Prosocial Behaviour and Altruism

Question 1

Prosocial behaviour

Answer 1

Voluntary behaviour intended to help another

Question 2

Altruism

Answer 2

Prosocial behaviour that is performed for unselfish motives

Question 3

Comforting

Answer 3

The rate with which children comfort others who are in pain or distress (rather than acting with distress themselves) increases over the second year of life
(Zahn-Waxler et al, 1992)

Question 4

Helping

Answer 4

18-month olds help others in simple tasks
Chimpanzees also help in similar tasks where it is easy for them to infer what the person’s goals are
(Warneken & Tomasello, 2006)

Question 5

What is Warneken & Tomasello (2006) evidence for?

Answer 5

Altruism is something we are biologically prepared for and is not just the result of cultural transmission or explicit training

Question 6

Sharing information

Answer 6

From about 12 months if infants see someone searching for something, they point at the object to tell them where it is
(Liszkowski et al, 2008)

Question 7

Sharing resources (Moore, 2009)

Answer 7

4 - 6 year olds drew a picture of…
a) a classmate they liked
b) a classmate they didn’t like
c) unknown photo of a child
Children played resource allocation game where they could share the sticker with one of the other children
Prosocial trial - “you can have 1 sticker now or 1 sticker for [a/b/c] and 1 for you later”
Sharing trial “you can have 2 stickers for yourself now or 1 for [a/b/c] and 1 for you later”

Question 8

Sharing resources (Moore, 2009) results

Answer 8

Children aged 4-6 do share but the extent to which they share depends on who they are sharing with and the cost to them
Children were more likely to prefer equitable division of resources if…
- Sharing with a friend not a non-friend
- There is no cost to self when playing with a stranger

Question 9

Warneken & Tomasello (2009)

Answer 9

Human children do not choose to share all the time but in comparison to other primates they are relatively prosocial in this respect, especially when it comes to sharing good obtained by co-operative activity

Question 10

Inequity Aversion

Answer 10

Apparatus which you can put sweets on and can tip into either child’s bowl or a bowl in the middle
Child has two levers, green - makes sweets fall into bowl which they are on the side of, and red - makes the sweets go into the middle and no one gets them
When division of resources is equal they are very unlikely to reject the sweets
Disadvantageous inequity - children become more likely to reject the deal with age
Advantageous inequity - children become more likely to reject the deal with age

Question 11

Advantageous inequity

Answer 11

The child with the levers has more sweets

Question 12

Disadvantageous inequity

Answer 12

The child with the levers has less sweets

Question 13

Factors which influence prosocial behaviour

Answer 13

Biological factors

Socialisation in the family and school, cultural and environment

Question 14

Twin studies

Answer 14

94 monozygotic and 90 dizygotic pairs during 2nd year of life
Recorded their reactions to adults pretending to be distressed
Heritability estimates indicated that genetic factors play some, albeit modest, role in explaining toddlers’ prosocial actions and concerns
(Zahn-Waxler et al, 1992)

Question 15

Eisenberg & Fabes (1998)

Answer 15

Genetic factors are likely to be played out in terms of differences in temperament
Children’s tendency to feel negative emotions, their ability to regulate emotions and their assertiveness will affect how they act
Argue that those who are not overwhelmed by the emotions they experience are more likely to feel sympathy
Those who are not overly inhibited are more likely to act on their sympathetic feelings and thus behave prosocially

Question 16

Parents promote prosocial behaviour in their children by…

Answer 16

Having a secure attachment with the child
Modelling empathy, sensitivity and prosocial behaviours
Arranging opportunities to engage in positive behaviours
Discussing emotions and how behaviour impacts on others
Constructive and supportive discipline

Question 17

Discipline

Answer 17

Reasoning and pointing out the consequences of anti-social behaviours tend to be more effective especially when the conducted by parents who are generally warm and supportive

Physical punishment, or authoritarian parenting and the use or material rewards to promote good behaviour are associated with a lack of sympathy and prosocial behaviour in children

Question 18

Do extrinsic rewards undermine altruism?

Answer 18

Children took part in a study where they helped out an adult who responded…
a) giving them a reward
b) praising them
c) neutrally
In the 2nd phase, children were again given the opportunity to help but were given no reward
Children in material reward condition less likely to help in the 2nd phase
Suggests that early helping behaviours are intrinsically motivated

Question 19

Prosocial behaviour in school

Answer 19

Preschoolers exposed to prosocial peers at the start of the school year found to be more prosocial themselves by the end of the year (Fabes et al, 2002)

Some evidence that children choose to play with children that are about as prosocial as they are, resulting in reinforcement

Peer support systems have been shown to be successful in the UK

Question 20

Cultural influences (Whiting & Whiting, 1975)

Answer 20

Observed children 3 - 11 in 6 countries
Found children from Kenya, Mexico and the Philippines acted more prosocially than those from Japan, India and USA
Cultures where mothers delegated household chores to younger children encouraged more prosocial development whereas those that valued individual success fostered competitiveness

Question 21

The challenge of altruism

Answer 21

Natural selection tells us that species evolve because genetic mutations give rise to different traits, and traits that benefit survival will spread
If only mutations that aid survival of the phenotype will spread, how could a mutation resulting in behaviours that benefit others at a cost to oneself propagate?

Question 22

Kin selection

Answer 22

We help others who share genetic material with
Predicts that we should be more likely to aid close relatives
Doesn’t explain why we help unrelated friends and strangers

Question 23

Reciprocity

Answer 23

Around 3 years, children start to become more discerning about who should benefit from their acts of kindness
Children think people should prefer to share resources with…
- Family and friends
- People who have shared with them (reciprocity)
- People who have shared with others (indirect reciprocity)
Sensitivity to reciprocity is one way to explain the evolutionary origins of co-operation
(Olson & Spelke, 2008)

Question 24

Group selection

Answer 24

Altruistic behaviours spread because they benefit the group as a whole
Most biologists have railed against group selection arguments since the 1960s
Difficult to explain exactly how it works

Question 25

The selfish gene

Answer 25

The fundamental unit of selection, and therefore of self interest, is not species, or the group, or even strictly the individual. It is the gene, the unit of heredity.