Ch. 12 Helping

What are things that promote self-awareness?

name tags, being watched and evaluated, undistracted quiet.

Why is it tricky to eliminate the bystander effect?

Because it makes us uncomfortable and uses social norms.

If individual self-interest inevitably win in genetic competition, then why will we help strangers? Why will we help those whose limited resources or abilities preclude their reciprocating?

Because of group selection.

Belle is deliriously happy because she has recently fallen in love with Sean. What behavior should we expect from Belle?

Belle will display more helpful behaviors

How can we eliminate the diffusion of responsibility?

CALL THEM OUT; promote altruism by reversing factors that inhibit it. assign people to roles as helpers and make them take responsibility, just knowing the bystander effect can decrease occurrence and when people are confronted with knowing, if they don't help nobody will.

Empathy-induced altruism (LIABILITIES)

Can be harmful, life risking sometimes; can't address ALL needs; can feed favoritism, injustice and indifference to the larger common good;

What two emotions motivate responses to a crisis?

Distress and empathy; Those who feel angry or indifferent about a huge wildfire gave less than those who felt either distressed (shocked and sickened) or empathic (sympathetic and worried for victims)

What phenomenon correlates with the importance of our public image (self-image)?

Door-in-the-face technique; strategy for gaining a compromise. After someone first turns down a large request, the same requisition counteroffers with a more reasonable; essentially when we ask people for a large request then followed by a smaller one. According to Cialdini, when asking for a contribution small it is hard to say no and NOT feel like a Scrooge. labeling people as helpful can also strengthen a helpful self-image

Altruism appears dysfunctional, so why do people do it?

For reciprocity, because after the small favors between two people it can flourish into relationships

What is the potential issue with kin selection?

Kin selection can predispose ethnic in-group favoritism; the root of countless historical and contemporary conflicts. Kin selection is the enemy of civilization. If human beings are to a large extent guided to favor their own relatives and tribe, only a limited about of global harmony is possible.

Are happy people unhelpful?

NO! it is quite the opposite, happy people are generally more helpful and this effect occurs with both children and adults, regardless of whether the good mood comes from a success, from thinking happy thoughts, or from any of several other positive experiences.

What is an example of social capital?

Neighbors keeping an eye on one another's homes

Noticing

People tend to keep to themselves in crowds, and their attention is not easily turned to any one person or action; you are in a group of people filling out a survey in a classroom and you start to see smoke come out from under the door you are MORE likely to look at other's around you in classroom and rely on them to decide what to do and LESS likely to take action and do something

In what regions is reciprocity among humans strongest and weakest?

Reciprocity among humans is stronger in rural villages than in big cities. Small schools, towns, churches, work teams and dorms are all conducive to a community spirit in which people care for one another. Compared with people in a small-town or rural environments, those in big cities are LESS willing to relay a phone message, less likely to mail "lost" letters, less cooperative with survey interviewers, less helpful to a lost child, and less willing to do small favors.

Door-in-the-face experiment; Cialdini et al. (1975)

Researchers walked up to college students and asked them if they would be willing to help them by acting as unpaid counselors for juvenile delinquents. NONE AGREED; so then researchers asked college students "then would you be willing to take a group of them on a 2-hour trip to the zoo? 56% said "sure" compared to only 32% in the control group.

Using empathy when viewing another's distress

The emotion used is sympathy and compassion for one another; the movie is altruistic motivation to reduce another's distress; the behavior is helping to achieve reduction of another's distress.

Reciprocity

The practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit, especially privileges granted by one country or organization to another. "give-and-take"

Before agreeing to help out at the local homeless shelter, Sharon weighs the costs (getting up at dawn) and benefits (feeling good about herself) of doing so. What phenomenon can this strategy be predicted by?

The social-exchange theory

What happens when you have university students think about past transgressions (guilt) what happens?

Their desire to help increases and they are more likely to agree to volunteer to help with a school project. Guilt-laden people are helpful people.

Bystander effect

Theory that says a person is less likely to provide help when there are other bystanders; the inverse relationship between the number of potential helpers and the likelihood that any single one of them will help. As the number of people known to be aware of an emergency increases, any given person becomes less likely to help; for the victim there is no safety in numbers

What happened with interpreting and the smoke-filled-room experiment?

When working alone one noticed the smoke, they usually hesitated a moment, then got up, walked over to the vent, felt, sniffed and waved at the smoke, hesitated again, and then went to report it. In contrast those in groups of 3 did not move, with smoke filling the room and interfering with the survey not one person reported.

