Helping Behavior

Strangers Lending a Helping Hand

• Calvin Wright and his sisters, Heidi and Kimberly, were caught in a riptide.
• None of them knew how to swim and they screamed for help.
• Bob Feczko, 15, heard their cries and plunged into the water to help.
• Bob rescued Heidi, and others helped Kimberly and Calvin to shore.
• Bob had been terrified of the water as a child but had forced himself to learn to swim.

Defining Altruism and Prosocial Behavior

• Altruism: Performing acts voluntarily to help someone else without any expectation of reward.
• Whether an act is altruistic depends on the intentions of the helper.
• Prosocial Behavior: Any act that helps or is designed to help others, regardless of the helper's motives.
• Many prosocial acts are not altruistic.

Types of Helping

• Casual Help: Giving directions, picking up dropped papers.
• Substantial Help: Lending money, helping someone move.
• Emotional Help: Listening to someone talk through a problem.
• Emergency Help: Taking someone to the hospital, pushing a car out of a ditch.

Factors Affecting Prosocial Behavior

• Relationship between people: More helpful to those we know and care about.
• Help offered to strangers is less common but not rare.

Theoretical Perspectives on Helping

• Evolutionary Approach: Predisposition to help is part of our genetic heritage.
• Sociocultural Perspective: Emphasizes the importance of social norms.
• Learning Approach: People learn to be helpful through reinforcement and modeling.
• Decision-Making Perspective: Focuses on judgments about when help is needed and weighing costs and benefits.
• Attribution Theory: Willingness to help depends on the