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What is prosocial behaviour
actions that are generally valued by other people in a particular society
what is helping behaviour
acts where people voluntarily and intentionally behavie in a way they believe will benefit others
what is altruism
an act which benefits thers but is not expected to have any personal benefits
what are the different levels of helping
short-term vs long-term helping
person-based vs community-based
emergency vs non-emergency helping
bystander effects
acts of heroism
why do people help (5)
evolutiionary
modelling
social norms
social exchange
altruism-empathy
what does the evolutionary perspective
we are biologically predisposed to help others - very young children are pre-disposed to prosocial behaviour and empathy
what type of people is there a preference for
helping blood relatives because this increases the chances for the helper’s genes to pass on to successive generations
how is blood relatives observed
not readily, people help adopted children and close friends but also strangers - does not explain situations where people harm their children
what are the three social norms responsible for helping behaviour
reciprocity - returning favour for favour
social responsibity - we should help others when they are dependent on us
social justice - we should help others who deserve help (i.e. 'good’ people in trouble)
how does modelling impact how we help others
we have learnt to do so by observing the behaviour of others
what does modelling focus on
focuses on external factors: it is the observation of others in the situation that explains why we help - knowing what to do can come from others
what is the social exchange theory
what we do stems from the desire to maximise rewards and minimise costs - in relationships with others, try to maximise the ratio of social rewards and minimise social costs
how can helping be rewarding (4)
the norm of reciprocity (increase likelihood of future help)
investment in future (someone will help us when we need it)
relief of bystander distress
gain rewards (improve self-presentation, increased feelings of self-worth)
how can helping be costly
physical danger, pain, embarrassment, time - when costs are high, helping decreases
what does the social exchange theory argue for altruism
true altruism doesnt exist - people help when benefits outwiegh the costs
what happened during the shotland and straw experiment
showed ppts a videotape of a fight between a man and a woman - ‘get away from me! i dont know you’, ‘get away from me! i dont know why i even married you!’
what were the results of the shortland and straw study
ppts believed the woman was in greater danger when fighting with a stranger (high benefit of intervening) - ppts believed that they would be in more danger intervening in the domestic gight (high cost of intervening)
authors proposed that ppts are more likely to intervene when they observed a woman fighting a stranger
what is empathy
put oneself in the shoes of another person and experience events and emotions the way that person experiences them
what is 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
what did ppts observe in the batson et al experiment
a confederate in pain - either told the confederate had very similar attitudes to them, or different attitudes to them (more likely to feel empathy to people who are similar to us)
then either told they would have to observe the victim until the end of the experiment if they did not help, or that they would soon be able to leave
what happened if the confederate was similar to the ppt
a high proportion agreed to take their place (regardless of difficult / easy escape route)
what happened if the confederate was dissimilar to the ppt,
ppts only offered to help when they could not easily escape
what happened when people were motivated by empathy
reacted altruistically, goal to reduce suffereing of confederate
what happened when people were not motivated by empathy
reacted egotistically, goal to reduce own personal suffering
what is the bystander effect
the presence / abscence of other people will affect how likely someone is to help
what did darley and latané do in a study investiagting the bystander effect
a ppt had a group discussion and heard another student falling silent after crying out for help
what is pluralistic ignorance
relevant to bystander effect, when a situation is ambiguous, people will look to others around them for cues of whether they should help
what can pluralistic ignirance lead to
everyone thinking that no help is needed, when that is not actually the case
what is the bystander effect decision tree
step 1 → notice the evnt
step 2 → interpret the evnt as an emergency (pluralistic ignorance)
step 3 → assume responsibility (diffusion of responsibility)
step 4 → know how to help
step 5 → decide to help
what is the recent evidence of bystander effect from 2020
a paper was published that called the bystander effect into question and philpot looked at CCTV footage from the UK, south africa and the Netherlands, exploring whther bystanders would intervene to help, in actual real-life conflicts
they found that in 90% of conflicts at least one person would step in to help
what was increased bystander presence related to
increased likelihood of helping
