PSYC 3221 1st Edition Chapter 12 Helping others Lecture 18 Why do we help Prosocial behavior vs Altruism o Altruism Self less helping behavior Expecting anything in result wouldn t qualify Expecting having nothing in return Hard to find today Examples saving someone you hate in a almost certain death situation o Prosocial Behavior Helping behavior that s benefitting someone else o Difference Altruism is having no benefit for oneself to do this act of kindness Evolutionary psychology o We do what we do for two reasons individual survival or survival of the species o Kin protection Survival of the species o Reciprocity Returning the favor Reciprocate o Help those who are genetically similar to use especially if it involves risking our lives o More likely to find a parent risking their life for the child compared to the other way around Who do we help Social Exchange Theory o Helping as disguised self interest o We do things for others so they ll do things for us in return o No necessarily from the individual who you helped o Karma doing something good for someone we hope that something good will happen to us o Somewhere down the road I ll get return on my good deed Empathy Altruism Hypothesis Daniel Batson o If you feel empathy for someone you might engage in altruistic behavior towards that person o If you can feel their pain you re more likely to help them o Study manipulate empathy Listening to someone s story where she was hurt in a car accident High low empathy groups with half of each group was told they d see her again High empathy These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute o All helped regardless if told they d see her again or not Low empathy o Ones told they d see her again helped to avoid guilt Social Norms o Reciprocity norm Feel an obligation to reciprocate to repay it asap o Social responsibility norm Taught from an early age like sharing your toys with others as a child Extra Credit opportunity Smile 10 people frown 10 people or use some other facial expression People usually reciprocate the facial expression Jot down the level of reciprocation you received in return How helps Children Social Learning o Help at a certain age but before the ages of 4 5 years old are pretty selfish o Egocentrism and unable to put themselves in others shoes Altruistic Personality o Power of the situation the situation can tell how someone will respond regardless of their personality o Some people are going to be more helpful than other depending on their personalities Gender Differences o More likely to help when Men If it requires heroic action one shot deal Woman Long term attention nurturing o Depending on who they re helping certain men are more likely to help women Religiosity o Religious people tend to be more helpful compared to non religious Mood Effects o The mood you re in predicts how likely you re to help Good moods are more likely o Good moods helping The feel good do good effect If you re feeling good you re more likely to help Not necessarily have to be super happy to help o Bad mood helping Bad moods negative state relief hypothesis If we re in a negative state mood and we believe that helping behavior might relieve the bad mood we re more likely to help o Not seen in children o Depressed people When you feel guilty you re more likely Whom do we help People we like o We re more likely to help someone we like compared to people we don t like Gender o Who is offered help more Women are more likely to be offered help Men are offered less help Attractiveness Similarity o Similar in any way o Age religion background ect o Exception would be race sometimes people help other races over others Could be a soothing white guilt Deserving others o More likely to help those that we believe are more deserving o If they need help When will we help Rewards o We ll help if there is a reward o If we ve been rewarded in the past we ll do it again When others help o If we see other people helping conformity it increases the likelihood of you helping o If you ve witnessed someone helping Rural vs Urban environments o Urban overload hypothesis Time constraints good Samaritan study