Chapter 10- Helping and Prosocial Behavior

prosocial behavior

any action performed to help others, either on an individual level or a group level

pure altruism

helping others purely out of selfless concern for their wellbeing, with no expectation of a reward

egoistic altruism

helping others in exchange for some personal benefit

social exchange theory

the idea that people form dyads or large groups because of mutually shared benefits

kinship selection

the evolutionary urge to favor those with closer genetic relatedness

inclusive fitness

the probability that our genetic heritage will be preserved in the offspring of relatives

hamilton's inequality

a formula that predicts helping will occur when the benefits to ourselves or our genetic relatives outweigh the costs

reciprocal altruism

altruistic behavior that occurs because we expect to be "paid back" in the future

negative state relief model

the idea that seeing another person in need causes us emotional distress, and helping decreases those negative emotions

empathy-altruism hypothesis

the idea that feelings of compassion create a purely selfless motivation to help

mirror neurons

neurons that respond in parallel when we observe other experience something

EX: we feel hungry when watching someone eat

big 5 model

a theory that 5 fundamental personality traits make us distinct and predict behavior: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism

dark tirad

a group of three personality traits associated with lack of ethics and need for power, Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathology

moral hypocrisy

when someone's behavior doesn't match their stated moral and ethical standards

moral integrity

when people are motivated to live up to their own stated morals and ethics

gender socialization

the expected patterns of behavior deemed appropriate for men and women

agency

a stereotypically male-oriented pattern of behavior that emphasizes being masterful, assertive, competitive, and dominant

communion

a stereotypically female-oriented pattern of behavior that emphasizes being friendly, unselfish, other-oriented and emotional expressive

prosocial moral reasoning

our ability to analyze moral dilemmas in which two or more people's needs conflict with each other and where formal rules are absent

urban overload hypothesis

the idea that people in cities avoid social interactions like helping strangers because they are overwhelmed by the number of people they encounter each day

bystander effect

the finding that the likelihood of being helped in an emergency is negatively correlated with the number of people who witness it, probably due to diffusion of responsibility