Social Psychology Chapter 11: Prosocial Behavior

Negative mood

"Feel bad, do good" feeling guilty increases helping

Positive mood

"Feel good, do good" 1. good moods make people look on brighter side of life 2. helping others can prolong good mood 3. good moods increase self-attention

3 underlying prosocial behaviors

1. instinctively helping those genetically similar to us (evolutionary psych) 2. rewards of helping often out weigh cost, makes helping our self interest (social exchange theory) 3. powerful feelings of empathy and compassion for victim leads to selfless giving (empathy-altruism hyp)

Gender

Men more likely to help in first situation Women more likely to help in second NO difference

Prosocial Behavior

act performed with the goal of benefiting another person

Exchange relationship

equity- what you put into relationship is equal to what you get out

Kin Selection

evolutionary approach -behaviors that help a genetic relative a favorable by natural selection

Norm of Reciprocity

expecting that helping someone will increase the likelihood of them help you in the future

Bystander Effect

greater number of bystanders who see emergency, less likely any of them will help victim

Altruism

helping another person, even if theres a cost to the helper

Social Exchange Theory

much of what we do comes from desire to maximize our rewards and minimize our costs -argues against altruism (helping ppl even when costly)

Negative-state relief hyp

people help in order to alleviate their own sadness and distress

Urban Overload hyp

people in large cities are constantly bombarded and they keep to themselves to avoid being overwhelmed

Cultural

ppl in all cultures are more likely to help some in "in-group"(identified as member) then someone in "out-group"(not identified as member)

Communal relationship

primary concern is with welfare of other person (child)

Empathy

putting yourself in someone else's shoes to experience events & emotions they had

Altruistic Personality

qualities in an individual that makes them help other in a variety of situations