Diffusion of responsibility on Holocaust genocide

Why the vast majority of European citizens stood idly by during the persecution, removal, and killing of their Jewish compatriots. Most of the time we want to do something, but don't always want to be the one to actually do something; this could be from fear or fear of dangers.

What is a problem with kid's prosocial education?

because children might be greatly taken advantage of. a child can easily become too friendly and not understand that bad in people.

How does guilt lead to good?

because it motivates people to confess, apologize, help and avoid repeated harm, guilt also boosts sensitivity and sustains close relationships.

Why do we need the social-responsibility norm?

because often times people feel too PROUD to accept kindness without the opportunity for repayment.

Why are we vulnerable in times of social-exchange?

because we don't want to say "no" to people generally, but we know that there are people out there who will take advantage of you.

How would one violate the reciprocity norm?

by receiving without giving in return

Who would be helped first in the aftermath of natural disasters and life-and-death situations?

children before the old, family members before friends, and neighbors before strangers. Helping stays close to home

What is the opposite of altruism?

egoism

What does most altruism in human society reflect?

either a kin selection process or reciprocity

Using distress (not empathy) when viewing another's distress

emotion used is distress, upset anxious or disturbed; the motive is egoistic motivation to reduce own distress; the behavior is possible helping to achieve reduction of OWN distress.

What are the two types of rewards?

external; when businesses donate money to improve their corporate images or when someone offers a ride hoping to receive appreciation or friendship, thus we are most eager to help someone attractive to us, someone whose approval we desire. (egoism) (uncontrollable) internal; helping to make you feel good about yourself give you feeling of self-satisfaction. feeling good helps explain why people from from home will do kindnesses for strangers whom they will never see again. (distress and guilt) (controllable)

Evolutionary psychology

gene survival; Our genes drive us in adaptive ways that have maximized chance of survival. When our ancestors died, their genes lived on, predisposing us to behave in ways that will spread those genes into the future.

What makes us less selfish?

group norms

A classmate of Bianca's wants to borrow Bianca's notes to study for an upcoming exam. Research suggests that Bianca will most likely agree if the classmate says she needs the notes because of what particular reason?

has been absent due to illness NOT takes inadequate notes does not like the class as well as other courses has not been able to concentrate in class

What do internal rewards do?

has internal traits that tells about the helper's emotional state or personal traits. controllable by a person

How can you increase empathy?

help get a small dose of what another feels.

What does genetic relatedness predict?

helping and that genetically identical twins are noticeable more mutually supportive than fraternal twins. In an laboratory game experiment, identical twins were half again as likely as fraternal twins to cooperate with their twin for a shared gain when playing for money. We calculate genetic relatedness before helping, but that nature (as well as culture) programs us to care about close relatives. but we also share common genes with people outside our relatives, but there are many cases where we help by risking ourselves to save a stranger.

How can helping improve one's negative state?

helping someone can decrease guilt or sadness that comes from what we desire inside or how we desire to feel about the self.

What is an example of social-responsibility norm?

if a person on crutches drops a book, you honor the social responsibility norm by picking up the book.

When does reciprocity work best?

in small, isolated groups, groups in which one will often see the people for whom one does favors. Sociable female baboons who groom and stay in close contact with their peers often gain a reproductive advantage; their infants are more likely to live to see a first birthday. Therefore it pays to have friends and use reciprocity

According to research what are benefits of inducing empathy?

it might improve attitudes toward stigmatized people: people with AIDs, the homeless, imprisoned and other minorities

What types of people does the social-responsibility norm motivate to help?

people who are clearly dependent and unable to reciprocate, such as children, the severely impoverished, and those with disabilities.

What types of people are least likely to ask for help?

people who are proud and have high-self-esteem

Empathy-induced altruism (BENEFITS)

produces sensitive helping; inhibits aggression; increases cooperation; and improves attitudes toward stigmatized groups.

What does reciprocity within social networks define?

social capital

Helping....... a bad mood

softens

What has more intervention assumed spouse abuse or stranger abuse?

spouse abuse.

Helping........ a good mood

sustains

What emotion motivates help?

sympathy; feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune.

Kin selection

the idea that evolution has selected altruism toward one's close relatives to enhance the survival of mutually shared genes. More likely to favor those with mutually shared genes. idea that: "if you carry my genes, i'll favor you."

Social capital

the supportive connections, information flow, trust and cooperative actions that keep a community healthy.

