PSY BEH 104S Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Murder Of Kitty Genovese, Inclusive Fitness, Epileptic Seizure
14 Dec 2016
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Altruism: unselfish behavior that benefits others without regard to consequences for the self. Altruism is paradoxical from the view of all major theories of behavior: almost all theories view humans as selfish and self-interested. Inclusive fitness and kinship selection: selection works at the level of the gene, not the organism, behavior that helps others who have your genes (relatives) can be selected for. The adaptiveness of a behavior is measured not just by the effect it has on the actors" reproductive fitness, but by the effect it has on others" fitness, weighted by their relatedness. Behavior that helps others at cost to self can be selected for if helping is reciprocated. I couldn"t have lived with myself if i didn"t help . Understand the situations that may cause people to help or refuse to help. Motivated by the kitty genovese incident: key variable = # of bystanders. Examines situational determinants of helping: avoids questions of true altruism .
