Chapter 12

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Chapter 12 Helping Behaviors

• April 20

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Altruism

• Motivation to help others without concern over
  your well-being.
• Why do we do it? Theories
• 1) Social exchange theory all of our
  interactions minimize costs maximize rewards.
• 2) Empathy - Vicarious experience of anothers
  feelings

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2) Empathy

• If empathy ? help others regardless of our gain
• No empathy ? social exchange comes into play
• How does this work?

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3) Social Norms

• Beliefs that we ought to help others
• A) Norm of reciprocity expect that well help
  those who help us.
• B) Social responsibility norm
• belief that we should help, regardless of whether
  people can return the favor.
• Cultural differences?

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4) Evolutionary Explanations

• Kin selection altruistic towards our relatives
  to enhance survival of our genes.
• What research evidence supports this?

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When do we help?

• Kitty Genovese murder NYC, 1964
• What were the details of this incident?
• Situational influence of presence of other
  bystanders reduces our likelihood of helping
• Called Diffusion of Responsibility

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Latane Darley - bystanders

• Diffusion of responsibility effect
• Confederate appears to have seizure
• Whether subject helped depended on presence of
  others

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Why the Bystander Effect?

• Darley Latane smoke filled room
• 3 explanations of their results
• 1)
• 2)
• 3)

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Other Situational Influenceson Altruism

• Rural/Urban areas
• More likely to get help in rural area
• Urban Overload what is it?
• How does it affect helping others?

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Fear of Disapproval?

• May explain lack of intervening in male-female
  conflicts
• Shotland (76) experiment w/staged fight
• How did the experimental manipulation work?
• What were the results?

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Personal Influences on Helping

• Large impact of guilt feel need to redeem
  ourselves by helping.
• Impact of mood
• Negative mood reduces helping in kids
• but increases helping for adults
• Why?
• Does a positive mood then reduce helping?

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Gender, Culture, Helping

• Gender effect
• There is a gender difference in helping based on
  the type of situation
• How does it work?
• Another gender diff in helping based on who needs
  help
• How does it work?
• Culture effect
• Ingroup/Outgroup effects how?

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Increasing Helping

• Personal appeals for help are effective
  especially if from friends
• What do lab results show?
• Door-in-the-face technique also effective
• How does this work?
• Socialization
• Modeling helping
• Get people to commit
• Teaching about altruism