PSC151 Ch14 Inquizitive
The graph represents the results of a study investigating the relationship between trust and economic growth in nations around the world. Place the nations listed onto the appropriate "dots" in the graph.
left to right Brazil USA France Japan Korea Norway
Which of the following statements about volunteerism are accurate and which are not?
Accurate Statement(s) In the United States, it has been estimated that more than one in four people are volunteers. Research suggests that volunteerism has a good health component. Inaccurate Statement(s) Regardless of what is motivating them, anyone who provides monetary support for another person is a volunteer. Unlike altruism, volunteerism is motivated only by non-selfish, empathic concern.
A study of the cultivation of empathic concern by Oliner and Oliner found which of the following characteristics in individuals who risked their lives to save Jews during the Nazi Holocaust?
Characteristic(s) Their parents and grandparents often told stories from their lives and culture in which altruism was a theme. They explicitly evoked altruism as an ethical principle. Not Characteristic(s) They were particularly prone to social distress, having come from areas where atrocities against others were less unusual. They tended to come from families that valued social rewards as a motivation for altruism.
Fill in the blanks to complete the passage on the likelihood of being helped.
It has been well established that a bystander is less likely to help during an emergency if other bystanders are there as witnesses. But it turns out that the percentage rate of someone receiving help from any number of bystanders is virtually identical to the rate of receiving help from just one bystander. Additionally, it has been found that single bystanders react more quickly than the quickest person in a group of bystanders.
Fill in the blanks to complete the passage.
A widespread assumption is that humans are fundamentally selfish, but social psychology challenges this, as studies have found that when people are asked to decide quickly how much to give a group they are working with, they give 65% of their resources; nearly 70% of 14-month-olds will assist a person in need; and when people give money, the reward center of the brain activates to the same degree as when they receive money.
Which of the following statements about altruism are accurate and which are not?
Accurate Statement(s) Altruism can be defined as unselfish behavior that benefits others without regard to consequences for oneself. Basic tendencies toward self-preservation can restrain altruistic action. Fear of embarrassment can inhibit altruistic action. Inaccurate Statement(s) Only selfless motives are involved in the behavior of altruism. Altruism appears to be a strictly psychological construal and has no neurological underpinnings.
Which of the following statements about the studies by Joseph Henrich and his colleagues of cooperation across cultures using the "ultimatum game" variation of the prisoner's dilemma are accurate and which are not?
Accurate Statement(s) Cultures where individuals did not need the help of others to survive tended to show lower levels of cooperation in the game. The level of cooperation across a variety of cultures in the study was generally higher than adherents of the idea of rational self-interest might have expected. In cultures where individuals needed to collaborate with others to gather resources to subsist, cooperation levels in the game were high. Inaccurate Statement(s) Independence increased people's cooperation and generosity with anonymous others. The observation that many of the "allocators" gave generous initial offers to the "responder" was explained as an act of altruism.
Which of the following statements regarding study results about altruism in urban and rural communities are accurate and which are not?
Accurate Statement(s) Help is predicted to be more forthcoming in a community of 5,000 than in a city of 500,000. Help is predicted to be more forthcoming in a community of 10,000 than in a community of 20,000. Inaccurate Statement(s) Help is predicted to be more forthcoming in a community of 50,000 than in a city of 500,000. Someone raised in a large city but living in a small town is more likely to display a pattern of altruism indicative of a large city.
Which of the following statements about religion, ethics, and altruism are accurate and which are not?
Accurate Statement(s) In a study, exposure to key religious words resulted in making the participants more prosocial. The major religions of the world emphasize compassion, altruism, and treating others—even friends and adversaries—with kindness. Researchers suggest that the sense of being watched—a prominent theme in many religions—increases altruism. Inaccurate Statement(s) In a study, exposure to nonreligious words related to kindness and ethical behavior didn't make the participants more prosocial. In a study, participants were exposed to secular, nonreligious concepts related to kindness and ethical behaviors that build more cooperative societies. It was found that this generated levels of generosity greater than those found from exposing participants to religious words and concepts.
Which of the following statements accurately describe the prisoner's dilemma and which do not?
Accurate Statement(s) It is designed in a way that reveals attitudes on cooperation, competition, and related matters. The use of it and other "economics games" has been criticized due to external validity concerns. Judging merely by appearances, it may seem to lack the complexities of real-world cooperation and competition, as it is artificial and contrived on the surface. Inaccurate Statement(s) Due to concerns about how well it can predict real-world behavior, it has little influence on thinking about cooperation. The best strategy is always to defect, as it yields the highest payout.
Fill in the blanks to complete the passage about certain influences on levels of cooperation.
