PSY290 Guest + Mini Lecture

social behavior

behavior between people that is vital to survival, success, and health

need to belong theory

we have an innate drive to form and maintain interpersonal bonds

prosocial behavior

voluntary behavior for the benefit of others that comes with potential cost

prosocial behavior is associated with

psychological and physical well-being in the helper

types of prosocial behavior

pure altruism, reciprocal, strategic

pure altruism

true prosociality with no intended benefit

reciprocal prosocial behavior

expectation of future returns from helped party

strategic prosocial behavior

for reputational benefit and maintenance of norms

predictors of prosocial behavior

trait matching, time, current mood

differences in prosocial behavior starts at

2 years old, role of genetics and environment

prosocial behavior is modestly correlated with

empathy

2 types of empathy

cognitive and affective

cognitive empathy

understanding of someone’s emotional state

affective empathy

resonance with emotional state

compassion fatigue

decline in overall motivation or ability to nurture, linked to lower psychological well being

who is vulnerable to compassion fatigue

health care professionals

what disorders affect prosociality

anti-social personality disorder, psychopathy, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy has

reduced emotional empathy and neural response to suffering

autism spectrum disorder has

reduced cognitive empathy and altered theory of mind

ADHD impacts prosociality via

problems with executive dysfunction

dictator ultimatum game

dictator given all money and can offer any portion of money, participant determines whether or not amount offered is fair, and in 2nd phase will punish dictator

4 things associated with prosociality

empathy and response to suffering, theory of mind, reward value, neurophysiology

neural correlates of empathy

anterior insula, somatosensory cortex, anterior cingulate cortex

empathy is ___ correlated with prosociality

weakly

perception-action model

stimulate psychological states of others to understand them

perception-action model involves the

anterior insula

theory of mind

ability to take on other people’s perspectives

theory of mind from ages 5-6

people can have different beliefs

theory of mind from ages 6-7

people can have intentions that don’t literally mean what they say, jokes emerge

theory of mind from ages 9-11

representation of more than one mental state

oxytocin has a ___ dependent effect on cohesion

context

__ genes associated with prosociality

oxytocin

neurophysiological compounds related to prosociality

oxytocin, opioids, serotonin

people taking SSRIs in the dictator game are more likely to

accept unfair offers

neuromanipulation for prosociality is

ineffective