psy 230 Chapter 10

Diffusion of responsibility cannot occur if an individual believes that ____ he or she is _____ of the victim's need of help.

only, aware

Is helping motivated by altruistic or egoistic concerns?

-Altruistic: the desire to increase another's welfare -Egoistic: the desire to increase your own welfare Batson hypothesized that the motivation behind some helpful actions is truly altruistic.

Obstacle to Deciding How to Help

-a lack of competence or confidence in it: -if someone is having a heart attack and needs cpr, but you only took a cpr course in high school, you will not feel very confident in your ability to perform cpr correctly.

Avoiding the Bystander Effect

-the bystander effect can be reduced or reversed when: 1. the bystanders know or feel connected to each other 2. effective helping would require multiple helpers 3. people feel they will be scorned for failing to help -a person in a leadership role, or who is in a helping occupation, is more likely to help

Obstacle to Taking Responsibility

1. Diffusion of Responsibility: The belief that someone else will or should help and that it's not your responsibility -most likely to occur when the bystander does not know the victim -someone else must have called 911. -people in specific roles or with specific training tend not to diffuse responsibility

Two Individual Differences That Make Some More Helpful Than Others

1. Helpful people tend to be more helpful than others across multiple situations and over time. -the degree to which preschool children exhibited spontaneous helping behavior predicted how helpful they would be in later childhood and early adulthood. 2. individual differences are partly genetically-based -identical twins are more similar to each other in their helpful behavioral tendencies and their helping-related emotions and reactions, such as empathy, than are fraternal twins.

Attractiveness of person in need

1. More likely to help physically attractive people. 2. More likely to help friendly individuals. 3. The charisma of one person can determine how much help other people receive.

5 Steps to Helping

1. Noticing 2. Interpreting the Situation 3. Taking Responsibility 4. Deciding How to Help 5. Helping

3 Obstacles to Interpreting the Situation

1. ambiguity: does the individual really need help? Do they want my help? 2. relationship between victim and helper: -it's their own business, they don't want help, etc. 3. pluralistic ignorance: -no one else is helping so they must know there isn't anything really wrong.

Two Obstacles to Providing Help

1. audience inhibition: person does not want to appear different for helping/standing out -fear of ostracism 2. the costs of helping exceeds its rewards -fear of being sued

Gender and Helping

1. classic male-helper scenario: the knight in shining armor 2. classic female-helper scenario: provide social and emotional support

2 Obstacles to Noticing

1. distraction: you less likely to help or notice because it causes you to tune stuff out. 2. self-concern: how concerned we are with ourselves vs the amount of our concern for other people: -if we are waiting for an upcoming test, we are worried about ourselves so we are less likely to notice someone needs help

Three Reasons Why People Help

1. helping others to help oneself: -more likely to help when the potential rewards of helping seem high relative to the potential costs 2. helping to feel good (negative state relief model): -helps counter their own feelings of sadness 3. helping to be good: -may help because we are motivated to behave in ways that are consistent with moral principals: "it's the right thing to do"

Two evolutionary theories for Helping

1. kin selection 2. reciprocal altruism

Reciprocal Altruism

A person engages in behavior that benefits/helps another with the expectation that those benefits will be returned in the future. -I'll help you if you help me -more common in small communities -leads to idea that cooperation is good for survival -I'll help you, you help her, and she'll help me -seen in other species too

Exchange Relationship

A relationship in which individuals feel little responsibility toward one another; so giving and receiving help comes with the expectation of comparable benefits in return. -example: if you are business associates: if I help you move your furniture, you'd better give me a ride to the airport.

Communal Relationship

A relationship in which the individuals feel a special responsibility for one another, so they expect and desire mutual responsiveness to each other's needs.

Prosocial Behavior

Actions intended to benefit others

Heroism

Any actions undertaken to help another despite the possibility they might result in the helper's death. -different than courageous resistance -usually happens only one time and is an extreme version of helping

Good Samaritan Laws

Any statutes that protect rescuers from being sued for giving emergency care to people who need it.

