Ch 10- Helping and Prosocial Behavior

prosocial behavior

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

Altruism

Helping others purely out of selfless concern for their well-being

Egoistic altruism

Helping others in exchange for some kind of personal benefit

Social exchange theory

model for understanding romantic relationships that suggests that relationship stability is predicted by commitment, which is, in turn, predicted by a combination of satisfaction within the relationship and the potential for quality alternative relationships

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

formula for understanding when prosocial behavior will emerge that can be written as (r × b) > c, where r is the genetic relatedness of the person who needs help, b is the benefit of helping, and c is the cost of helping

Reciprocal altruism

Altruistic behavior that occurs because individuals expect that their helpfulness now will be returned in the future

Social responsibility norm

idea that each individual has a duty to improve the world by helping those in need

negative state relief model

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

Empathy-altruism hypothesis

idea that feelings of empathy and compassion create a purely altruistic motivation to help

Machiavellianism

personality trait that describes people who are manipulative, distrustful of others, and egocentric

Big 5 Model

model of personality that posits that five fundamental personality traits differentiate between people and predict behaviors: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism

Agency

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

Communion

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

Prosocial moral reasoning

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

Bystander effect

phenomenon in which the likelihood of being helped in an emergency is negatively correlated with the number of people who witness that emergency