Unit 10: Helping Others

Question 1

Define prosocial behaviours.

Answer 1

Prosocial behaviours are actions intended to benefit others. An example of a prosocial behaviour is driving a friend to the airport.

Question 2

How does evolutionary theory explain helping behaviours among genetically-related relatives?

Answer 2

There is preferential helping of genetic relatives so that genes held in common will survive (kin selection). People offer a more involved level of help for closer genetic relatives (where the biological stakes are highest).

Question 3

How does evolutionary theory explain helping behaviours among non-kin?

Answer 3

Helping others is in your best interest because it increases the likelihood that they will help you in return when you need it (reciprocal altruism) which increases chances of survival and reproductive success.

Question 4

How does evolutionary theory explain helping behaviours among members of an in-group?

Answer 4

Groups with altruistic members may be more likely to thrive and avoid extinction than groups with only selfish individuals. Cooperation and helpfulness may be for the good of the group, especially when the group is facing an external threat.

Question 5

Explain the roles that rewards play in helping others.

Answer 5

1. Helping others is rewarding
2. People are more likely to help others when the potential rewards of helping appear to be high compared to the potential costs of helping
3. Helping others makes people feel good
4. People want to be good and some situations trigger norms and moral principles that compel them to perform helpful behaviours

Question 6

What is courageous resistance?

Answer 6

Courageous resistance is the term for when giving help involves constant and exhausting demands and has potentially enormous costs.

Question 7

Describe the arousal: cost-reward model.

Answer 7

The proposition that people react to emergency situations by acting in the most cost-effective way to reduce the arousal caused by shock and alarm. When the potential rewards to themselves and the victim outweigh the potential costs to themselves and the victim, they will help.

Question 8

Describe the negative state relief model.

Answer 8

People help others in order to counteract their own feelings of sadness. That is, they help others in order to feel better about themselves.

Question 9

What is the egoistic motive?

Answer 9

The egoistic motive is when people are motivated by the desire to improve their own welfare.

Question 10

What is the altruistic motive?

Answer 10

Altruistic motive is when people are motivated by the desire to improve another person’s welfare.

Question 11

Describe the empathy-altruism hypothesis.

Answer 11

The empathy-altruism hypothesis is the proposition that empathetic concern for a person in need produces an altruistic motive for helping. First, there needs to be the perception that someone needs help. Next, if a potential helper adopts the perspective of the person in need of help they will experience empathetic concern. This creates an altruistic motive and the potential helper will help in order to reduce the other person’s distress.

Question 12

What is the evidence for the empathy-altruism hypothesis?

Answer 12

1. From research indicating that there is a role of perspective taking and a role of having warm emotional reactions to the person in need of help in predicting helping behaviour.
2. From experiments with infants who demonstrated rudimentary perspective taking by helping an experimenter when it was apparent they were struggling to complete a task independently but not helping in a similar situation when they did not seem to have a problem.

Question 13

Define the bystander effect.

Answer 13

The bystander effect is the effect whereby the presence of others inhibits helping. The more bystanders there are, the less likely someone will be helped and if someone does help, it will take them longer to intervene.

Question 14

List the steps that bystanders in an emergency go through, as proposed by Latane and Darley.

Answer 14

Step 1: Notice that something is happening

Step 2: Interpret the event as an emergency

Step 3: Take responsibility for providing help

Step 4: Decide how to help

Step 5: Provide help

Question 15

Identify the obstacles that bystanders in a group have to overcome in Step 1 of the process proposed by Latane and Darley.

Answer 15

1. distraction - attention is diverted away from the person who needs help
2. self-concerns - people are caught up in their own concerns and don’t notice an emergency is happening

Question 16

Identify the obstacles that bystanders in a group have to overcome in Step 2 of the process proposed by Latane and Darley.

Answer 16

1. ambiguity - when it is not clear that the person needs help bystanders are less likely to intervene
2. relationship between attacker and victim - when people believe the attacker and victim have a close relationship (e.g. family members) they are less likely to intervene
3. pluralistic ignorance - when each bystander thinks that other people aren’t acting because somehow they know there isn’t an emergency

Question 17

Identify the obstacles that bystanders in a group have to overcome in Step 3 of the process proposed by Latane and Darley.

Answer 17

diffusion of responsibility - the belief that others will or should take the responsibility for providing assistance to a person in need taking place under conditions of anonymity

Question 18

Identify the obstacles that bystanders in a group have to overcome in Step 4 of the process proposed by Latane and Darley.

Answer 18

lack of competence - bystanders are more likely to offer direct help when they feel competent to perform the actions required

Question 19

Identify the obstacles that bystanders in a group have to overcome in Step 5 of the process proposed by Latane and Darley.

Answer 19

1. audience inhibition - reluctance to help for fear of making a bad impression on observers
2. cost exceeds rewards

Question 20

How does good mood affect the likelihood that the person will help others?

