Chapter Twelve

1. Chapter Twelve Helpful Social Behavior

2. Types of Helping Behavior • Prosocial behavior • any action that provides benefit to others • casual helping • emergency helping • substantial personal helping • emotional helping

4. Altruism vs. Egoism • Why would people help? • Egoistic motivation • we help others to feel good ourselves • Altruistic motivation • we help others as an end in itself

6. Parameters of Altruism • Inclusive fitness • helping as a means of preserving our genetic material • Empathy-altruism hypothesis • feelings of empathy lead to altruistic behavior? • feelings of empathy lead to personal distress; we help to feel better?

7. Factors Influencing Helping • Social norms • Modeling helpful behavior • Blaming the victim • Good mood • Guilt • Individual differences

8. Norms and Helping • Norm of social responsibility • we should help those who are deserving • Norm of reciprocity • we should repay a favor with a favor • Personal norms • we each have expectations about our behavior in particular situations

9. Modeling Helpful Behavior • Exposure to models of helpful behavior can influence the likelihood of our own helping • Modeling has implications for the development of helping during childhood

10. Blaming the Victim • We sometimes conclude that a victim’s unfortunate outcomes are due to that victim’s own behavior • Just world theory • humans need to believe that the world is a fair and just place • we therefore sometimes think that bad things happen to bad people, and good things happen to good people

11. Mood and Helping • The warm glow of a good mood can spark us to help others • Feelings of guilt can spark us to help others

12. Individual Differences in Helping • Individual differences in empathy predict helping behavior • Dimensions of empathy • perspective taking • empathic concern • personal distress • fantasy generation

13. Concept Review

14. Volunteerism • Volunteering your time is an example of substantial personal helping • Motives for volunteerism: • values • community concern • understanding • personal development • esteem enhancement

16. Helping in an Emergency • A decision tree of helping • notice the emergency • interpret it as such • assume personal responsibility for acting • choose a strategy • implement that strategy

18. Cultural Differences in Helping • Individualism-collectivism may play a role in influencing helping • cultural comparisons to Kenya, Mexico, Japan, India, and the Phillippines have been made

19. The Recipient’s Negative Reaction to Help • Norm of reciprocity • help recipients may find themselves unable to reciprocate the help they receive • Threats to self-esteem • Attributions • the attributed cause of the helping may determine one’s reactions • Individual differences in gratitude • some people are more grateful than others

20. Concept Review

21. The Nature of Social Dilemmas • Short-term, individual gain can lead to long-term, collective loss • Tragedy of the commons is an example • grazing, fishing, pollution • Prisoner’s dilemma is an example • weighing cooperation versus competition

23. Decision-Making in Social Dilemmas • Situational labels for a social dilemma influence our behavior • Priming a schema for cooperation or for competition influences our behavior • Social norms for cooperation or competition influence our behavior • Similar models serve as a guide for behavior • Communication can increase cooperation • Social value orientation predicts helping

24. Concept Review

25. Social Support • Perceiving that social support is available can be more beneficial than actual social support receipt • both perceived and actual social support can be measured by questionnaires

26. Social Support and Health • Four ways that social support influences health: • informational support • instrumental support • companionship support • emotional support