Prosocial Behaviour

Question 1

prosocial behaviour

Answer 1

any act performed with the goal of benefiting another person

Question 2

altruism

Answer 2

desire to help another person even if it involves a cost to the helper

Question 3

Charles Darwin theory of evolution

Answer 3

natural selection favours genes that promote the survival of the individual

Question 4

Kin selection

Answer 4

idea that behaviours that help a genetic relative are favoured by natural selection

Question 5

Social exchange theory

Answer 5

agues that true altruism does not exist, people help when benefits outweigh the costs

Question 5

Norm of reciprocity

Answer 5

expectation that helping others will increase the likelihood that they will help us in the future

Question 6

Empathy

Answer 6

ability to put oneself in the shoes of another person and to experience events and emotions the way that person experiences them

Question 7

Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis

Answer 7

idea that when we feel empathy for a person, we will attempt to help that person for purely altruistic reasons, regardless of what we have to gain

Question 8

three basic motives underlying prosocial behaviour

Answer 8

1. evolutionary psychology
2. social exchange theory
3. empathy-altruism hypothesis

Question 9

Altruistic personality

Is it useful?

Answer 9

qualities that cause an individual to help others in a wide variety of situations
- personality tests not predictive of actual helping behaviour

Question 9

In-group

Answer 9

group with which an individual identifies as a member

Question 10

Out-group

Answer 10

any group with which an individual does not identify

Question 11

In-group vs out-group helping

Answer 11

• Help in-group members due to empathy
• Help out-group members when we have something to gain or it makes a good impression on others

Question 12

The Effects of Mood on Prosocial Behavior

Answer 12

• Positive moods → increased helping
• Negative moods → increased helping

Question 13

Religion and Prosocial Behavior

Answer 13

• Religious people are more likely to help than other people are, if the person in need of help shares their religious beliefs
• Religious people are no more helpful than nonreligious people when helping out-group members
• Religious beliefs increase hostilities toward outgroup members who do not share those beliefs

Question 14

Why are long-time residents more likely to engage in prosocial behaviour?

Answer 14

greater attachment to the community, more interdependence with one’s neighbours, greater concern with one’s reputation in the community, feel more of a stake in their community

Question 15

Why does negative moods increase helping?

Answer 15

• When people are sad, helping others is rewarding as it makes them feel better
• When people feel guilty, helping another person balances things out, reducing their guilty feelings

Question 16

Urban overload hypothesis

Answer 16

theory that people living in cities are constantly bombarded with stimulation and that they keep to themselves to avoid being overwhelmed by it

Question 17

Why people in rural areas more likely to help?

Answer 17

• More likely to internalise altruistic values
• Urban overload hypothesis

Question 18

How Can Helping Be Increased?

Answer 18

• Learning about the bystander effect
• Reminding ourselves to overcome inhibitions and do the right thing (disinhibition > inhibition condition)

Question 18

Pluralistic ignorance

Answer 18

case in which people think that everyone else is interpreting a situation in a certain way, when in fact they are not

Question 19

Bystander effect

Answer 19

the greater the number of bystanders who observe an emergency, the less likely any one of them is to help

Question 19

Overjustification effect

Answer 19

see their behaviour as caused by extrinsic reasons, underestimating the extent to which behaviour was caused by intrinsic reasons

Question 19

Five steps to helping in an emergency

Answer 19

1. Noticing the event
2. Interpreting the event as emergency - pluralistic ignorance
3. Assume responsibility - diffusion of responsibility
4. Knowing how to help
5. Implementing decision

Question 19

Diffusion of responsibility

Answer 19

phenomenon wherein each bystander’s sense of responsibility to help decreases as the number of witnesses increases

Question 20

Helping behaviour increases by playing prosocial video game and listening to songs with prosocial lyrics as it:

Answer 20

- Increases people’s empathy toward someone in need of help - Increases the accessibility of thoughts about helping others