Empathy

the vicarious experience of another's feelings; putting oneself in another's shoes. Empathy comes naturally in humans, even day old infants cry more when they hear another infant cry.

How do personality traits determine helping?

they don't; there is no definable set of altruistic personality traits. First, researchers have found INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES in helping and shown that those differences persist over time and are noticed by peers, some people ARE reliably more helpful. Second, researchers gather a NETWORK OF TRAITS that predispose a persons helpfulness, those high in positive emotionality, empathy and self-efficacy are most likely to be concerned with helping. Third, personality influences how particular people react in PARTICULAR SITUATIONS, those high in self-monitoring are attuned to others' expectations and are therefore helpful if they think helpfulness will be socially rewarded.

What are the three factors that promote helping?

1. Reversing factors that inhibit helping by reducing ambiguity of an emergency, making personal appeal and increasing feelings of responsibility 2. using door-in-face technique to evoke guilt feelings or concern of self-image. 3. model prosocial behavior

Evolutionary psychology in helping "the selfish gene"

A biological reaffirmation of a deep, self-serving "original sin." Genes that predispose individuals to self-sacrifice in the interests of strangers' welfare would not survive in the evolutionary competition. Evolutionary success does however come from cooperation. Humans are the animal kingdom's super cooperators because we exhibit multiple mechanisms for overcoming selfishness that include; kin selection, direct reciprocity, indirect reciprocity and group selection.

How does the reciprocity norm apply to marriage?

At times, one may give more than one receives, but in the long run, the exchange should balance out.

How do humans exhibit in-group loyalty in a lesser extent than with animals?

By sacrificing to support "us" sometimes against "them" Natural selection is therefore, "multilevel," that operates at both individual and group levels.

Who is more likely to help, city or country people?

Country people; they are seldom alone in public places; compassion fatigue and sensory overload from encountering so many needy people further restrain helping in large cities across the world. In large cities, bystanders are also more often strangers, whose increasing number depress helping, but when bystanders are friends or people who share a group identity, increased members may instead increase helping.

Social-exchange theory

Exchanging pieces of the self (compassion and effort) when rewards outweigh the costs. We not only exchange material goods and money, but also social goods such as love, services, information and status. When someone is weighing the costs and benefits before deciding to help or not.

The social-responsibility norm

Expectation that people will help those needing help. Drive (expectation) to help others who appear helpless and less likely to help those whose misfortunes are SELF-perpetuated

Direct reciprocity

Expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them. good deeds should go rewarded and interpersonal relationships should be fair; when one person does something nice, the other feels the NEED to do something nice in return. Reminds us to balance giving and receiving. Idea that: "we scratch each other's backs."

According to Daniel Boston, what other piece is included in helpfulness?

Genuine altruism; our willingness to help is influenced by both self-serving and selfless considerations. distress over someone's suffering motivates us to relieve our upset, either by escaping the distressing situation (like the priest and the Levite) or by helping (like the Samaritan).

How are responses in social-responsibility norm closely tied to attributions?

If we attribute the need to an uncontrollable predicament, we help. If we attribute the need to the person's choices, fairness does not require us to help; we say it's that person's own fault. Attributions affect public policy as well as individual helping decisions.

What is Schaller and Cialdini's conclusion on empathy?

If we feel empathy but know that something else will make us feel better, we aren't as likely to help

What culture support social-responsibility?

In india, a relatively collectivist culture, people support social-responsibility norm more strongly than individuals in the West. They voice an obligation to help even when the need is not life threatening or the needy person is outside their family circle. People in western countries usually apply social-responsibility norm selectively to those whose need appears not to be due to their own negligence

What is another way to eliminate bystander effect besides assuming responsibility?

Increasing self-awareness; personal treatment makes bystanders more self-aware and therefore more attuned to their own altruistic ideals causing one to exhibit increased consistency between attitudes and actions. Essentially self-awareness often puts peoples ideals into practice.

Door-to-door solicitation

More success with requests for small contributions, which are difficult to turn down and still allow the person to maintain an altruistic self-image

What is another name for kin selection?

Nepotism

What are the three main ingredients in bystander intervention?

Noticing, Interpreting and Assuming responsibility

Feel-bad/Do-good effect

Occurs with people whose attention is on others, people for whom altruism is therefore rewarding. If they are not self-preoccupied by depression or grief, sad people are sensitive, helpful people.

What does our eagerness to do good after doing bad reflect?

