HPS204 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Meta-Analysis, Cognitive Model, Distributive Justice
HPS204 WEEK 12
Prosocial Behaviour and Attraction (Prosocial Behaviour)
Define and differentiate between prosocial behaviour, helping behaviour and altruism;
Prosocial behaviour refers to acts that are valued by society. It involves being both helpful
and altruistic. It embraces acts of charity, cooperation, friendship, rescue, sacrifice, sharing,
sympathy, and trust. Prosocial behaviour is defined by society’s norms. Helping behaviour is
an act that intentionally benefits someone else, such as giving some money to a friend
because they really need it. Altruism is a special form of helping behaviour. It is sometimes
costly, shows concern for fellow human beings, and is performed without the expectation of
personal gain.
Outline the two major theoretical positions adopted in the study of prosocial behaviour:
sociobiology and social learning;
The sociobiological perspective, or evolutionary social psychology perspective, views
complex social behaviour as adaptive, helping the individual, kin, and the species as a whole
to survive. Social learning theories do suggest that positive role models are more likely to
teach and see the results of such behaviour in their children.
Appreciate ways in which attributions (of own and others’ behaviour) affect helping
behaviour;
Self-attributions, in the case of seeing oneself as helpful, lead to more helping behaviours.
Grusec and Redler found that children who were told they were helpful donated the most
tokens to nearby children in their study. The just-world hypothesis, which suggests that
people want to believe that people get what they deserve, also affects people’s decisions to
help. In the case of Kitty Genovese, people may have believed that it was her own fault for
being out so late, or may blame rape victims for wearing clothing that is too tight, thus may
not help them. On the most part, however, people choose to help and believe that any
suffering is undeserved. Furthermore, research has shown that if the needs of a person in
distress can be specified, others can use this information to decide whether or not help is
deserved. If a brochure asking for donations for a particular Sudan family is given, and
participants are assured their money will go to that particular family, not to just anyone in
Sudan, the donations were higher.
Understand the role of empathy and arousal in helping;
The question of when we help, if we are merely trying to reduce our own unpleasant feelings,
required the identification of an extra factor in empathy. Batson et al. made the distinction
between affect-based feelings (i.e. I feel your pain), and cognitive-based empathy (i.e. I see
you pain). Telling children to be helpful can improve helping behaviour. This does, however,
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require a strong form, as well as modelling, and the parent not being hypocritical. Evidence
supports that when children are reinforced with rewards for helping, they are more likely to
repeat this behaviour. This demonstrated in Rushton and Teachman’s (1978) study, where
boys playing video games were either reinforced, neutralised, or punished, for donating
tokens. Those who were positively reinforced donated more tokens in the immediate test, and
two- week follow-up test.
Describe Latané and Darley’s cognitive model of the bystander effect, and explain the
variables which affect whether people help; and Bystander intervention is when an
individual breaks out of the role as a bystander and helps another person in an
emergency.
The bystander effect refers to when people are less likely to help in an emergency when they
are with others than when they are alone. The greater the number, the less likely it is that
anyone will help. Darley and Latané’s cognitive model outlines the following steps before
help is given: (1) Attend to what is happening (2) define event as an emergency (3) assume
responsibility and (4) decide what can be done. Darley and Latané ran a number of
experiments: in one that had participants in a room with smoke pouring in from a smoke
vent, participants were 75% more likely to report the smoke if they were alone than in a
group. When a lady sounded like she was in distress in the next room, those who were alone
were 70% likely to go help, but when in pairs, only 40% likely.
Explain the ‘bystander calculus’ and compare this with Latané and Darley’s model;
The bystander-calculus model is when, in attending to an emergency, the bystander
calculates the perceived costs and benefits of providing help compared with those associated
with not helping. There are three steps in this model: (1) physiological arousal (2) labelling
the arousal and (3) evaluating the consequences. Compared to Darley and Latané’s model,
there are fewer steps, and the process is more internal. The decision to help in the bystander-
calculus model is more based on how the individual feels and wants to feel, rather than the
state of the emergency. Even when a participant was talking to a confederate via
microphones in separate cubicles, and the confederate appeared to be having a fit, the
participant was less likely to intervene with the more people they supposed the confederate
was surrounded by. Factors affecting the above results include diffusion of responsibility,
whereby the individual assumes that others will take responsibility and as a result, no one
does, audience inhibition, in fear of social blunders, whereby the participant does not want
to look foolish by overreacting (is it a joke, is it not an emergency etc.), and social influence:
if others are passive and unworried, the situation may seem less serious. The three-in-one
experiment took apart diffusion and inhibition, to show that being alone led to the most
helping behaviour, followed by diffusion, diffusion + inhibition OR inhibition, then by
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Document Summary
Define and differentiate between prosocial behaviour, helping behaviour and altruism; Prosocial behaviour refers to acts that are valued by society. It embraces acts of charity, cooperation, friendship, rescue, sacrifice, sharing, sympathy, and trust. Helping behaviour is an act that intentionally benefits someone else, such as giving some money to a friend because they really need it. Altruism is a special form of helping behaviour. It is sometimes costly, shows concern for fellow human beings, and is performed without the expectation of personal gain. Outline the two major theoretical positions adopted in the study of prosocial behaviour: sociobiology and social learning; The sociobiological perspective, or evolutionary social psychology perspective, views complex social behaviour as adaptive, helping the individual, kin, and the species as a whole to survive. Social learning theories do suggest that positive role models are more likely to teach and see the results of such behaviour in their children.
