Positive psy. Midterm 2

Question 1

Altruism

Answer 1

1. Behavior that is aimed at benefiting another person
2. Can be motivated by personal egoism or by pure empathic desire to help others irrespective of personal gain
3. Volunteerism : naturally related concept

Question 2

Egotism motive

Answer 2

1. Motive to pursue some sort of personal gain or benefit through targeted behavior
2. One of the most influential of all human motives
3. Drives variety of human motives- including altruism
4. Does egotism or empathy feel altruism?
5. Egotism camp: “I help because it benefits me”

Question 3

Forms of egotism-motivated altruism

Answer 3

1. When altruism results in public praise for individual rendering aid
2. Helping to lessen our own sense of personal torment
3. Feeling good about ourselves when we act kindly towards others
4. Escaping a sense of guilt for not helping, lending a hand in this situation

Question 4

Three forms of egotistical or self benefiting actions involving altruism

Answer 4

1. Public praise, or monetary reward, and then self praise
2. Avoiding social or personal punishment for failing to help
3. Helping person lessens personal distress at seeing another’s trauma

Question 5

Empathy motive / empathy - altruism hypothesis

Answer 5

1. Empathy: emotional response to perceived plight of another person, tender heartedness toward another’s emotions
2. Empathy/ altruism hyp: instances in which egotism does not appear to explain helping behaviors
   >Ex. Even when physical or psychological escape from a helping sit. Is made easy, individuals higher in empathy still help those in need
3. At times, humans are moved by their empathies to help other people

Question 6

Genetic empathy

Answer 6

1. Monozygotic correlations of .22 to .30
2. Dizygotic correlations of .05 to .09
3. Modest level of heritability
4. Altruistic behavior could be the result of trait behavior vs. state behavior (evolutionary benefit)

Question 7

Cultural variations in altruism

Answer 7

1. Women are found to give altruistically more often than men
2. Especially if women are conscientious and agreeable, and in the presence of other of women
3. Women more appreciative of altruistic traits when choosing a partner for short term relationship
4. Collectivistic society may be altruistic niche
5. Link between pro social behavior and level of religiosity

Question 8

Egotism based approaches to enhancing altruism

Answer 8

1. It is legitimate to feel good about helping others and these actions help individuals have higher self esteem.
2. Those who help more for self gain have higher mortality risk four years after study compared to those who help on a regular basis

Question 9

Empathy based approaches to enhancing altruistic actions

Answer 9

1. To teach empathy: have people interact with people who need help (breaks “down us vs them”)
2. Point out similarities with another person that may not be obvious (shared characteristics between people much greater than realized)
3. Stop seeing difference as negative and invisible
4. Work with those who especially want to see themselves as different from others

Question 10

Value based approaches to enhancing altruistic actions

Answer 10

1. Individuals who value pro social acts strongly, it becomes a piece of their identity, a sense of self-esteem
2. Heroism in pro social acts: firemen, military
3. Helping behavior may be habit forming: child volunteers more likely to give cash gifts to organizations as adults

Question 11

Measuring altruism

Answer 11

1. Self-report
2. Women show more positive attitudes about helping than men do
3. Give and take games (tokens)
4. May involve interviewer bias, assumptions

Question 12

Gratitude

Answer 12

1. Kindness, generousness, gifts, the beauty of giving and receiving
2. Taps into appreciating and savoring everyday events and experiences
3. Can be derived from another person, or nonhuman action or event

Question 13

Cultural variations in gratitude

Answer 13

1. Expressions of gratitude and reactions to these expressions differ between east and west.
2. “Thank you,” produces more positive reactions in US than in Korea
3. Koreans prefer the use of apology phrases as opposed to thank you, US had opposite reaction
4. White Americans benefit more greatly than Asian Americans when using gratitude expression as a vehicle for increasing happiness
5. Religiousness positively correlated with gratitude