Our need to reduce private guilt and restore a shaken self-image, it also reflects our desire to reclaim a positive public image. We are more likely to redeem ourselves with helpful behavior when other people know about our misdeeds

Altruism

Selfishness in reverse. Motive to increase another's welfare without conscious regard for one's self-interest. An altruistic person is concerned and helpful even when no benefits are offered or expected in return.

Indirect reciprocity

Spreading kindness without expectation or direct payback, rather that kindness will be returned eventually by another source, which promotes group selection. idea that: "i'll scratch your back, you scratch someone's, and someone will scratch mine."

When Darley and Batson (1973) staged an ambiguous emergency (a man slumped in a doorway) in front of a seminary student, what did they find?

Students were less helpful if they were late for an appointment.

What factors contribute to helping?

Time pressures, when rushed we do not help so having time increases helping; Similarity, similarity is conducive to liking and liking is conducive to helping, we are more empathic and helpful toward those similar to us and applies to both dress and beliefs even those with the same name as us we are more inclined to help; Seeing another person help encourages others to help as well

Elevation

What Jonathan Haidt describes as a distinctive feeling in the chest of warmth and expansion comes from human kindness and charity that can provoke chills, tears, and throat clenching that inspires people to become more self-giving.

Informational influence

When each person uses others' behavior as clues to reality, and misinterpretations can contribute to a delayed response to ACTUAL emergencies that is fed by the illusion of transparency that is a tendency to overestimate others' ability to "read" our internal states pluralistic ignorance emphasizes the harm of the situation when we wait for others to react and nobody does. we presume that our emotions leak out and that others see right through us.

How does gender differences determine helping?

When faced with dangerous situations or potentially dangerous situations in which strangers need help, MEN more often help. When dealing with developmental disabilities WOMEN are more likely to help. Gender differences are important depending on the situation of which help is needed.

Group selection

When groups are in competition, groups of mutually supportive altruists outlast groups of non altruists. Idea that: "back-scratching groups survive." This is most dramatically evident with social insects, which function like cells in a body. Bees and ants will labor sacrificially for their colony's survival.

Interpreting

When in an ambiguous event, we interpret it by others around us and how they seem to take into account the situation (where the changes happen)

Assuming responsibility

When others are around, we defuse responsibility by thinking or saying, "I'm sure someone else has already called" or "I am not really qualified to help" which reinforces a point that we often do not know why we do what we do.

How does the reciprocity norm operate most effectively?

When people respond publicly to deeds earlier done to them, because fleeting one-shot encounters produce greater selfishness and sustained relationships.

What is the connection between gender and receiving help?

Women offered help equally to males and females, whereas men offered more help when the persons in need were females. female hitchhikers received more offers of help than solo males or couples. Women not only receive more offers of help in certain situations, but also seek more help. they are twice as likely to seek medical and psychiatric help; women are majority of callers on radio counseling programs and clients of college counseling centers; women are also more often welcome help from friends.

Do animals also show empathy?

Yes! primates, elephants, dogs, and even mice display empathy indicating that the building blocks of helping predate humanity. Chimpanzees will choose a token that gives both themselves and another chimp a food treat over a token that ratifies only themselves. and Elephants display grief when losing a group member

What happens with the presence of others?

less likely to help; sometimes the victim is actually less likely to get help when may people are around. Why is this happen?? Because as the number of bystanders increases, any given bystander is less likely to NOTICE the incident, less likely to INTERPRET the incident as a problem or an emergency, and less likely to ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY for taking action.

What happens when one cannot reciprocate?

they may feel threatened and shameful in asking for help

What happens when one's empathy is aroused?

they will usually be helped

How does religion determine helping?

those more religious are inclined to help especially when driven by attitude or norms; priming morality increases prosocial behavior.

What do we attribute others' behavior to?

we attribute other people's behavior to their inner dispositions only when we lack external explanations, so when external causes are obvious, we credit the causes NOT to the person.

Social norms in helping

we do this because of subtler forms of self-interest: because something tells us we "ought" to do something. ought to help the neighbor move in, ought to turn in a wallet found. Norms, are the "oughts" of our lives and our social expectations that prescribe proper behavior and have identified two social norms that MOTIVATE altruism: reciprocity norm and social-responsibility norm.

Fairness with the social-responsibility norm

we see social-responsibility norm especially in political conservatives and the norm is "give people what they deserve" if they are victims of a circumstance, such as a natural disaster, then be compassionate, but if they seem to have created their own problems (by laziness, immorality) then the norm suggests that they do NOT deserve help; just world theory