human relationships social responsibility, word cues theory

Biological Explanations For Prosocial Behaviour

Prosocial behaviour - BROAD

One EXTREME FORM IS altruism

why: AS A SPECIES

-          Natural selection -> ^behaviour ^survival, kin selection -> relatives ^survival

BOTH = selfish gene theory – drive for survival of ones genes

AS INDIVIDUALS -> BRAIN ANATOMY

-          Related to amygdala activation. Larger amygdala, more empathy, more helping behaviours.

Cognitive Explanations For Prosocial Behaviour

Prosocial behaviour, theory of the mind, empathy

witness stressful event =

1.      Personal distress (fear, discomfort) = LOW empathy

2.      Empathetic concern (compassion, sympathy, sadness) = HIGH empathy

Personal distress – TWO A) removing yourself (walk away, avoid) B) egoistic helping (help to make yourself feel better) WHICH ONE ease, cost-benefit analysis

Empathetic concern – LEADS TO -> altruistic helping (ensures the person feels better)

-          WHEN egotistic helping WHEN altruistic helping – easy to remove?

THERE ARE TWO THEORIES – Batsen (1980) Empathy Altruism Model, Kaldini (1987) Negative State Relief Model

sociocultural explanation

1)      Social explanations for prosocial behaviour = social identity theory

-          Social categorisation -> social identification (salience) -> social comparison (in-group favouritism AND out group discrimination

-          Social norms (salience)

2)      Cultural explanations – cultural norms

-          how does the broader culture view: collectivism vs individualism

-          social compassion – sympatico hypothesis – Latin America and Spain norm around looking out for others.

the bystander effect

Bystanderism

Diffusion of responsibility – Results in no action taken.

 

Informational vs normative social influence

Informational social influence – QUESTIONS WHETHER HELP IS NEEDED

Then – Pluralistic ignorance

Normative social influence

 Arousal cost reward model states that arousal is a motivational factor b

CREATED BY Pilivan – similar to Cialdini’s negative state model

Seeing a person distressed = emotional arousal

DEBATES REWARDS VS COSTS

Rewards = reducing own negative feeling + feel good about helping

Costs = personal safety + inconvenience + embarrassment

 

LATANE in 1981 created the law of social impact

S = strength of situation

I = immediacy of need

N = number of people

promoting prosocial

TWO APPROACHES TO PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR – prosocial behaviour is…

ONE

Explicitly teaching altruism WITH empathy training OR bystander intervention programs

EMPATHY TRAINING – FLOOK

-          more empathy; more helping

-          teaching consideration of feelings; the value of kind actions; a direct curriculum integration

BYSTANDER INTERVENTION PROGRAM – BANYARD

-          explaining HOW to help in different situations

-          goal to LOWER informational or social influence or pluralistic ignorance BY emphasising responsibility

TWO

Modelling prosocial behaviour WITH social cognitive theory - DEELEUW

-          having role models that are relatable; model replicable behaviour and is reinforced; tv programs i.e. sesame street