Exam 4 Social Psychology

Altruism

Motive to increase another's welfare with out conscious regard for own self-interest. Is a function of self-interest and empathy

Social Exchange Theory, Social Norms Theory, Evolution Psychology Theory

What are the 3 Theories of Helping?

Social Exchange Theory

The theory that human interactions are transactions that aim to maximize one's rewards and minimize one's costs.
-Believes helping is egotistical not altruistic
-Psychological explanation

External or internal

Rewards for helping can be -------(acknowledgment for helping) or --------(increase in positive emotions).

Facts under the Social Exchange Theory

-guilt can lead to prosocial behavior
-helping others leads to less depression
-sadness about someone else's situation leads to more helping
-self-focused sadness leads to less helping
-helping other leads to a boost in self-esteem

Social Norms Theory

The theory that we help because it is the right thing to do.
-Sociological explanation

Feel-Bad/Do Good

We are eager to do good after doing bad. This reflects our need to reduce private guilt, restore a shaken self-image, and reclaim a positive public image.
-Exceptions to this phenomenon include profound grief or a negative mood such as anger

Feel Good, Do Good

The idea that happy people are helpful people

Reciprocity Norm and Social Responsibility Norm

What are 2 important social norms?

Reciprocity norm

People will help those who have helped them which promotes social capital.

Social capital

The mutual support and cooperation enabled by a social network

Social responsibility norm

Help those who cannot help themselves without any feelings of reciprocity.
-attributions one makes about the help they need influences willingness to help (less likely to help if you attribute to their disposition, but more likely to help if you attribute to the situation)

Evolution Psychology Theory

Theory that believes the most important thing that governs behavior is gene survival.
-Biological explanation

Kin selection

The idea that evolution has selected altruism toward one's close relatives to enhance the survival of mutually shared genes

Kin selection, direct reciprocity, indirect reciprocity, groups

What are the 4 Evolutionary Strategies for Cooperation?

Indirect reciprocity

I'll help you, you help a member, they'll help me

Direct reciprocity

Help to expect help -----> gene survival

Group selection

helpful groups leads to survival and in-group favoritism

Empathy

The vicarious experience of another's feelings; putting oneself in another's shoes

Egoism

Behavior focused on increasing one's own welfare

Genuine altruism

-The vicarious experience of another's feelings that exists only with empathy
-Seeing suffering leads to distress
-Own distress reduced by avoidance(egoism) or helping and empathy(altruism)

Yes

Do psychologist believe helping can be both egoistic and empathetic?

Situational, internal, and external influences

What are 3 factors that affect when we will help?

Situational Influences

-Number of bystanders
~notice situation, interpret, others must not be alarmed (conformity), and assume responsibility
~you take social cues from others on whether or not to help/is something is an emergency
-Help when someone else does (human behavior is contagious)
-Time pressure: less likely to help if under time pressure
-Similarity: tend to help those we perceive as similar to ourselves

Bystander effect

The finding that a person is less likely to provide help when there are other bystanders

Internal Influences

-Negative mood (guilt)
-Other-focused sympathy
-Personality traits: emotionality, empathy, self-efficacy
-High self monitors: help if helping leads to social rewards

External Influences

Social norms/# of bystanders

Moral exclusion

Omitting certain people from one's circle of moral concern. Justifies harm from discrimination to genocide.

Women

Who is more likely to help in safe situations?

Men

Who is more likely to help in dangerous situations?

Yes

Do women give help equally?

Women

Who do men help most?

Facts about how to increase help

Undo the restraints on helping behavior
-Reduce ambiguity/increase responsibility
-Personalized appeals (name tags, eye contact, camera)
-Enable guilt and concern for self- image
Socialize Altruism
-Teach moral inclusion
-Model altruism
-Learn by doing
-Attribute altruistic behavior to altruism
-Learn and teach more about altruism

Undo the restraints on helping behavior and socialize altruism

What are 2 ways to increase helping?

High religiosity

What leads to long term sustained helping and donations?

Misinformation Effect

Incorporating "misinformation" into one's memory of the event after witnessing an event and receiving misleading information about it

Reactance

A motive to protect or restore one's sense of freedom. This arises when someone threatens our freedom of action.
-Example: a child eating as many cupcakes as they can simply because their parent told them that they shouldn't eat so many

Retelling

------- the story strengthens one's commitment to recollection and strengthens one's confidence in memory accuracy

Strategies for reducing eyewitness errors

-Train police interviews
-Allow witnesses to give uninterrupted account of all that come to mind
-Have witnesses visualize the scene/event and what they were thinking/feeling
-Use open-ended questions
-Minimize false lineup identifications
-Frame questions without hidden presumption (did you see THE stop sign vs. did you see A stop sign
-Educate jurors about pitfalls of eyewitness testimony

How to minimize false lineup identifications

-Have witnesses give a yes or no to a sequence of people/photos
-State that the perpetrator may not be in the lineup
-Lineup with no suspect; one suspect and several innocent people
-Use a one-person lineup

The misinformation effect and retelling

What are 2 reasons for eyewitness inaccuracy?

The defendant's characteristics and the judge's instructions

What are 2 influences on jurors' judgements?

The defendant's characteristics

-Physical attractiveness (more attractive defendants are less likely to be found guilty and receive lighter sentences)(unattractive are more likely to get death penalty vs. life in. prison)
-Similarity to the jurors (similarity leads to liking which leads to shorter sentences and less convictions)
-African Americans over punished as defendants and undervalued as victims

The judge's instructions

-Ignore inadmissible evidence
-If inadmissible info is emotional, it's harder to disregard
-Pretrial publicity can also be hard to disregard
-Additional influences: the severity of the potential sentence

What influences individual jurors?

-Juror comprehension/understanding
-Jury Selections
-"Death Qualified" jurors

Juror Comprehension/understanding

-Evidence understood if in narrative
-Have judges instruction given in English
-Give jurors a transcript

Jury Selection

Each side wants jurors who are sympathetic to its side

"Death Qualified" jurors

-Don't oppose death penalty
-More likely to convict
-Less concerned with defendants rights
-Likely to view criminal justice system as too soft
-More prone to prosecution vs. defense
-Tend to be authoritarian and feel contempt of lower status folk

No

Do states with the death penalty have lower homicides?

Executing a prisoner

What costs more money: executing a prisoner or life in prison?

Determine guilt and determine the penalty

What are the 2 parts of a death penalty case?

Minority influence, informational/normative influence, and group polarization

How do group influences affect jurors?

Minority influence

Must be persuasive, consistent, persistent, and self-confident (jurors)

Informational influence

Accept members perceptions to be right

Normative Influence

Accept members perceptions to be liked

Group polarization

-Deliberation may make initial positions stronger
-The longer the deliberation, the more likely the verdict will be not guilty
-When minority prevails, its usually acquittal (the accused is free from the charge of the offense)
-When majority prevails, usually conviction
-When the judge and jury disagrees, judge usually wants convictions

12 jurors

-Groups collectively recall info better than individually
-Greater chance of diversity
-Deliberation tends to reduce individual biases
-Reduces consideration of inadmissible evidence (evidence that cannot be used in court to prove a fact at issue in the case)

6 jurors

-Less chance of diversity
-Split 10-2 is not the same as a 5-1

Simulated vs. real juries

-Most social psychologists research using mock juries
-Caution must be used generalizing findings to actual court rooms, particularly for death penalty cases

No

When states dropped the death penalty, did homicides rise?

No

When states initiated the death penalty, did homicide rates rise?