Chapter 12: Altruism and Prosocial Behaviour

Question 1

Altruism

Answer 1

helping without expectation of personal gain

Question 2

Arousal/cost-reward model

Answer 2

a model that describes helping behaviour as caused in part by the physiological arousal that people experience when they see someone in need of help and in part by their calculation of the costs and rewards of providing such help

Question 3

Bystander effect

Answer 3

the situation whereby people are less likely to help in emergency situations when there are other people present than if the person who could help is alone, resulting in a decreased likelihood of help being given

Question 4

Decision-making process model

Answer 4

a model that describes helping behaviour as a function of five distinct steps

Step 1: do you notice that something is happening?
Step 2: do you interpret the event as an emergency?
Step 3: do you personally take responsibility for providing help?
Step 4: can you decide how to help?
Step 5: provide help

Question 5

Diffusion of responsibility

Answer 5

the belief that other people present in a situation will assume responsibility, which contributes to the bystander effect

Question 6

Empathy

Answer 6

the ability to understand other people’s perspectives and respond emotionally to other people’s experiences

Question 7

Empathy-altruism hypothesis

Answer 7

the idea that when we feel empathy for a person, we will help that person even if we incur a cost in doing so

Question 8

Exchange relationship

Answer 8

a relationship in which people desire and expect strict reciprocity

Question 9

Good mood effect

Answer 9

when people are in a good mood, they are more likely to help

Question 10

Kinship selection

Answer 10

the idea that we’re more likely to help those we are genetically related to

Question 11

Moral reasoning

Answer 11

a personality factor that describes the extent to which a person’s willingness to help depends on larger moral standards rather than the person’s needs and the expected consequences for him or her of helping

Question 12

Negative-state relief hypothesis

Answer 12

a hypothesis that people are motivated to help others in order to relieve their own negative feelings

Question 13

Norm of reciprocity

Answer 13

the idea that we should help those who are in need of assistance, because they will then help us in the future

Question 14

Norm of social responsibility

Answer 14

the idea that we have an obligation to help those who are in need of assistance

Question 15

Prosocial behaviour

Answer 15

any behaviour that has the goal of helping another person

Question 16

Self-evaluation maintenance model

Answer 16

the theory that our self-concept can be threatened if someone performs better than us on a task that is relevant to our sense of esteem

Question 17

Urban overload hypothesis

Answer 17

the hypothesis that people who live in urban areas are constantly exposed to stimulation, which in turn leads them to decrease their awareness of their environment