Social (CONTEMPORARY) - responses to people in need - LEVINE

Question 1

define kin selection theory

Answer 1

refers to tendency to perform behaviors that may favor the chance of survival of people with a similar genetic base

Question 2

define reciprocal altruism

Answer 2

holds the incentive for an individual to help in the present is based on the expectation of the potential receipt in the future - so you’ll be treated the same way

Question 3

define responsibility prosocial value orientation

Answer 3

holds that a strong influence on helping behavior is a feeling of and belief in one’s responsibility to help, especially when combined with the belief that one is able to help the other person

Question 4

define social exchange theory

Answer 4

people help because they want to gain goods from the one being helped. They calculate rewards and costs of helping others aiming to maximize rewards and minimize the costs

Question 5

although many studies have demonstrated that helping rates differ between communities in a single country…

Answer 5

almost no systematic cross cultural research of helping behavior has been conducted prior to this study

Question 6

aim

Answer 6

look at the helping behavior in a variety of cultures in large cities focusing on the 4 community characteristics of population size, economic success, cultural values, walking speed

Question 7

population size

Answer 7

cities selected tended to be large (greater than population of 230,000)
population size was taken from the most current united nations demographic yearbook (UN 1996)
this statistic ruled out the possibility that variation in helping could be attributable to variation in population size

Question 8

economic success

Answer 8

measure of economic wellbeing experienced by average citizen estimated by ‘per capita gross domestic product with purchasing power parity’ (PPE) extracted from 1994 (world bank 1994). Measured how much average income earned in each country is capable of purchasing

Question 9

cultural values

Answer 9

six internationally expert cross cultural psychologists asked to rate 23 countries in the sample on the dimension of individualism/collectivism
collectivists attend more to the needs and goals of the group they belong to so will often put the needs of others before their own and individualists focus on their own selves
countries rated on a 10pt scale (1=most collectivistic and 10-most individualistic)

Question 10

Spain and Latin American countries including Brazil, Costa Rica,, El Salvador, Mexico

Answer 10

all considered ‘simpatia’ cultures and their average helping rate was compared with the rates for ‘non-simpatia’ cultures in our sample
Simpatia - cultural value as these countries are known for having a concern for wellbeing of others with an obligation to be friendly polite and helpful

Question 11

walking speed

Answer 11

male and female walking speed an indicator for pace of life ‘cognitive factor’ was measured over a distance of 60 feet in same downtown location as helping measures
measurements taken on clear summer days, all locations flat and unobstructed, broad sidewalks, sufficiently uncrowded to allow pedestrians to move at maximum speeds. Only pedestrians walking alone and no children or those with obvious physical difficulties were selected. Those stopping to window shop were not timed
35 women and 35 men were timed in most cities

Question 12

3 main goals of study

Answer 12

1. determine if helping strangers in cross culturally meaningful characteristic of a place
2. to determine if helping strangers varies cross culturally
3. to identify the community characteristics that are related to the helping of strangers across cultures

Question 13

sample and sampling method

Answer 13

participants from 23 cities and opportunity sampling was used

Question 14

research method

Answer 14

field study as it was conducted in the centres of 23 large cities around the world

Question 15

three helping scenarios

Answer 15

1. whether victim dropped a pen
2. whether the victim had a hurt/injured leg and dropped magazines
3. whether the victim was blind and trying to cross the street
   helping rate of each of 23 individual cities was measured so that the cities each had an overall helping index score
   three measurements of helping were then correlated with the 4 community variables

Question 16

procedure

Answer 16

data was collected by either responsible students who were either travelling to foreign countries or returning to their home countries for the summer or by cross cultural psychologists and their students in other countries who volunteered to assist the authors

Question 17

ensuring standardization between experimenters

Answer 17

1. all received both a detailed instruction sheet and on site field training for acting their roles, learning the procedure for participant selection and scoring of participants
2. they practiced together
3. no verbal communication was required of the experimenter

Question 18

dropped pen

Answer 18

experimenters walked towards a solitary pedestrian passing in opposite direction.When 10-15 ft from participant the experimenter reached into his pocket and without noticing dropped his pen