ch10

what does Dawkin's idea of the "selfish gene" propose?

- natural selection of traits such as altruism actually occurs at the individual level. - A person who helps another puts himself at risk and depletes his own resources, making it less likely that he will pass along his trait for altruism to his offspring.

what are the weaknesses of anecdote?

1. is not based on careful, systematic observation 2. may be unique, and not generalized to population

what are some weaknesses of commonsense belief?

1. is not careful and systematic observation 2. may be biased by cultural and social influences

what are some strengths of statement of authority?

1. can provide support when the authority has relevant knowledge 2. is convenient because acquiring one's own knowledge and expertise is time consuming

what are the strengths of anecdote?

1. can vividly illustrate an ability, or behavior 2. provide a real-world example

how do you counter a false dichotomy? (2)

1. consider whether there are more than selfish or altruistic motives in any given situation 2. consider your measurement of selfish and altruistic behavior e.g.) you help others because you feel guilty for not helping them in need --> does it count as selfish? altruistic?

how does perspective taking help?

1. Helps someone making an argument examine assumptions from the perspective of the other side 2. Helps root out of unwarranted assumptions people made in defending their own favored position

what are some weaknesses of statement of authority?

1. misleading when the authority does not have relevant knowledge 2. may be biased by personal experience and beliefs

what were the results of the experiment?

1. selfish people did not want to help even if they were offered a reward 2. the receptive-giving participants would help if promised a reward 3. altruistic people volunteered more when they were NOT offered a reward than when they were.

what are some weaknesses of personal experience?

1. subjective, often biased, and subject to forgetting and other cognitive errors 2. may be unreliable because people are often unaware of the real reasons for their behaviors and experiences

what are the strengths of personal experience?

1. tells what a person may have been feeling, experiencing or aware of 2. is often compelling and vivid

what are some strengths of commonsense belief?

1. the view is shared by many people 2. is familiar and appeals to everyday experience

Given that the heritability of empathy was found to be high (in one study, .72), which interpretation of these findings is MOST appropriate with regard to the question of whether people are basically selfish?

There is a genetic influence of empathy on individual differences measured in the population related to helping behavior.

myside bias

Type of confirmation bias in which people generate and test hypotheses in a way that is biased toward their own opinions and attitudes.

reciprocal altruism

a kind of motivational mechanism for helping an unrelated individual when it is likely that the individual being helped will reciprocate (do the same) and return the favor

what is the quality and quantity of the two studies (Burnstein et al., 1994; Mainer and Gailliot, 2007) on people that are more inclined to help kin? - Burnstein et al. (1994) was ___ - Mainer and Gailiot (2007) was ___

a scientific study a true, high-quality experiment (participants read rom scenarios and responded...)

how does empathy relate to altruism?

altruism evolved from the same mechanism that underlie the empathetic behaviors further supporting an evolutionary basis to empathy.

perspective taking

an active process of trying to look at a question from another person's viewpoint

how does kinship selection account for altruistic behavior?

an individual will be more likely to sacrifice resources for a close relative than for an unrelated person because close kin share 50% of the individual's genes.

prosocial behavior

any behavior that is focused on benefitting others or society at large = helping behavior

developmental psychological perspective

examines the changes in helping that occur as a person develops or matures

why is it useful to take different perspectives on complex, fundamental questions?

because the different perspectives and approaches used in these fields provide information about the various aspects of a complex question and about systems that operate at different levels.

if this finding is interpreted to mean that altruistic people find it more internally rewarding to help when they are not given an external reward, this supports the conclusion that people are:

basically selfish, because even altruistic people were getting an internal reward

how do you counter mysids bias?

by deliberately evaluation both sides of an argument and looking are questions from different perspectives

heritability studies ___

cannot show that genes cause a behavior = we should not conclude that empathy is a trait that causes or otherwise determines behavior

what is the contribution of development? of learning?

communication of parents expectations for prosocial behavior, reward young children for showing it, punish for failing to show it and model prosocial behavior for their children to observe in various situations.

explain how thinking errors, such as black-and-white thinking, mysids bias, and circular reasoning, can get in the way of thinking effectively about the ideas in this chapter?

defining altruism and egoism as qualitatively distinct motives creates a false dichotomy (black-and-white thinking), and ignore the possibility for a third position that is consistent with evidence. Also, by treating two extreme positions as the only alternatives to be considered, when in reality at least one other poison exists, it ignores the fact that individual's helping behavior depends on one or more factors. circular reasoning: it hinders the ability of psychologists to examine the conditions triggering the altruistic motive that produce the helping behavior.

psychologists are more interested in ___ and ___.

describing behavior understanding why someone helped or did not help

what can you conclude from this experiment? --> more people available to help leads to more ___

diffusion of responsibility

research on innate basis of empathy: what did Hoffman (1981) propose?

empathy is a mechanism underlying altruism that evolved in humans Sagi and Hoffman (1976): babies who heard baby cries cried more

what were the results?

group 1: 85% tried to get help for the victim (thought they were alone) group 2: 30% sought help (thought others could also help)

what did Mathews et al. (1981) find in his research?

he found at least a partial generic contribution for empathy and altruism

altruism

helping another person or other people without the expectation of receiving any benefit in return

what psychological factors contribute to helping behaviors?

