Chapter 11

7. How does mood affect helping behavior? When might a good mood lead to more helping, and when might a bad mood lead to more helping?

- when we are in a good mood, we tend to be more helpful to individuals in situations -good moods make us look on the bright side of life; giving ppl benefit of doubt -helping ppl prolongs our good mood; helping a stranger makes us feel good -good moods inc. amount of attention we pay to our selves, and this makes us more likely to behave according to our values/ideas -most value altruism and bc good moods inc our attention to this value, good moods increase helping behavior. -when we are in a bad mood, we often engage in more helping behaviors as well -when someone is feeling guilty, helping someone balances things out, reducing their guilty feelings. -when someone is sad, they are motivated to engage in activities that make them feel better.

6. Summarize the gender differences found in helping behavior. Provide two examples—one when a man is more likely to help, and the other when a woman is more likely to help.

-women are more of emotional helpers and men are more of emergency helpers Ex: -women would help more in caring for a homeless ind. and when they see a loose dog - men would help more getting ppl out of a house fire and if someone was just shot and needed medical attention

4. Summarize the empathy-altruism hypothesis. According to this view, how does personal cost and empathy determine when we will help? What are some egoistic alternative explanations for this view?

Empathy-altruism hypothesis: feeling empathy for a person prompts altruistic behavior. - when we feel empathetic towards a person, we are more willing to help them even if it does cost a lot for us. -Some egoistic alternatives for this hypothesis include helping someone because we don't want to feel guilty, we like to have peace at mind.

2. Summarize the three evolutionary factors that affect helping behavior that were discussed in class. According to evolutionary theory, what is the main goal of helping, and what implication does it have for whom we are most likely to help?

Kin selection: behavior that helps a genetic relative favored by natural selection Norm of reciprocity: we are compelled to return favors Social norms: cooperative groups more likely to survive/reproduce -goal of helping is to make a piece of yourself going so your genetics keep going -we are most likely to help our family

1. Define prosocial behavior and altruistic behavior. What are the differences between the two?

Prosocial behavior: any act performed goal of benefiting another person Altruism: desire to help another person even if it involves a cost to the helper -Diff is someone might act in a prosocial way out of self interest, hoping to get something in return. But altruism is helping purely out of the desire to benefit someone else, with no benefit (often a cost) to oneself.

3. What does a social exchange perspective say about why we help others? What does it say about when we help? Where does altruism fit into this perspective?

Social exchange perspective: desire to maximize gains and minimize losses - help only when predicted gains> predicted losses -altruism doesn't really fit into this, because we are only helping when we gain more than we lose, vs just helping to help someone out.

5. Describe a study that Batson, a UT graduate, has conducted in testing the empathy-altruism hypothesis. Be sure to identify the independent and dependent variables, and what was found.

Toi and Batson, 1982. -Participants judged radio programs, they heard an interview with a disabled student in class. They were instructed to be either: -Empathetic: take perspective (High Empathy) -Objective: don't take perspective (Low Empathy) -They were asked to help her. Some were told that they would see her in class and some were told that they wouldn't see her in class. Results: -In the high empathy group, about as many people agreed to help when they thought they would see her in class as when they thought they would not see her in class. -In the low empathy group, many more people agreed to help when they thought they would see her in class. This suggests that the empathy was low and social exchange theory was high because they didn't want to have the cost of feeling guilty for not helping her.

8. Describe the five requirements for bystander intervention to occur, and use an example to illustrate each step.

step 1: notice the event; we're often distracted and the world is distracted problem: we often lack motivation/ability ex: rural helping: more helpful bc you notice it faster/easier urban helping: things blend in bc of all the stimuli step 2: interpret the event as an emergency -in ambiguous situations we look to others, they others look to us problem: emergencies are ambiguous & informational social influence ex: alone ppl get help faster in smoke filled building vs 3 groups ppl step 3: assume responsibility to help diffusion of responsibility: as the # of bystanders increase, each bystanders ind. sense of responsibility decreases ex: kitty genovese step 4: know how to help (have ability to help) Problem: danger stop self?, being sued, performance fears" ex: knowing CPR, using phone to call 911 step 5: deciding to implement the help ex: doing CPR, offering assistance to person