altruism and aggression Flashcards
what is altruism
desire to help someone for no reason other than to help them
significance of kitty genovese attack
led to research on altruism (when do people help?)
5 steps in latane and Darley’s model for altruism and obstacles?
1) person must identify the situation
- obstacles: distractions, self-concern
2) person must perceive situation as an emergency
- obstacles: 1) pluralist ignorance (no one else is doing anything so I guess it’s not an emergency); 2) ambiguity; 3) relation between attacker and victim
3) person must feel some sort of responsibility to help
- obstacles: bystander effect/diffusion of responsibility
4) person must be able to help
- obstacles: lack of competence
5) person must choose to help
- obstacles: audience inhibition (don’t want to embarrass self), cost>benefit
Darley and Bateson study for step 1, identifying the incident
- princeton grad students on the way to give talk about elites not helping; good samaratins helping
- had to walk over confederate slumped and groaning
- study wanted to see who would stop and help
- students were either early, late, or on time
- result: most time –> most likely to help (showed impact of self-concern)
Latane and darley study for step 2, perceiving situation as an emergency
- have subjects fill out questionnaire in room
- fill room with smoke
- 3 conditions: subject is alone, with 2 other naive subjects, or with 2 passive confederates
- result: more likely to get help if alone; 3 naive subjects displayed pluralist ignorance; 2 passive confederates didn’t get help so subject thought it wasn’t an emergency
social exchange theory
idea that humans always try to maximize benefit and minimize cost of their interactions
darley and latane’s study on the bystander effect
- discuss student life via intercom
- have confederate act like they’re having a siezure
- subject either thinks they are the only student, there is one other person, or there are two other people
- result: participants helped the most when they thought they were the only one (diffuse responsibility to other people when present)
6 other factors that predict helping behavior
1) mood (pos mood more helpful than neutral)
2) reward for previous helping
3) modeling
4) perceived deservingness of helpee
5) specificity of helpee (more specific=more helpy)
6) location (rural more helpy-less distraction)
6 indicators levine et all used to identify most helpy cities
1) returning dropped pen
2) returning dropped mail
3) agreeing to make change
4) help confederate with leg brace pick up magazine
5) help blind confederate cross street
6) average per capita donation to united way
2 proposed motives for helping
1) altruism (not selfish)
2) egoism (selfish reasons)
self attribution bias of helping behaviors
attribute our own to altruism and attribute others’ to egoism
4 theories for why people help
1) empathy-altruism
2) mood management theory
3) social and personal norms
4) evolutionary theory
empathy altruism theory
we help people even if no personal gain because we empathize with them
How did Batson support the empathy altruism theory
- acquire info/traits about participants’
- tell them about “Elaine”; similar or non similar
- participant sees Elaine getting shocked; can help or not help
- easy condition: ppl can take her shocks, watch her, or leave
difficult condition: ppl can take her shocks or watch her - if low empathy/similarity, ppl were most likely to help in difficult escape
- if high empathy/similarity, ppl were equally likely to help with easy and difficult escape options
2 alternate egoistic explanations of Batson’s data arguing that it does not reflect altruism
1) people help because they would worse not helping if they were empathetic
2) if told Elaine is similar, they see her as the same person as them –> helping her is like helping their self
mood management theory
people help to prevent negative emotions for themself (guilt, sadness, etc)
social norms theory for helping (3 types of norms)
ppl feel the need to conform to the standard behaviors
1) social responsibility
- we have a responsibility to help ppl who need it
2) reciprocity
- return the favor
3) personal
- own expectations of how ppl should behave
evolutionary theory for helping (3 predictions)
people help genetic relatives (can still get their genes passed on)
- kin selection
1) most likely to help young/healthy
2) more likely to help if more similar
3) more likely to help when life is threatened
what is the threat to self esteem model
help may be perceived as a threat to self esteem under 3 conditions
1) different from normal helping
2) conveys inferiority
3) doesn’t increase chance of later success
double binds with helping others
helper: don’t want to send negative message by helping; but might feel bad if you don’t help
helpee: get assistance/benefit; but might question yourself
types of aggression
instrumental: aggression/harm as a means of achieving something else
hostile: aggression/harm is the end goal
direct: face to face
indirect: behind person’s back
