Social Psychology Chapter 9

Explain how reactions of the person being helped may influence the benefits of helping.

1) Although people who receive help often really need the help and may indeed feel appreciative and grateful to those who help them, receiving help may also have some negative consequences. When we help another person, it indicates that we have enough resources that we can afford to give some of them to the recipient; it also indicates that the recipient is dependent on our goodwill. Thus helping creates a status disparity in the sense that the helper is seen as having higher status than the person being helped. This inequality makes giving help an indication of high status and power and receiving help a potentially self-threatening experience for the recipient 2) The negative feelings that we experience when receiving help are likely to be particularly strong when the recipient feels that the implication of the helping is that they are unable to care for themselves. In these cases, the help is perceived as being dependency oriented. Another situation in which people may not appreciate the help they are receiving is when that help comes on the basis of one's presumed need. 3) Autonomy-oriented help allows help recipients to retain their independence despite their reliance on the more resourceful helper. This type of help is less likely to clash with help recipients' view of themselves as capable people who can help themselves.

Understand the differences between altruism and helping and explain how social psychologists try to differentiate the two

1) Altruism refers to any behavior that is designed to increase another person's welfare, particularly those actions that do not seem to provide a direct reward to the person who performs them 2) Helping: Can be done out of self-concern

Outline the ways that we might be able to increase helping.

1) First, we need to remember that not all helping is based on other-concern—self-concern is important. 2) Try to increase rewards for doing so 3) Encourage strong social connections

Review Bibb Latane and John Darley's model of helping behavior and indicate the social, psychological variables that influence each stage.

1) Noticing: People who live in small rural areas are more likely to notice and help 2) Interpreting: Events are ambiguous, and we have to interpret something as dangerous to help, have pluralistic ignorance assuming other people know the answers for the best way to help. 3) Taking responsibility: Diffusion of responsibility, 4) Implementing Action

Review the person, gender, and cultural variables that relate to altruism.

1) Person: People with altruistic personality are more prone to help than others. 2) Gender: Little gender differences in helping 3) Cultural: Collectivist cultures are more likely to help

Explain how the affective states of guilt, empathy, and personal distress influence helping.

1) Personal distress: Personal distress refers to the negative emotions that we may experience when we view another person's suffering. Because we feel so uncomfortable, when we feel personal distress, we may simply leave the scene rather than stop. 2) Empathy: Empathy refers to an affective response in which a person understands, and even feels, another person's distress and experience events the way the other person does

Review the role of reciprocity and social exchange in helping

1) Reciprocal altruism is the idea that, if we help other people now, they will return the favor should we need their help in the future. 2) Social Exchange: Reciprocal altruism is one example of the general principle of social exchange. We frequently use each other to gain rewards and to help protect ourselves from harm, and helping is one type of benefit that we can provide to others.

Outline the social norms that influence helping.

1) Reciprocity Norm: The reciprocity norm is a social norm reminding us that we should follow the principles of reciprocal altruism, found in every culture. 2) Social Responsibility Norm: The social responsibility norm tells us that we should try to help others who need assistance, even without any expectation of future paybacks. The social responsibility norm involves a sense of duty and obligation, in which people are expected to respond to others by giving help to those in need. The teachings of many religions are based on the social responsibility norm that we should, as good human beings, reach out and help other people whenever we can.

Summarize how the perceptions of rewards and costs influence helping.

1) The principles of social learning suggest that people will be more likely to help when they receive rewards for doing so. 2) In addition to learning through reinforcement, we are also likely to help more often when we model the helpful behavior of others. 3) There are still other types of rewards that we gain from helping others. One is the status we gain as a result of helping. Altruistic behaviors serve as a type of signal about the altruist's personal qualities. If good people are also helping people, then helping implies something good about the helper. When we act altruistically, we gain a reputation as a person with high status who is able and willing to help others, and this status makes us better and more desirable in the eyes of others 4) Helpers are healthy

Summarize the effects of positive and negative moods on helping.

Positive moods: Showed to increase many types of helping behavior, including contributing to charity, donating blood, and helping coworkers. There are probably several reasons. For one, a positive mood indicates that the environment is not dangerous and therefore that we can safely help others. Second, we like other people more when we are in a good mood, and that may lead us to help them. Finally, and perhaps most important, is the possibility that helping makes us feel good about ourselves, thereby maintaining our positive mood. Negative Moods: Because we hate to feel guilty, we will go out of our way to reduce any feelings of guilt that we may be experiencing. And one way to relieve our guilt is by helping. Put simply, feelings of guilt lead us to try to make up for our transgressions in any way possible, including by helping others. We may be more likely to help when we are fearful and sad to make ourselves feel better.

Describe the evolutionary factors that influence helping.

They argue that although helping others can be costly to us as individuals, altruism does have a clear benefit for the group as a whole. Remember that in an evolutionary sense, the survival of the individual is less important than the survival of the individual's genes.