Question 13

Cultivating gratitude

Answer 13

1. Those who kept weekly gratitude journals, compared to those who didn’t, were superior in 1. Amount of exercise 2. Optimism about the coming week 3. Feeling better about their lives.
2. They also recorded greater enthusiasm, alertness, and determination, and more likely to make progress toward goals pertaining to health, interpersonal relationships, and academic performance.
3. Youth low in positive affect able to make greater increases in level of gratefulness and had higher positive affect post intervention
4. Adults asked to write gratitude letters once a week: increases in happiness and life satisfaction, decreases in depression
5. Hong Kong schoolteachers: using naikan meditation gratitude: gratitude and life satisfaction increased, emotional exhaustion decreased

Question 14

Emmons work on gratitude

Answer 14

1. Incorrect assumption on gratitude: assume gratefulness is synonymous with lack of motivation and greater complacency in life

Question 15

Forgiveness

Answer 15

1. Beneficial to people
2. Scholars differ in their definitions
3. A freeing from a negative attachment to the source that has transgressed against a person (Thompson). Source of transgression may be oneself, another person, or a situation viewed as out of ones control.
4. Forgiveness reflects increases in pro social motivation towards another 1. Less desire to avoid transgressors 2. Increased desire to act positively toward transgressors. Changes in motivation are viewed as being at the core of this theory (applicable only when another person is transgressors) (McCullough)
5. Forgiveness only extended to people, not to situations (Enright)
6. Giving up negative emotions is the crux of forgiveness (Tangney)

Question 16

Individual and cultural variations if forgiveness

Answer 16

1. When a transgressor apologizes, forgiveness is more likely to follow
2. forgiveness may be more comfortably granted when a transgressor knows that a victim feels that forgiveness is a pardoning of behavior
3. Those who are more independent in their self-construal tend to be more forgiving when the transgressor clearly states what he or she will do to make things right and re-create equality in the relationship
4. Forgiveness more dispositional with age, the older you are the more willing you are to forgive but as a rule the number and seriousness of transgressions seem to decrease an older adulthood too
5. In some cultures, forgiveness maybe or interpersonal versus intrapersonal
6. forgiveness more common in eastern cultures as compared to western cultures (sociAl harmony). Reconciliation attempt is a necessary precursor to forgiveness in certain cultures
7. Men may have more stronger initial responses to forgiveness than women. Women may exert more time and effort toward forgiving, and they also appear to respond to multiple types of forgiveness
8. Link between forgiveness and health may be stronger in African-Americans as compared to white Americans
9. Having a personal identity that includes religiosity may affect propensity to forgive

Question 17

Forgiving another person

Answer 17

1. First step is to promote a non-distorted, realistic appraisal of the relationship of two people
2. Second step attempt to facilitate a release from the bond of ruminative, negative affect held toward the the violating partner
3. Third step help the victimized partner lessen his or her desire to punish the transgressing partner

Question 18

Forgiving oneself

Answer 18

1. With the client feels guilt or shame
2. Consequences of not forgiven oneself can be much more severe than the consequences of not forgiving another person
3. Interventions to lessen counterproductive criticism of the self are aimed at helping the individual take responsibility for the bad act or actions and then let go so that he or she can move forward

Question 19

Forgiveness of a situation

Answer 19

1. The target of forgiveness can be another person, oneself, or a situation
2. Clients often point to their life circumstances as the causes of their problems. Treatment and tails instruction and stopping thoughts about earlier negative life events so that they can instead look ahead toward the future
3. Victims of domestic violence who were able to forgive their abusive partners were more likely to return to the violent situation. Take care and linking the ideas of forgiveness and reconciliation
4. Sometimes maladaptive behaviors are maintained through the process of self forgiveness. Ex. Smokers who have higher self forgiveness, more likely to continue smoking and resist change towards a healthier lifestyle
5. Many Eastern countries promote shame as a function reaction in some social situations, but is touted as negative and nonfunctional in western societies