Bad Moods and Helping

Bad moods make us more likely to help others when: 1. If we take responsibility for what caused our bad mood ("I feel guilty for what I did.") 2. If we focus on other people ("Wow, those people have suffered so much." 3. If we think about our personal values that promote helping ("I really shouldn't act like such a jerk next time; I have to be nicer.") Bad moods make us less likely to help others when: 1. If we blame others for our bad mood ("I feel so angry at that jerk who put me in this situation.") 2. If we become very self-focused ("I am so depressed.") 3. If we think about our personal values that do not promote helping ("I have to wise up and start thinking about my own needs more.")

Case of Kitty Genovese

Gets stabbed. Yells for help. 38 witnesses in 30 minutes. No one called the cops, so she dies. -countless tragic stories of assault, violence, and murder because of the bystander effect

Good Moods and Helping

Good moods lead to increased helping because: 1. When we are in a good mood, we are motivated to maintain that mood. Helping others makes us feel good, so it can help maintain a positive mood. 2. Positive moods trigger positive thoughts, and if we have positive thoughts about others, we should like them more and should have positive expectations about interacting with others, and these factors should make us more likely to help them. Good moods do not lead to increased helping when: 1. Costs of helping are high. If the anticipated costs of helping in a particular situation seem high, helping would put our good mood at risk. In this case, if we can avoid getting involved and thus maintain our good mood, we are less likely to help. 2. We have positive thoughts about other social activities that conflict with helping. If our good mood makes us want to go out and party with our friends, our motivation to engage in this social activity may prevent us from taking the time to notice or take responsibility for helping someone in need.

From an evolutionary perspective, what is the function of helping others?

Helping others has allowed our species to thrive more than if we never helped anybody else.

__________ differences that predict helping behaviors include agreeableness, humility, advanced moral reasoning, and empathy.

Individual

Ways to get help in a crowd

Make sure that you make your need for help very clear by singling out individuals in a crowd via: -Eye contact -Pointing -Direct requests -this type of advice has been shown to work in cyberspace as well

Role Models and Social Norms

Observing a helpful role model increases helping in three ways: 1. provides an example of behavior to imitate directly 2. teaches that helping is valued and rewarding 3. increases awareness of societal standards of conduct

Is there an altruistic personality?

No, but EMPATHY: is the most supported trait related to altruistic behavior -people who exhibit internalized and advanced levels of moral reasoning

Attributions of Responsibility

People are more likely to help someone in need if they think the person shouldn't be held responsible for his or her predicament. If they think that the person can be blamed for his or her situation, they are less likely to help.

The Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis

The idea that when we feel empathy for a person, we will attempt to help that person for purely altruistic reasons, regardless of what we have to gain. 1. Perception that someone needs help -> Adaptation of the other person's perspective -> elicits an empathetic concern emotional response -> atruistic motive to help -> satisfaction of motive by a reduction of the other's distress. 2. Perception that someone needs help -> does NOT adopt other person's perspective -> elicits personal distress emotional response -> egoistic motive to help -> satisfaction of motive by a reduction of one's own distress

Bystander Effect

The presence of others inhibits helping

Kin Selection

The theory that people will exhibit preferences for helping blood relatives because this will increase the odds that their genes will be transmitted to subsequent generations. -enhance the survival of mutually shared genes

Courageous Resistance

Voluntary selfless behavior in which there is significantly high risk or cost for the actor and possibly to the actor's family and associates -the actor makes a conscious decision to act -the behavior is sustained over time -example: hiding Jews from the holocaust in their house

If it's an __________ motive, helping is given regardless of how easy it is to escape from the situation.

altruistic

Compared to neutral moods, ___ moods tend to elicit ____ helping.

bad, more

Latane and Darley conducted classic experiments on the _________ ______.

bystander effect

If it's an ________ motive, helping should decline when the escape from the situation is easy.

egoistic

People are ____ likely to help those who are similar to us.

more 1. This may be a form of an exchange relationship or communal relationship: 2. Intergroup biases in helping can be reduced if they perceive themselves as members of a common group.

At least for relatively minor problems, men ask for help ____ frequently than women do.

less

Compared to _______ moods, good moods tend to elicit more helping.

neutral

Prosocial role models and ______ _________ have both been found to increase helping.

social influence