Pro-Social Behaviour

Prosocial Behaviors

• behavior that is of benefit to someone else; actions which are helpful cooperative and affectionate to others.

• Increases with age

Altruism

• desire to help others even if the costs outweigh the benefits of helping

  • 9/11 attacks - employee helped his co-worked make it out but he died in the process

Empathy

• the ability to understand another person’s point of view, and to share that persons emotions

4 stages of empathy

• Global Empathy → 1st Year alive; cannot distinguish between self and others (cries when hearing another child cry)

• Egocentric Empathy → 2nd year alive; child realizes others are in distress but still responds in self-centered ways (realizes child is in distress, brings them their teddy bear because it is what would comfort them in that moment)

• Empathy for another’s feelings → 2-3 years, genuine empathy

• Empathy of anothers life condition → 4th year, now aware that other people have separate identities and life experiences

Theories of Pro-Social Behaviour

• empathy altruism hypothesis

• negative- state relief model

Empathy- Altruism Hypothesis

• people engage in helping behavior due to empathy

• potential helpers want to increase the wellbeing of the victim

• altruistically motivated

Negative - State Relief Model

• people offer to help as a mood boost

• motivating factor is self interest

• bad moods are far more likely to increase helping behavior in adults than in children

Effect of Societal Norms on Prosocial behavior in individualistic and collectivist societies

Collectivist cultures → Africa, carry out more prosocial behavior

Individualistic cultures → Europe and US priorities themselves rather than the whole community

→ Research By Whiting and Whiting

• 100% of Kenyan Children where high in altruism while only 8% of Americans were

Encouraging Pro-Social Behaviour

• Parental Influence

• Media Influences

• Observational Learning

Parental Influence

• clear and explicit guidelines

• parents should behave altruistically toward their children

• parents should have a good understanding of their children’s needs and emotions

• more prosocial behavior occurred when their mother asked them to consider how their actions would affect other people

Media Influence

• very beneficial on childrens behaviour - when shown easily imitated altruistic behaviour

• video games; circulatory effect > cycle of influence on behaviour

Observational Learning

• Bystander Intervention; helping someone you dont know

• Diffusion of responsibility; victim is more likely to get helped if there is just one witness

Bystander Effect

• witness of bystander does not volunteer to help a victim in distress but just watch what is happening

  • Diffusion of Responsibility

  • Social Influence

  • Similarity

  • Level of expertise

  • Convenience

  • Personal Issues

  • Lack of information

Diffusion of Responsibility

• no one helps because responsibility to help is spread to everyone in the group

• the greater number of bystanders, the less likely any one person will help

Social Influence

• individuals monitor the behaviour of those around them to determine how to act

• social situation is more influential then our personality traits, even if i am very helpful if no one is helping i wont either

Similarity

• more likely to help someone similar to them

• female will help a female more than a male

• student is more likely to help a student then a man in a suit

Level of Expertise

• someone who is more trained is more likely to help than an untrained passerby

Convenience

• student running late to a lesson is les likely to offer help to someone because they dont have time

Personal Issues

• less likely to offer help if they perceive the issue to be related to personal matters

Lack of Information

• help is less likely to be offered out of fear for personal safety

• not knowing the person (More likely to help ur family than a random guy)