Prosocial behaviour

social psych

what is prosocial behaviour

behaviours to help other people

what is the case of Catherine (kitty) Genovese

an incident in 1964 where a women was murdered in New York while her neighbours (bystanders) failed to intervene or help her, showing the bystanderd effect

what is the bystander effect

individuals are less likely to help someone in need when other people are present, compared to when the person who could help is alone

what is diffusion of responsibility

when individuals assume others will take responsibility for helping in a situation

what are the 5 steps to helping in an emergency

1. notice that something is happening, 2. interpret the event as an emergency, 3. take responsibility for providing help, 4. decide how to help, 5. provide help

what is step 1 helping in an emergency and what are the barriers to helping

noticing that something unusual is happening - barriers to helping —> helping is much less likely to occur when were preoccupied, as seen in the urban overload hypothesis which theorizes big cities block out extra noise, making soemone less liekly to notice an event

what is step 2 of helping in an emergancy and what are the barriers

correctly interpreting the situation as an emergency - barriers to helping —> the ambiguity to the situation seen from pluralistic ignorance, which is when you look to others for clues on how to behave, while they’re looking to you

what was Darley and Latane’s “smoke study”

put participants in a room alone vs. with others - looked ot see the % of participants who left the room when smoke came in through the vents - found that when alone, 75% left to report the smoke, but only 10% left when there were others in the room.

what is step 3 in helping in an emergency

assuming responsibility, which often stems from what we think —> if we think someone is more likely to help, we’re less likely to

what is the 4th step in helping in an emergency and what are the barriers

deciding how to help - deciding between indirect or direct help, which comes into play when were unsure of how to do something ( lacking the skills, knowledge, or confidence, impedes this stage) - barriers to helping —> lacking competence

what is step 5 in helping in an emergency and what are the barriers

providing help, or the actual helping of the situations - this can be impeded by two barriers —> audience inhibition (failure to help in front of others for fear of looking foolish if the person doesnt want help) and the cost of helping (personal injury, legal liability) outweighing the benefits (social approval, reward)hw

how can you get help in an emergency

identify one person in the crowd, clearly label the situation as an emergency, and give instructions on how to help

what are individual difference factors

other factors that can influence helping behaviour like mood

how can mood effect behviour

A positive or negative mood can affect how we respond to someone who needs our help - for example, a positive mood makes epople more likely to help

what are some reasons for the “good mood effect”

mood maintenance (keeping someone in a good mood), people in a good mood focus on the good things in an environment, self awareness (people in good moods tend to be very aware of themselves and match their behaviour with how they view themselves), reciprocal relationship (good mood makes you more likely to help, and helping improves mood)

bad mood (negative emotions)

guilt (a feeling of responsibility or remorse for some offence), negative state relief hypothesis ( helping someone to reduce their own negative emotions) environmental factors (urban overload)

What are personality factors that contribute to helping

empathy, social responsibility, self efficacy, locus of control, self monitoring

what is empathy

the ability to feel what another person is feeling and understand their perspective, resulting in appropriate responses

what is social responsibility

the belief that people have a civic duty to help (to benifit society) linked to egocentrism (self absortion)

what is slef efficacy

belief in ones ability to perform or execute behaviours - kinda like confidence

what is locus of control

the degree to which people believe they have control over outcomes (two kinds) internal - you have control over what happens, external - others or luck have control over what happens

what is self monitoring

the process of observing and evaluating how one is behaving or thinking to damage performance in social interactions

what is altruistic personality

a group of traits

who is most likely to get help when they are in need

people with higher physical attractiveness, those similar to the person helping, gender (men help more than women in stranger situations),

what are the three theories of prosocial behaviour

1. empathy altruism hypothesis, 2. negative-state relief hypothesis, 3. empathetic joy hypothesis

what is the empathy altruism hypothesis

you see someone who needs help - do you feel empathy for them? if yes, then you're helping for altruistic reasons; if no, and you do help, then youre doing it for reward

what is the negative state relief hypothesis

this is when a person observes an emergency, and a negative emotion is induced (sadness, guilt) —> these emotions elicit a helping behaviour or other mod elevating nebhaviours to reduce our own negative feelings

what is the empathetic joy hypothesis

When you observe an emergency and you want to help becuase youll experiecce joy from helping —> in this there is kin selection - tells us thatw ere more likely to help our relatives over our friends because of reporductive favouring