PSY 102 Lecture 12: #12 altruism and pro-social behavior
Document Summary
Helping: engaging in any behavior that benefits someone else. Altruism: helping out of the desire to benefit someone else, with no benefit (and often a cost) to the self. The selfish gene: we help others to ensure the survival of our own genes. Kin protection: we help others who share our genes. Reciprocal altruism: helping others who are not kin increases likelihood of being helped in return. Selfish reasons we help others to help ourselves. Helping increases as rewards/approval for helping increase. Personal distress motive (negative state relief model) Empathetic concern: understanding or vicariously experiencing another"s perspective and feeling sympathy and compassion for them. If egoistic motive, helping should decline when escape from the situation is easy. If altruistic move, help should be given regardless of ease of escape from situation. Participants watched another person receive a shock. Participant could or could not leave experiment early. Asked if they would volunteer shocks for the other.