After being subliminally primed with labels related to hostility, a group of students in a study using the prisoner's dilemma played in a far less cooperative manner than a group of students primed with non-hostile labels. This and other studies have illustrated the powerful role of construal processes in determining levels of cooperation.
Which of the following represent social psychology research findings that support the idea that humans are "wired" to care and share for others?
Correct Answer(s) Toddlers will respond altruistically to others in need. Some nonhuman primates regularly share food with non-kin in their communities. Nonhuman primates have been observed providing help to fellow primates in great need. Incorrect Answer(s) An "altruism gene" found in humans predicts (when missing) a sociopathic unwillingness to care for others in need. The fight-or-flight response of the autonomic nervous system appears quite active when we perceive someone in distress and in need of help.
Fill in the blanks to complete the passage about unselfish altruism.
Daniel Batson's concept of empathic concern occurs when observing a person in need results in an understanding of what the person is experiencing and is accompanied by a fast and automatic intention to help the person. It is a pure form of altruism.
In each of the following scenarios, a characteristic of the victim will either increase or decrease the likelihood that she will be helped by observers. Identify each scenario is an "increase" or a "decrease" example.
Decrease Correct label:Alex got a bloody gash on her head when she fell on the street, spraining her ankle. Increase Correct label:Meredith screamed out for help when she fell and sprained her ankle on the street. Correct label:Tracy, who is African American, fell on the street and sprained her ankle in the presence of other African Americans.
Which of the following are explanations that have been offered for why altruism rates are generally lower in bigger communities, and which are not?
Explanations greater diversity diffusion of responsibility stimulus overload Not Explanation(s) negative views in urban areas about helping others presence of a population that has been raised in an urban environment
Three kinds of motivation are associated with altruism, and individual acts of altruism can result from more than one of these. For each example, identify the motive that is primarily being described.
Having made billions off a website, a couple donates enormous sums of money to their charitable foundation because they want to be thought of as good people. Correct label:Social Reward Lira is upset at the sight of a homeless woman shivering. Though not rich herself, Lira feels guilt since she has, in comparison, so few needs. She hands the woman a $5 bill. Correct label:Personal Distress For the third time this winter, Joanne sees someone absentmindedly drop a glove. She picks it up and returns it because this invariably makes people grateful to her. Correct label:Social Reward Late one night Miguel sees a man being beaten by two other men. He instinctively feels concern for the victim and comes to his aid without regard for his own safety. Correct label:Empathic Concern
Fill in the blanks to complete the passage about two concepts relating to determinants of behavior when someone is in need of assistance.
The assistance given to someone in need of help by an observer is called bystander intervention. It is a situational factor and it is dependent on the number of people observing. The presence of others can lead to a diffusion of responsibility, in which nobody assumes accountability for helping the person in need.
Identify the true and false statements about the role of pluralistic ignorance in the construals of situations where people are in distress.
True Statement(s) A form of it occurs in these situations when people are unsure about what is happening and assume nothing is wrong because no one else appears concerned. In an experiment, people's adherence to it was caused to increase by placing them with confederates who pretend nothing was amiss during a situation of distress. It can occur in these situations as a result of being dictated by established social norms. False Statement(s) People are just as likely to fall prey to it when they can see the initial looks of concern on the faces of others as when they cannot.
Identify the true and false statements about how the presence of others can affect the tendency to behave altruistically in situations where someone is in need.
True Statement(s) Awareness that others have seen the situation results in each bystander assuming someone else will help, thus making bystanders feel less responsibility to do so. In a study, the more people that were present, the less likely an individual was to intervene. False Statement(s) Since the rate for at least one person responding is similar regardless of group size, the size of the group of observers has no practical impact on victims. The tendency to respond when others are present is the same whether the others are known to each other or not.
An early attempt by Batson and his colleagues (1983) aimed to demonstrate a distinction between empathic and egoistic (here, personal distress) motives for helping a person receiving shocks. Identify the true and false statements about the study.
True Statement(s) Participants were classified according to whether they were feeling egoistic distress or empathic concern after watching a confederate being shocked. The results could be interpreted as being due to selection bias among the "empathic" participants. False Statement(s) The researchers found no differences between participants' willingness to take shocks based on egoistic motives and their willingness to take shocks based on empathic motives. The study controlled for the possibility of a "social rewards" explanation of the results (i.e., another egoistic motive).
Fill in the blanks to complete the passage about evidence that we are "wired to care and share."
When we feel compassion and are inclined to act altruistically, a distinct part of the frontal lobes is activated, including signals sent along the vagus nerve. Recent empirical studies find that these regions of our nervous system are engaged during empathic concern and acts of altruism.