influence of social learning

Wilkinson described how bats will regurgitate blood for other hungry bats, who reciprocate this behavior later. what is the quality and quantity of this statement?

it is a statement of scientific authority, but is a secondary source and example is nonhumans.

how should we think about the nature-nurture question?

nature-nurture question is a false dichotomy because plenty of evidence in the discussion is consistent with a third position on the question, which claims that both nature and nurture interact to affect helping behavior.

are values questions a kind of question psychologists focus on?

no; psychologists are more concerned with how people actually behave

is the incident of Kitty Genovese accurate?

no; the number of people who were aware of the case and the number of people who didn't help have been exaggerated

how do rewards and the modeling of helping affect helping behavior?

people (receptive-giving and selfish people) are more likely to help others when they are given a reward and when they first observe someone helping.

what did Bryan and Test find?

people who observe the helping model are more likely to show helping behavior than those who do not observe the helping model

biopsychological perspective

perspective that attributes human and animal behavior to biological events occurring in the body, such as genetic influences, hormones, and the activity of the nervous system

social psychological perspective

perspective that sets to understand the motives and personality traits or individuals who help others

what is the role of positive mood?

positive mood can make people more likely to help

philosophical perspective

proposes ethical principles about how people "should" behave and make arguments about what they "should" value

what are values questions?

questions that are posed from an ethical perspective, proposed by philosopher. e.g.) is selfishness beneficial or harmful?

what can we assume about the altruistic people who did not help when they were promised a reward?

receiving an external reward for helping may make them feel less entitled to the intrinsic reward of feeling good about themselves for helping

how does reciprocal altruism account for altruism behavior?

reciprocal altruism involves the expectancy of receiving a reward, specifically the brain areas for reward are most active when a person behaves in a cooperative way that will lead to later reward

what is the quality and quantity of this idea?

scientific authority on evolution and not research and not testable

research supporting the innate basis of empathy: Preston and de Waal did a review showing empathy in monkeys and apes. - what is the quality and quantity of the research?

scientific authority, literature review of several studies by experts in the area = high-quality

what is the quality and quantity of reciprocal altruism?

scientific authority/expert on evolution

egoism

selfishness or the tendency to not help another in need of help

the real world implication of the study results is that if a person needs help and there are lots of people around, the person

should identify one specific person from the group and ask that individual for help

empathy does not support altruism part 1: what did Batson, Bolen, Cross and Neuringer-Benefiel (1986) propose about empathy and altruism?

showing more empathy tended to be related to avoiding feeling guilt (a selfish reason) = the person showing empathy is not necessarily willing to help others e.g.) While riding in his carriage, Lincoln saw some drowning pigs out the window and is said to have ordered the carriage to stop so that the pigs could be saved. Lincoln reported that he did so, not out of an altruistic motive, but rather to avoid having a guilty conscience had he not told the driver to stop

in a experiment of bystander effect conducted by Darley and Latane (1968), what was the situation and what did they do? what is the dependent variable?

situation: participants are in a room where they could hear a person having what sounded like a seizure the researchers randomly assigned people to 2 groups: 1. led to believe they were alone 2. led to believe others could also hear it dependent variable: whether the participant helped

what is a misconception relating to empathy and genes?

that a person's behavior is mostly controlled by is or her genes and cannot be changed

what psychological misconceptions did you encounter in this chapter?

that empathy is determined by our genes and is unchangeable

the research showing that people who are in a good mood are more likely to help implies:

that helping depends on another variable and is not completely altruistic

what is heritability?

the ability of a trait to be passed down from one generation to the next

what is empathy?

the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, and a feeling that creates a motive to help relieve the suffering

Sibicky, Schroeder, and Dovidio (1995) compared participants who were induced to feel empathy with participants who were not so induced. Those who were induced to feel more empathy gave fewer hints to help other participants when they were told that the hints could harm the other participants later in the experiment. This finding supports

the claim that genuine empathy can lead to helping that is sensitive to the needs of others and not simply motivated to avoid feeling bad

empathy does not support altruism part 2: what did Cialdini et al. (1987) find about empathy and altruism?

the reason empathic people help is to relieve their sadness from observing a sufferer in need. --> sad participants helped more than empathic ones

what is the bystander effect?

the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present e.g.) Kitty Genovese was attacked at night, with many residents in the area becoming aware of her plight. They did little to intervene, not even calling the police until hours later

diffusion of responsibility

the tendency for individuals to feel diminished responsibility for their actions when they are surrounded by others who are acting the same way

in a experiment by Romer, Gruder, and Lizardo, what did they do to test about altruism and selfishness? (how did they classify the participants?)

they classified the participants into three groups: 1. altruism 2. receptive-giving 3. selfish --> they asked the participants to help a graduate students with a project (1/2 were told they would get a reward; other half were not)

how does altruism relate to selfishness or egoism?

we would expect a selfish individual to show very little helping behavior. In contrast, someone who typically helps other people without regard for personal benefit shows altruism.

what is a trait-by-situation interaction? (= person-by-situation interaction)

whether subjects help others depends on both the trait of the person (altruistic. receptive-giving, or selfish) and on details of the situation

is there an evolutionary basis for altruism?

yes; according to evolutionary theory, a trait such as altruism could be preserved in a species if it helps members of the group survive.