PSY 221: Helping and Cooperation

Chapter 14: Helping and Cooperation

Overview of Chapter Content

  • When People Help

  • Why People Help

  • Increasing Helping Behavior

  • Key Topics: CONNECTEDNESS, SOCIAL DILEMMA, EGOISM, BYSTANDER EFFECT, NEGATIVE-STATE RELIEF, PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR, DIFFUSION OF RESPONSIBILITY, EMPATHY-ALTRUISM, SUPERFICIALITY, DEPTH, COOPERATION, RESPONSIBILITY, TRUST.

Prosocial Behavior and Cooperation

  • Prosocial Behavior: Refers to individual actions that are intended to benefit others.

  • Cooperation: Involves two or more individuals collaborating towards a shared goal that benefits all participants.

Influences of Helping

Factors Impacting Helping Behavior

  • Perceiving Need:
      - Factors that inhibit the ability to notice someone in need include distractions.
      - Example: Individuals are more likely to notice someone in need in a quieter rural setting compared to a crowded urban environment.

  • Time Pressure:
      - Based on the Good Samaritan study, time constraints significantly affect helping behavior.
      - Scenarios depicted included:
        - Speech about being a minister: variations included a general talk vs. one focusing on the "Good Samaritan parable."
        - Conditions: No rush, some rush, and big rush. The only significant factor impacting helping was the time constraint.

  • Judging Deservedness:
      - The Norm of Social Responsibility: Individuals who are capable have a duty to assist those who cannot help themselves.
      - Implications of perceptions of controllability and stereotypes impact judgments on deservingness.

  • Case Study:
      - The case of Kitty Genovese exemplifies situations where bystanders fail to react appropriately, showcasing discrepancies in witness behavior versus expected altruism.

Bystander Effect

  • Definition: The presence of additional bystanders reduces the likelihood of any single individual offering help in emergency situations.

  • Reasons for Bystander Effect:
      - Diffusion of Responsibility: The presence of others dilutes the perceived obligation to help.
        - Example: When a group member experiences a medical condition (e.g., seizure), the presence of other bystanders affects individual reactions.
      - Influential Factors: Situations that are ambiguous may lead to inaction, whereas those perceived as dangerous or urgent may prompt action regardless of the number of bystanders.

Norms Influence Helping

  • Social norms can dictate whether helping behavior is considered appropriate or inappropriate.
      - Examples of Norms:
        - Leadership roles can create a social responsibility norm, leading to increased helping behavior.
        - Donations often double as public knowledge of previous donations influences new contributions.
        - Negative norms can discourage helping, seen in family privacy where individuals hesitate to intervene in others' familial disputes.

Why People Help

  • Altruism: Helping behavior without personal gain.

  • Egoism: Helping behavior motivated by the pursuit of personal rewards.

  • Key Question: Can true altruism exist if individuals always consider self-interest?

Motivations for Helping

Evolutionary Perspective

  • Selection processes operate at the genetic level, promoting behaviors such as:
      1. Helping relatives (kin selection).
      2. Expectation of reciprocity.
      3. Group prosperity.
      4. Reputation enhancement.

  • These behaviors derive from adaptable cognitive and emotional processes rather than being genetically predetermined.

Mastery Motivation

  • Rewards and Costs:
      - Helping behavior is influenced by evaluating personal costs or benefits of actions.
      - Circumstantial factors lowering costs (e.g., peer presence with skills, emotional arousal) increase helper involvement despite the absence of personal reward.
      - Emotional reward: post-help satisfaction (the feel-good factor) enhances the desire to help.

Emotional Influence on Helping

Positive Mood

  • Increased social awareness enables individuals to notice needs around them.

  • Individuals in a good mood are more likely to help others, desiring to maintain that positive state.

Negative Mood

  • Self-focused attention diminishes the likelihood of noticing needs.

  • Individuals may still help in an effort to improve their mood or alleviate guilt.

Models of Helping Motivation

Negative-State Relief Model

  • Suggests individuals often help to relieve their own discomfort caused by witnessing others’ suffering.
      - Example: This model explains occasional withdrawal from help but suggests other motivations may also act.

Empathy-Altruism Model

  • Differentiates between:
      - Personal distress leading to egoistic motivation.
      - Empathetic concern leading to altruistic intention.

  • Example: A study involving a participant named “Elaine,” where empathy affected willingness to help based on perceived similarity to the victim and ease of escape from the situation.

Increasing Helping Behavior

Strategies to Overcome the Bystander Effect

  1. Reduce Ambiguity: Directly calling out in observations can clarify need for help.

  2. Increase Responsibility: Promoting a self-concept that embraces helpfulness.

  3. Teach Helping Norms: Use examples of prosocial behavior.

  4. Activate Prosocial Norms: Encourage community responsibility.

  5. Infuse Personal Responsibility: Focus attention on specific individuals to avoid anonymity.

  6. Promote Identification: Enhance feelings of connectedness to foster empathy and concern.

Conclusion

  • Recognition of how social factors shape behavior is crucial:
      - Individuals have layered motivations to assist others, including both egoistic and altruistic factors.
      - Strategies exist to enhance helping behaviors and mitigate the bystander effect, which hinges on social interpretations of circumstances and norms.