W7 Pro-Social Behaviour and Helping

Flashcards on Social Psychology: Helping and Prosocial Behavior, covering motivations for helping, types of prosocial behavior, altruism, and the bystander effect.

Prosocial behaviour

Actions that are generally valued by other people in a particular society.

Helping behaviour

Acts where people voluntarily and intentionally behave in a way they believe will benefit others.

Altruism

An act which benefits others but is not expected to have any personal benefits.

Reciprocity

Returning a favour for a favour; a social norm responsible for helping behaviour.

Social responsibility

We should help others when they are dependent on us; a social norm responsible for helping behaviour.

Social justice

We should help others who deserve help (i.e., ‘good’ people in trouble); a social norm responsible for helping behaviour.

Modelling

Learning to engage in helping behaviour by observing the behaviour of others.

Social exchange theory

What we do stems from desire to maximize rewards and minimize costs; true altruism does not exist.

Empathy

Put oneself in the shoes of another person and experience events and emotions the way that person experiences them.

Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis

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

Bystander effect

The presence/absence of other people will affect how likely someone is to help.

Pluralistic ignorance

When a situation is ambiguous, people will look to others around them for cues of whether they should help; can lead to everyone thinking that no help is needed, when that is not actually the case.