Social Psych ch. 12 - Helping
Terms
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- Effect of bystanders on helping
- Less likely to notice, to interpret as an emergency, and to take responsibility. We keep to ourselves in group; we don't want to appear unreasonably concerned & we assume that others can tell we're concerned (the illusion of transparency); we're less likely to assume responsibility, perhaps because we imagine that someone else will.
- Internal rewards
- motivation for helping; we give to feel good.
- Social capital
- the mutual support and cooperation enabled by a social network. Norm of reciprocity influences the support
- Kin selection
- The idea that evolution has selected altruism toward one's close relatives to enhance the survival of mutually shared genes. Is this perhaps why we help people who look similar to us or live near us?
- Evolutionary Psychology and helping
- Overall, self-sacrifice harms our chances of survival ("selfish genes"). But, we are predisposed toward kin protection & reciprocity.
- Affect of religious faith
- People with a moderate to strong tie to a religious group are more likely to help than those without this connection
- Feel Good, Do Good
- success, thinking positive thoughts, receiving gifts, recently relieved fear, etc. --> more helpful!
- Social Norms
- Another motivator for helping, aside from Rewards
- Evolutionary basis for reciprocity
- We're predisposed to help because it will help us get help in the future. Works best in small groups or between friends, where we're likely to have the favor returned.
- Guilt & Internal Rewards
- We will help to avoid feeling guilty - e.g. man saving child from subway train, or people more willing to help with psych study after being induced to lie
- Influence of others helping
- We're more likely to act if someone else expresses concern over an emergency situation or if we see someone else act first (changing tire, donating money, etc)
- Increasing helping by increasing guilt and concern for self-image
- chastising people for doing something against the rules; using the door-in-the-face technique or asking for an incredibly small favor so people feel like they can't turn it down; complimenting someone on their generous nature after they help
- Socializing altruism
- teach moral inclusion, model altruism for others, learn by doing, and allow attributions for helpful behavior to fall to altruistic motives rather than threats or rewards; even just learning about altruism (e.g. by reading this chapter)
- Gender and receiving help
- Women help men and women equally, but men are more likely to help women than other men and especially if they're attractive. Perhaps because they're seen as more dependent/helpless? e.g. survival rates on Titanic
- The Reciprocity Norm
- An expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them. May take place even anonymously, but may preventing helping if someone feels that they'll be unable to return the favor later
- The Social Responsibility Norm
- An expectation that people will help those needing help. Especially holds true for children, elderly, those harmed by unexpected/uncontrollable events. This means that our attributions for _why_ things happen are very important for predicting our willingness to help.
- Gender and seeking help
- Women are more likely than men to seek help - 2x as likely to seek medical & psychiatric help. Perhaps due to gender differences in independence vs. interdependence
- Evolutionary basis for unreciprocated altruism
- Group selection: we support our group/species as a whole. When groups compete, mutually supportive groups generally outlast nonaltruistic groups. Can be seen also in bees & ants that sacrifice for the colony's survival.
- Altruism
- A motive to increase another's welfare without conscious regard for one's self-interests
- Empathy
- The vicarious experience of another's feelings; putting oneself in another's shoes. The basis for genuine altruism? Perhaps we truly just want others to feel better.
- Influence of similarity
- We're more likely to help those dressed to represent our group (e.g. hippie vs. conservative; manchester vs. liverpool or football fan vs. not; digital subject with similar facial features)
- moral exclusion
- the perception of certain individuals or groups as outside the boundary within which one applies moral values and rules of fairness. Moral inclusion is regarding others as within one's circle of moral concern.
- External rewards
- motivation for helping; we give to get. --> Most motivated to help someone attractive to us or whose approval we desire
- Egoism
- A motive (supposedly underlying all behavior) to increase one's own welfare. The opposite of altruism, which aims to increase another's welfare. This idea has fallen into disrepute because it may simply be circular reasoning.
- Affect of personality traits
- No trends have been found yet for spontaneous helping, but there is perhaps a network of traits that make people more likely to help overall. Men are more likely than women to help in a potentially dangerous situation.
- Affect of time pressures
- Being in a hurry makes us less likely to help, although perhaps simply because we're less likely to notice
- overjustification effect
- The result of bribing people to do what they already like doing; they may then see their actions as externally controlled rather than internally appealing
- Genuine Altruism
- The idea that perhaps people can help purely from a desire to help and not due to any selfish motive.
- Bystander effect
- The finding that a person is less likely to provide help when there are other bystanders
- Responsibility diffusion
- with more people, we feel less responsible for taking action
- Social-exchange theory
- The theory that human interaction are transactions that aim to maximize one's rewards and minimize one's costs
- Exceptions to the Feel Bad - Do Good scenario
- Anger & internal grief. e.g. study having participants focus on dying friend vs. on their reaction to dying friend --> much lower volunteer rates tied to self-focused grief
- Increasing helping by reducing ambiguity and increasing responsibility
- overhearing people comment on shoplifting, wearing a name tag, filling out a survey about yourself. Personalizing bystanders through a personal request, eye contact, using their name, anticipation of future interaction, etc.