PSY 2401 Study Guide - Final Guide: Social Exchange Theory, Kin Selection, Ingroups And Outgroups
13 May 2018
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Department
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Professor
Social Psych Final Exam Study Guide
Bess Rizzo
FINAL May 4th 1:00-3:00
Chapter 10- Helping Others
Prosocial Behaviors- any act performed with the goal of benefitting another person
●Evolutionary explanations:
○Kin selection- Were more likely to help someone if they are genetically related to
us, only applies in extreme situations
■Unconscious and implicit decisions
○Norm of reciprocity- reciprocate and pay back what they did for us, why we feel
inclined to help others
○Empathy- has helped people survive over time, one reason that most supported as
to why we help people, “I know what it’s like”
●Psychological explanations
○Social exchange theory- rewards and costs, as long as you perceive the rewards
of helping more than the costs than you’ll help
○Emotion- good mood means you’re more likely to help “feel good do good”, you
help cause you want to preserve your good mood, bad mood means you’re more
likely to help only when experiencing guilt or sadness because we’re trying to get
rid of these emotions negative state relief model
○Both of these are focused on self interest
●Individual differences in giving help:
○Genetics- personality traits, no such thing as “helpful thinking:
■Agreeable: cooperative, tend to be very helpful
■Humbleness: the more humble, the more likely to help
○Empathy- people who are more empathetic are more likely to help someone
○Gender differences- differences only in what the help looks like or type of help,
men and women are equally as helpful
○In-group vs out-group- (in) nationality, Temple student, race, gender etc. (out)
opposite of this
○Religiosity- people who are strongly religious report that they are more helpful
than non-religious behavior, when we look at behavior religious people are more
likely to help when others know, non-religious people are more likely to be
helpful when the situations are anonymous, looks at frequency of help not the
extent of it
○Physical attractiveness- more likely to receive help than those who are less good
looking
○Personal responsibility- if we feel like people are responsible for putting
themselves in the situation, we are less likely to help
○Cultural differences- individual vs. collectivist cultures, only difference is what
the help looks like
■Individualistic cultures- U.S., AUS, Canada
●Explicit social support: explicitly asking for help from social
circle
■Collectivist cultures- not socially acceptable to ask for help, focused on
group, loyalty, togetherness, others needs before your own, if you ask for
help in a collectivist culture you’re basically putting your problems
through your entire social circle, China
●Implicit social support: people get help by being around and
thinking about their social web but not disclosing problems
■Social Responsibility Norm - we have this social responsibility to take
care of certain people
●Ex:elderly, animals, visibly pregnant women, and children- we’re
more likely to help them
Situational Explanations for Helping Behavior
●Bystander Effect (Latane & Darley, 1970)
○You’re less likely to help when surrounded by a lot of people
○Attack and murder of Kitty Genovese- was screaming for help and people who
lived in same apartments saw and heard what was going on but didn’t do anything
○After the second attack the police came
○Everyone's thinking the other will call the police, all before 911 existed
●Explanations for why we fail to help:
○We fail to notice an event
■Urban Overload Hypothesis: when we’re surrounded by tons of people
and there’s a lot going on, we can’t pay attention to everything so we just
keep to ourselves, urban setting or big city we pay attention to nothing,
because of all of this we fail to notice an event, holds just for where you
are currently
○We may not interpret an event as an emergency
■Informational Social Influence: look at what other people are doing and
do that
■Pluralistic Ignorance: you don’t know what to do so you look towards
your friends but they’re looking at you but you don’t know what to do
either, everyone is ignorant to the situation
○We assume responsibility
■Diffusion of responsibility: I don’t have to do it cause they see it and they
have it handled but everyone does this so no one does anything
■Feel competent to help: have to have a little bit of self efficacy, people
don’t feel like they can help
■Safe to help: if they think it’s going to backfire and hurt them, they are
less likely to help
○Same thing happens even if you’re not physically surrounded by people
■Implicit Bystander Effect- thinking about others is enough to activate
this construct
●Fancy dinner experiment people were asked how many people they
were gonna bring, people that said they were going to bring more
people donated less than those who said they were going to bring
one or two people
○Situational Explanations
■Less likely to help when in a time crunch
■More likely to help when you’re not in a crunch
●Good Samaritan Study- Seminary school participants
○Set people on the way that “needed help”
○People who were rushing on their way to talk about being a
good samaritan were less likely to help
○Stepped over him when they were rushed
■Sun- more helpful when sunny (can be cold)
■Smells- pleasant smells put us in a good mood and we are more likely to
help, not pleasant smells leads to aggression
Increasing Prosocial Behaviors
●Awareness of barriers of helping
○Once you know about the Bystander Effect you’re less likely to do it
●Direct requests
○Not a generic sense of asking for help, people can’t diffuse it, “you in the..”
●Prosocial media
○Demonstrations of people helping people makes us more likely
●Role model
○When we have role models that demonstrate this we are more likely
●Normative social influence
Document Summary
Prosocial behaviors - any act performed with the goal of benefitting another person. Kin selection - were more likely to help someone if they are genetically related to us, only applies in extreme situations. Norm of reciprocity - reciprocate and pay back what they did for us, why we feel. Empathy- has helped people survive over time, one reason that most supported as inclined to help others to why we help people, i know what it"s like . Psychological explanations of helping more than the costs than you"ll help. Social exchange theory- rewards and costs, as long as you perceive the rewards. Both of these are focused on self interest. Genetics- personality traits, no such thing as helpful thinking: Agreeable: cooperative, tend to be very helpful. Humbleness: the more humble, the more likely to help opposite of this men and women are equally as helpful. Empathy- people who are more empathetic are more likely to help someone.
