Psychology 3720F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Egotism, Pluralistic Ignorance, Principlism

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 3720F/G
• Professor: katz

Document Summary

Egoism and altruism are defined in terms of ultimate goals: evolutionary biologists define altruism in terms of consequences, not goals (increases fitness of recipient and decreases fitness of the helper) Altruisti(cid:272) (cid:271)eha(cid:448)iour does(cid:374)(cid:859)t ha(cid:448)e to i(cid:374)(cid:448)ol(cid:448)e self-sacrifice (a decrease in fitness) it might involve costs and rewards. The type of motive depends on whether we adopt the other perso(cid:374)(cid:859)s perspective (imagine how the person is feeling; we put ourselves in their shoes) Instructions to imagine how the other person is feeling. Feeling emotionally close to the person: attachment. Instead, set up situations where, if one motive (altruism) was operati(cid:374)g (cid:449)e(cid:859)d see o(cid:374)e t(cid:455)pe of (cid:271)eha(cid:448)iour; if a(cid:374)other (cid:373)oti(cid:448)e (cid:894)egois(cid:373)(cid:895) (cid:449)as operati(cid:374)g, (cid:449)e(cid:859)d see a different behaviour. We do this all the time in everyday life. The aversive arousal reduction hypothesis predicts that high empathy people will help only when escape is difficult, if escape is easy, high empathy people will be less likely to help.