ch. 12: altruism and prosocial behaviour

prosocial behaviour

any behaviour that has the goal of helping another person

altruism

helping without expectation of personal gain

kinship selection

the idea that we’ll more likely to help those we are genetically related to

empathy

the ability to understand other people’s perspectives and respond emotionally to other peoples experiences

moral reasoning

a personality factor that describes the extent to which a persons willingness to help depends on larger moral standards rather than the person’s needs and the expected consequences for them of helping

decision-making process model

a model that describes helping behaviour as a function of five distinct steps

1. notice something is happening

2. interpret it as an emergency

3. take responsibility for providing help

4. decide how to help

5. provide help

diffusion of responsibility

the belief that other people present in a situation will assume responsibility→ contributes to bystander effect

bystander effect

the situation whereby people are less likely to help in emergency situations when there are other people present than if the person who could help is alone, resulting in a decreased likelihood of help being given

arousal/cost-reward model

a model that describes helping behaviour as caused in part by the physiological arousal that people experience when they see someone in need of help and impact by their calculation of the costs and rewards of providing such help

good mood effort

when people are in a good mood, they are more likely to help

urban overload hypothesis

hypothesis that people who live in urban areas are constantly exposed to stimulation, leads them to decrease their awareness of their environment

empathy-altruism hypothesis

idea that when we feel empathy for a person, we will help that person even if we incur a cost in doing so

negative-state relief hypothesis

hypothesis that people are motivated to help others in order to relieve their own negative feelings

norm of reciprocity

idea that we should help those who are in need of assistance, because they will help us in the future

norm of social responsibility

idea that we have an obligation to help those who are in need of assistance

exchange relationships

a relationship in which people desire and expect strict reciprocity

self-evaluation maintainance model

the theory that our self-concept can be threatened if someone performs better than us on a task that is relevant to our sense of esteem