Chapter 9: prosocial behavior, helping others

Question 1

Prosocial behavior

Answer 1

Actions by individuals that help others, often with no immediate benefit to the helpers.

Question 2

Empathy

Answer 2

The capacity to be able to experience others emotional states, feel sympathetic toward them, and take their perspective. Consists of 3 components:

1. Emotional empathy (involves sharing the feelings and emotions of others, the emotional component)
2. Empathetic accuracy (involves perceiving others thoughts and feelings accurately, a cognitive component)
3. Empathetic concern (involves feelings of concern for another’s well-being)

Question 3

Empathy-altruism hypothesis

Answer 3

Suggests that at least some prosocial acts are motivated solely by the desire to help someone in need. This motivation can be strong enough that the helper is willing to engage in unpleasant, even dangerous activities, because compassion outweighs all other considerations.

Question 4

Negative-state relief model

Answer 4

Suggests that we help because such actions allow us to reduce our own negative emotions. We do a good thing in order to stop feeling bad.

Question 5

Empathetic joy hypothesis

Answer 5

Suggests that helpers enjoy the positive reactions shown by others whom they help.

Question 6

Competitive altruism

Answer 6

Suggests that one important reason that people help others is that doing so boost their own status and reputation and, in this way, ultimately brings them large benefits, ones that more than offset the costs of engaging in prosocial activities.

Question 7

Kin selection theory

Answer 7

From an evolutionary perspective, a key goal for all organisms- including us - is getting our genes into the next generation.

Question 8

Reciprocal altruism theory

Answer 8

Suggests that we may be willing to help people unrelated to us because helping is usually reciprocated: if we help them, they help us, so we do intimately benefit and our chances of survival could be indirectly increased.

Question 9

Defensive helping

Answer 9

Suggests that sometimes people help others - especially people who do not belong in their own ingroup - as a means of defusing status threats from them. These actions are performed not primarily to help the recipients, but rather to “put them down” in subtle ways and so reduce their threat to the ingroup’s status.

Question 10

Diffusion of responsibility

Answer 10

Suggests that the greater the number of strangers who witness an emergency, the LESS likely are the victims to receive help.

Question 11

Key steps to deciding to help (or not)

Answer 11

1. Noticing, or failing to notice, that something unusual is happening
2. Correctly interpreting an event as an emergency
3. Deciding it is your responsibility to provide help
4. Deciding that you have the knowledge and/or skills to act
5. Making the final decision to provide help

Question 12

Pluralistic ignorance

Answer 12

The tendency for an individual surrounded by a group of strangers to hesitate and do nothing. Each individual is less likely to respond if the others fail to respond.

Question 13

Factors that increase prosocial behavior

Answer 13

1. helping people similar to ourselves
2. exposure to prosocial models (live or electronic)
3. playing prosocial video games
4. Feelings that reduce our focus on ourselves
5. social class

Question 14

Factors that reduce prosocial behavior

Answer 14

1. Social exclusion - feeling left out reduces the tendency to help others
2. darkness - feelings of anonymity reduce the tendency to help others.
3. putting an economic value on our time

Question 15

Social exclusion

Answer 15

Being excluded undermines self-esteem, leads individuals to feel isolated and less satisfied with their lives, and researchers believe that the level to which someone is socially excluded or accepted factors in to their prosocial behavior

Question 16

Crowdfunding

Answer 16

A process in which entrepreneurs use the money contributed to set up and then run their companies.