SP: Helping and Cooperation

Question 1

What is meant by prosocial behaviour?

Answer 1

Prosocial behaviour is behaviour intended to help someone else.

Question 2

What does cooperation refer to?

Answer 2

Cooperation refers to two or more people working together toward a common goal that will benefit all involved.

Question 3

What is meant by altruism?

Answer 3

Altruism refers to behaviour intended to help others without any prospect of personal reward for the helper.

Question 4

What is meant by egoism?

Answer 4

Egoism refers to behaviour motivated by the desire to obtain personal rewards.

Question 5

What three factors determine when we help?

Answer 5

Perceived help, deservingness of help and other’s presence

Question 6

What is someone’s deserving of help based on?

Answer 6

the attribution of the cause and the norm of social responsibility. People should believe that it’s not people’s fault they need help (external attribution) and not that it is their fault (internal attribution).

Question 7

What effect does other people have on helping or not?

Answer 7

People perceive the norm of either helping or not helping from others.

Question 8

What is meant by the norm of social responsibility?

Answer 8

those able to take care of themselves have a duty and obligation to assist those who cannot.

Question 9

What is meant by the diffusion of responsibility?

Answer 9

when others are present, responsibility is divided and each person feels less responsible for helping than when alone.

Question 10

What is meant by the bystander effect?

Answer 10

The bystander effect states that the presence of more bystanders consistently decreases the likelihood of any person giving help.

Question 11

When does the bystander effect not occur?

Answer 11

when the situation is perceived as dangerous

Question 12

What can influence a personal norm of whether to help or not

Answer 12

Role Models

Question 13

What is meant by a religious principle

Answer 13

whether you associate yourself with a religious group.

Question 14

What is meant by the supernatural principle

Answer 14

The supernatural principle describes belief in a god

Question 15

What is the link between the supernatural principle and prosocial behaviour

Answer 15

The supernatural principle (when activated) leads to more prosocial behaviour.

Question 16

How may prosocial behaviour enhance the likelihood that genes will survive ?

Answer 16

If individuals help relatives who share their genes, the genes have a better chance of survival. Reciprocal helping can also occur, thus making prosocial behaviour evolutionary useful. Prosocial behaviour can also produce more indirect rewards such as a good reputation and that’s good for one’s reproduction chances.

Question 17

How may egoism influence whether someone helps or not?

Answer 17

The desire to help often depends on perceptions of the potential rewards and costs of helping.

Question 18

Why may people with the relevant skills be more inclined to help?

Answer 18

People with relevant skills for helping are more likely to help because the costs for helping are lower to them. Therefore perceived ability (e.g: skills or self-efficacy) influences helping.

Question 19

How do emotions influence helping? (3)

Answer 19

Positive people and people who feel guilty are more inclined to help. People in a positive mood are less inclined to help if helping would result in a more negative mood. People in a negative mood are more likely to help if they are motivated to improve their mood. Intense emotional arousal makes individuals more likely to help regardless of rewards or costs.

Question 20

What does the negative-state relief model of helping state?

Answer 20

The negative-state relief model of helping states that people help others to reduce their own distress because people hate to see others suffer.

Question 21

Name and describe another model describing why people help

Answer 21

The empathy-altruism model states that feelings of emphatic concern lead to a motive to help someone in need for his own sake.

Question 22

What two reactions can people have to seeing someone in distress and what do these individually lead to

Answer 22

If people see someone in trouble, they can either experience distress or empathic concern. Personal distress motivates egoistic helping and emphatic concern leads to altruistic behaviour.

Question 23

How can emotional connection lead to a higher chance of helping?

Answer 23

The stronger the connection between two people, the more likely it is that someone feels empathy for the other. This can lead to an increased chance of helping

Question 24

Why are people more likely to help an individual than a group?

Answer 24

because by focussing on a single individual, we tend to ignore the number of people needing help, as the degree of empathy and generosity is the same for one individual or an entire group. Thus, we donate one dollar to one person, but also one dollar to the group and not one dollar for every individual in the group.

Question 25

Define social dilemmas

Answer 25

Social dilemmas are situations in which the most rewarding action for each individual will if chosen by all individuals, produce a negative outcome for the entire group.

Question 26

What type of rewards and punishments are more successful

Answer 26

Externally imposed rewards and punishments are often unsuccessful. They can be more successful if they are internally imposed, by the group itself.

Question 27

What type of incentives are most effective?

Answer 27

Costly incentives are more effective than free ones.

Question 28

Describe the relationship between free riding and group size (3)

Answer 28

Freeriding is easier in large groups, although large groups often have more resources to punish free-riders. Intermediate group size is best to increase performance and decrease free riding.

Question 29

What is meant by trust?

Answer 29

Trust refers to the expectation that others will act pro-socially during social interaction.

Question 30

What role does trust play in conflict?

Answer 30

Trust increases cooperation and the more strongly people’s interests are in conflict, the more important trust becomes.

Question 31

How can trust be increased?

Answer 31

increasing communication among group members.

Question 32

How can cooperation be increased? (3)

Answer 32

Cooperation can be increased by ensuring equal opportunities and outcomes among group members. If the group is the thing upmost in someone’s mind, then cooperation will be more likely

Question 33

What is the effect of group norms favouring cooperation?

Answer 33

Group norms favouring cooperation become salient guides for individual action

Question 34

What is the effect of empathy in a group

Answer 34

empathy leads to behaviour benefiting a single other individual.

Question 35

What is meant by the social value orientation

Answer 35

The social value orientation are stable differences in the ways people act in social dilemmas.

Question 36

Name three different social value orientations

Answer 36

People with an individualistic orientation try to maximize their own outcomes. People with a competitive orientation try to win over others in a dilemma. People with a prosocial orientation try to maximize outcomes for the group as a whole.

Question 37

How can someone helping lead to that person helping more?

Answer 37

They may see themselves as more helpful and altruistic and this may lead them to help more

Question 38

What six different goals that serve mastery and connectedness needs can be accomplished by volunteering?

Answer 38

gaining understanding (1), new knowledge and skills (2), obtaining career benefits (3), helping solve personal problems (4), socializing with friends (5) and expressing personal values (6).

Question 39

What was noticed about decisions made more quickly? What does this mean regarding superficial processing

Answer 39

leads to more prosocial behaviour

Question 40

Why might people not accept help regarding the norm of reciprocity?

Answer 40

Help can make people feel the need to reciprocate and this can be problematic for people that cannot reciprocate.

Question 41

Distinguish dependency and autonomy orientated help

Answer 41

Dependency oriented help provides a solution to the immediate problem without teaching how to solve future problems. Autonomy oriented help provides tools or knowledge to solve problems on one’s own.

Question 42

Name six ways prosocial behaviour in a society can increase

Answer 42

1. Reduce ambiguity
   By making the need for help and cooperation clear, people are more likely to show prosocial behaviour.
2. Increase internal attributions for helping and cooperation
   By seeing help as positive just for help sakes prosocial behaviour can increase.
3. Teaching norms that support helping and cooperation
   Norms that support social responsibility and cooperation increase prosocial behaviour.
4. Activate prosocial norms
   By activating and making prosocial norms more accessible, prosocial behaviour can increase.
5. Infuse, don’t diffuse, responsibility
   Focussing the responsibility on specific people makes normative pressures to help more insistent.
6. Promote identification with those who need help and cooperation
   A feeling of connectedness with the person in needs breeds empathy and increases willingness to help.