pick up dropped object
proactive rather than prosocial
occurs even when engaged in interesting task of their own

Question 22

motivational sources of prosociality (3)

Answer 22

• empathic concern - concern for others wellbeing
• gratitude and guilt - gratitude = sustains prosocial interactions and reinforces reciprocity, guilt = motivates repair of ruptured social relations
• obligation = commitments create sense of social obligation, norms create an expectation of altruistic behaviour

Question 23

reward as a motivational source of prosociality study

Answer 23

20 month year old children had chance to help an adult
adult responds with: material reward, praise (verbal reward), neutral response (no reward)
then given opportunity to help again

results
less likely to help again in reward condition - extrinsic motivator
praise was not a verbal reward - focus on intrinsic motivation - helped more
intrinsic motivation importance to altruistic action - undermined by extrinsic motivation

Question 24

is altruism innate

Answer 24

yes = infants display helping from young age - extrinsic motivation inhibits helping behaviour

no = early helping can be explained by motivation for social interaction rather than altruism

Question 25

multifaceted nature of prosociality

Answer 25

not driven by singular capacity
range of forms - nuanced approach
different components underpinned by different constructs
versatile hypothesis