30 - helping and prosocial behavior PDF

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Chapter 30 notes with learning objectives. Professor Blake Jones....

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Key Terms 

Prosocial behavior Help to benefit other people Bystander effect o Why people do not always help, focused on  How emergencies are defined, when they decide to take responsibility for helping, how the costs and benefits of intervening affect their decisions of whether to help  We overestimate our altruism Reciprocal altruism o Will help you in return, more likely to have success, find a good mate Kin selection Negative state relief model Arousal: cost-reward model Empathy-altruism model Personal distress o

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Learning Outcomes 

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Compare and contrast how pluralistic ignorance and diffusion of responsibility can contribute to a bystander’s decision not to help. o Pluralistic ignorance – relying on others to define the situation and to include that no intervention is necessary. Using the inaction of others to define your action. You look at everyone else and think, maybe nothing needs to be done o Diffusion of responsibility – knowing someone else could help the victim, bystanders do not intervene. This is absolved when virtue of official capacity, obligation of roles, someone else will help  Kitty Genovese – stabbed in apt, attacker came after fleeing, raped and killed her. People heard her screaming and no one did anything (60s)  Huge Alfredo Tale Yax – heard woman screaming, intervened and was stabbed, collapsed and for hours no one helped him  LaShanda Calloway – killed in store, no one did anything for minutes, stepping over her, someone thought someone else had done something Describe how a cost-benefit analysis could be used when deciding whether to help someone. o Needed help is at a low cost (time, money resources, risk), help is more likely to be given o Potential reward – social reward, praise or monetary awards, avoiding feelings of guilt Explain how gender and personality may affect prosocial behavior.

Gender - Depends on the type of help needed, help about equally  Physical differences come into play  Simple socialization – have been raised to play different roles. Men are trained to be heroic and chivalrous and to protect, women provide more compassion, caring, nurturing. Men may save a passenger, but women are more likely to comfort a friend o Agreeableness – plays a role in prosocial behavior, means being sympathetic, generous, forgiving, helpful, likeable – positive relationship between agreeableness and helping o Prosocial personality – 2 major characteristics  Other-oriented empathy – strong sense of social responsibility, empathize, understand problems of others. Higher moral obligation to help  Helpfulness – behaviorally oriented, have helped in the past, they believe they can be effective they are more likely to help in the future Compare and contrast the evolutionary forces, egoistic motivations, and altruistic motivations that may account for why someone engages in prosocial behavior. o Evolutionary forces  Survival increases in prosocial relationships. We are especially likely to help those with which we share genetic heritage (pass our DNA on) – kin selection  Reciprocal altruism – if we help someone now the chance we will be helped in the future is higher o Egoistic forces  Negative state relief model – make yourself feel better when you help someone  Arousal cost-reward model – aversive feelings aroused when someone is in need, we want to change that aversive state – by eliminating their pain we eliminate our compassionate pain  Uses cost-reward, want to minimize their cost (call police instead of intervening), could be even fleeing o Altruistic forces –  Prosocial helping with no expectation of reward  Empathy-altruism model explains motivated helping for which the help expects no benefits. Key is empathizing with the victim. Empathetic concern, interest is helping the other person’s well-being even if it costs them something. Doesn’t dismiss egoistic motivations (personal distress like arousal cost reward model), but the primary motivator is the other person, self-sacrificial o How to decide to be prosocial  Noticing o

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Defining an emergency Taking responsibility Planning a course of action Taking action...