prosocial behaviour and altruism Flashcards
define prosocial behaviour
voluntary behaviour intended to benefit another
e.g. comforting, sharing, helping
children engage in more prosocial behaviours with age
can be for selfish purposes
define altruism
prosocial behaviour performed for unselfish motives
acts motivated by the welfare of others
relatively common in infancy
prosocial behaviour: comforting definition
addressing a negative emotional state
there are individual differences from differing affective responses to other’s distress
prosocial behaviour: comforting with age
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
prosocial behaviour: comforting - genetics
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
prosocial behaviour: comforting - sympathy - 2 factors as to who would feel/act sympathetically
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
prosocial behaviour: comforting in chimpanzees
chimpanzees and bonobos comfort/reassure others
this occurs later in development than humans
understand human prosociality through when abilities emerge, not if they do
prosocial behaviour: helping definition
addressing instrumental need
assisting others
prosocial behaviour: helping - infants without language
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
prosocial behaviour: helping - chimpanzees
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
prosocial behaviour: helping - caregivers promoting helping study
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
prosocial behaviour: sharing - definition
address material need/desire even at a personal cost
prosocial behaviour: sharing - affiliative sharing
shared attention and interest from around 6 months
start actively giving objects around 9-10 months
introduction of ideas of “mine” and “yours”
prosocial behaviour: sharing - resource sharing at 18 and 24 months
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
prosocial behaviour: sharing - fairness and reciprocity behaviours
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
prosocial behaviour: sharing - fairness and reciprocity study (puppet)
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
prosocial behaviour: sharing - fairness and reciprocity study cultural variations (puppet)
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
prosocial behaviour: sharing - inequity study
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
prosocial behaviour: sharing in apes
female chimps share food - more common in bonobos
bonobos voluntarily hand food to others - not toys or tools
prosocial behaviour: sharing - which behaviours are culturally variable
not variable:
* self-maximising 3 year olds
* fairness and disadvantageous inequity aversion by 5 years old
variable:
* self-maximisation
* advantageous inequity aversion
* strong reciprocity
infants altruistic behaviours
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
motivational sources of prosociality (3)
- 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
reward as a motivational source of prosociality study
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
is altruism innate
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
multifaceted nature of prosociality
not driven by singular capacity
range of forms - nuanced approach
different components underpinned by different constructs
versatile hypothesis