Answer 20

Good moods increase helping behaviour. This is called the good mood effect. However, good moods do not always lead to helping. Two situations in which this may be observed are when the costs of helping are high and when positive thoughts and expectations about engaging in other social activities are greater than or conflict with helping (i.e. the rewards of something else are greater).

Question 21

Why may good mood increase likelihood of helping?

Answer 21

1. Desire to maintain one’s good mood. Since helping others makes us feel good, it can help maintain a good mood.
2. Positive expectations about helping. People are more likely to help when they expect positive rewards for their behavior.
3. Positive thoughts. Positive moods trigger positive thoughts and people like others who they have positive thoughts about, which makes helping more likely.
4. Positive thoughts and expectations about social activities. Positive thoughts and expectations promote interacting with others in prosocial ways, such as helping.

Question 22

How does bad mood affect the likelihood that the person will help others?

Answer 22

Bad moods are also more likely to increase helping behaviour compared to neutral moods; however, this is not a rule.

Question 23

When might bad mood increase helping?

Answer 23

1. When people take responsibility for what caused their bad mood (e.g. they feel guilty)
2. If people focus on others (i.e. acknowledging others’ suffering)
3. If people are made to think about their personal values that promote helping

Question 24

When might bad mood decrease helping?

Answer 24

1. When people blame others for their bad mood.
2. When people are very self-focused
3. When people are made to think about their personal values that do not promote helping

Question 25

Is the relationship between mood and behaviour stronger for good or bad mood?

Answer 25

Good moods

Question 26

How may personality affect the likelihood that a person will help others?

Answer 26

Having an altruistic personality and being able to take the perspective of others and experience empathy are positively associated with helping and other prosocial behaviours.

Question 27

How may moral reasoning affect the likelihood that a person will help others?

Answer 27

People who exhibit internalized and advanced levels of moral reasoning behave more altruistically than people whose reasoning is focused on their own needs or on the concrete personal consequences their actions are likely to have.

Question 28

How may family background affect the likelihood that a person will help others?

Answer 28

Individual differences in helpfulness are partly based on genetics. Evidence for this comes from twin studies that have found that monozygotic twins are more similar in helpful behavioral tendencies, helping-related emotions, and helping-related reactions than are dizygotic twins.

Question 29

How may role models affect people’s decisions to help others?

Answer 29

Observing helping role models increases helping behaviour. This occurs for three main reasons. First, role models provide an example of behaviour for others to imitate directly. The second reason is that people see that helping is valued and rewarding when they see role models being rewarded for their helpful behaviour. Finally, the behaviour of role models makes others think about and become more aware of the standards of conduct in society.

Question 30

How may social norms affect people’s decisions to help others?

Answer 30

Social norms are general rules of conduct reflecting standards of social approval and disapproval. The main relevant social norms are the norm of reciprocity, norms of equity, and norms of social responsibility.

Question 31

What is the norm of reciprocity?

Answer 31

The norm of reciprocity is based on fairness and established quid-pro-quo transactions as a socially approved standard.

Question 32

What is the norm of equity?

Answer 32

The norm of equity is based on fairness in the treatment of others and prescribes that when people are in a situation in which they are receiving more benefits than they have earned, they should help those who are receiving fewer benefits than they have earned. This restores an equitable balance.

Question 33

What is the norm of social responsibility?

Answer 33

The norm of social responsibility is a moral standard emphasizing that people should help those who need assistance. It goes beyond the social norms around fairness to a larger sense of what is right.

Question 34

List the characteristics of people who are most likely to receive help when they need help.

Answer 34

1. Attractiveness. 2. Attributions of responsibility. People are more likely to receive help if they are trying to help themself and if they are not perceived by bystanders as being responsible for the circumstances requiring them to need help.

Question 35

Who is most likely to be helped by whom?

Answer 35

1. Bystanders are more likely to help others who are similar to themselves. 2. People also tend to be more helpful toward other people that they know and care about compared to strangers and superficial acquaintances.

Question 36

Are there any gender differences in helping?

Answer 36

Gender differences in helping depend on the scenario. When helping involves being physically brave and chivalrous men tend to be more helpful than women and women receive more help than men. When helping involves providing social support women are more likely to help than men are. For other scenarios, the evidence for gender differences in helping is not strong. In regard to seeking help, men are less likely to do it because seeking help is less social acceptable for men and is more threatening to their self-esteem.

Question 37

Describe the threat-to-self-esteem model.

Answer 37

The threat-to-self-esteem model is the theory that reactions to receiving assistance depend on whether help is perceived as supportive or threatening. Receiving help is experienced as self-supportive when the recipient feels appreciated and cared for. Receiving help is experienced as self-threatening when the recipient feels inferior or overly dependent.

Question 38

When is help not received well by members of stigmatized groups?

Answer 38

Members of stigmatized groups may feel worse about themselves after receiving help from an outgroup member, especially if the help was unsolicited because they doubt whether it is: (1) unassuming rather than sincere, (2) patronizing rather than well intentioned, and/or (3) controlling and designed to keep the recipient dependent.