Helping and Altruism

Personal distress

refers to the negative emotions that we may experience when we view another person's suffering.

Empathy

refers to an affective response in which a person understands, and even feels, another person's distress and experiences events the way the other person does

Altruism

refers to any behavior that is designed to increase another person's welfare, and particularly those actions that do not seem to provide a direct reward to the person who performs them - these kinds of behaviors are intuitive, reflexive, and even automatic

Autonomy-oriented help

reflects the helper's view that, given the appropriate tools, recipients can help themselves - help recipients to retain their independence despite their reliance on the more resourceful helper.

Key Takeaways

- Altruism refers to any behavior that is designed to increase another person's welfare, and particularly those actions that do not seem to provide a direct reward to the person who performs them. - The tendency to help others is at least in part an evolutionary adaptation. We are particularly helpful to our kin and to people we perceive as being similar to us. We also help people who are not related or similar as the result of reciprocal altruism. By cooperating with others, we increase our and others' chances of survival and reproductive success. - We are more likely to help when we are rewarded and less likely when the perceived costs of helping are high. - Social norms for helping include the reciprocity norm, which reminds us that we should follow the principles of reciprocal altruism, and the social responsibility norm, which tells us that we should try to help others who need assistance, even without any expectation of future payback. - Helping frequently involves a trade-off between self-concern and other-concern. We want to help but self-interest often keeps us from doing so.

Key Takeaways

- The social situation has an important influence on whether or not we help. - Latané and Darley's decision model of bystander intervention has represented an important theoretical framework for helping us understand the role of situational variables on helping. According to the model, whether or not we help depends on the outcomes of a series of decisions that involve noticing the event, interpreting the situation as one requiring assistance, deciding to take personal responsibility, and implementing action. - Latané and Darley's model has received substantial empirical support and has been applied not only to helping in emergencies but to other helping situations as well.

Key Takeaways

- We react to people in large part on the basis of how they make us feel and how we think we will feel if we help them. - Positive mood states increase helping, and negative affective states, particularly guilt, reduce it. - Personal distress refers to the negative feelings and emotions that we may experience when we view another person's distress. - Empathy refers to an affective response in which the person understands, and even feels, the other person's emotional distress, and when he or she experiences events the way the other person does.

processes of helping in an emergency

1. Noticing 2. Interpreting 3. Taking Responsibility 4. Implementing Action - help depends on the outcomes of a series of decisions that involve noticing the event, interpreting the situation as one requiring assistance, deciding to take personal responsibility, and deciding how to help.

altruistic or prosocial personality

Some people are indeed more helpful than others across a variety of situations

Key Takeaways

Some people—for instance, those with altruistic personalities—are more helpful than others. Gender differences in helping depend on the type of helping that is required. Men are more likely to help in situations that involve physical strength, whereas women are more likely to help in situations that involve long-term nurturance and caring, particularly within close relationships. Our perception of the amount of the need is important. We tend to provide less help to people who seem to have brought on their own problems or who don't seem to be working very hard to solve them on their own. In some cases, helping can create negative consequences. Dependency-oriented help may make the helped feel negative emotions, such as embarrassment and worry that they are seen as incompetent or dependent. Autonomy-oriented help is more easily accepted and will be more beneficial in the long run. Norms about helping vary across cultures, for instance, between Eastern and Western cultures. We can increase helping by using our theoretical knowledge about the factors that produce it. Our strategies can be based on using both self-concern and other-concern.

Noticing

Studies have found that people who live in smaller and less dense rural towns are more likely to help than those who live in large, crowded, urban cities When there are more people around, it is less likely that the people notice the needs of others

Interpreting

The problem is that events are frequently ambiguous, and we must interpret them to understand what they really mean

increase helping

We must be sure to follow the steps in Latané and Darley's model, attempting to increase helping at each stage. We must make the emergency noticeable and clearly an emergency, for instance, by yelling out: "This is an emergency! Please call the police! I need help!" And we must attempt to avoid the diffusion of responsibility, for instance, by designating one individual to help: "You over there in the red shirt, please call 911 now!"

reciprocity norm

a social norm reminding us that we should follow the principles of reciprocal altruism - if someone helps us, then we should help that person in the future

amygdala and prefrontal cortex

are important in empathy and helping: areas are responsible for emotion and emotion regulation

just world beliefs

beliefs that people get what they deserve in life - Conservatives make more internal attributions for negative outcomes, believing that the needs are caused by the lack of effort or ability on the part of the individual. They are therefore less likely than liberals to favor government spending on welfare and other social programs designed to help people

Reciprocal altruism

if we help other people now, they will return the favor should we need their help in the future. - general principle of social exchange - by helping others, we both increase our chances of survival and reproductive success and help others increase their chances of survival too

culutural differences in help

in Western cultures there is a norm of self-interest that influences whether or not we feel that we can be involved in actions designed to help others. People are not expected to volunteer for, or to be involved in, causes that do not affect them personally.

Good Samaritan laws

increase the costs of not helping others require people to provide or call for aid in an emergency if they can do so without endangering themselves in the process, with the threat of a fine or other punishment if they do not.

angel of mercy

laws that decrease the costs of helping and encourage people to intervene in emergencies by offering them protection from the law if their actions turn out not to be helpful or even harmful

Macbeth effect

the observation that people tend to want to cleanse themselves when they perceive that they have violated their own ethical standards - The amount of guilt that we experience thus appears to be an important determinant of our helping behavior. - we also may be more likely to help when we are fearful or sad—again to make ourselves feel better

social responsibility norm

we should try to help others who need assistance, even without any expectation of future paybacks

Pluralistic ignorance

when people think that others in their environment have information that they do not have and when they base their judgments on what they think the others are thinking. Problem is that each bystander thinks that other people aren't acting because they don't see an emergency Ex: "Are there any questions?" All the class members are of course completely confused, but when they look at each other, nobody raises a hand in response

Dependency oriented

when the recipient feels that the implication of the helping is that they are unable to care for themselves - may make the helped feel negative emotions, such as embarrassment and worry that they are seen as incompetent or dependent. - When the helper takes control of the situation and solves the problem facing the individual, leaving little left for the individual to accomplish on his or her own, the behavior may be seen as indicating that the individual cannot help herself.

Diffusion of responsibility

when we assume that others will take action and therefore we do not take action ourselves - people are more likely to help when they are the only ones in the situation than they are when there are others around.