PSYC 2120 Study Guide - Final Guide: Social Capital, Verbal Behavior, Machismo
10 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
An altruistic person is concerned and helpful even when no benefits are offered or expected in return. Social-exchange theory: the theory that human interactions are transactions that aims to maximize one"s rewards and minimize one"s costs. Assumes that helping, like other social behaviours, is motivated by a desire to maximize rewards, which may be external or internal. Thus, after wrongdoing, people often become more willing to offer help. Finally, there is a striking feel-good do good effect: happy people are helpful people. Rewards that motivate helping may be external or internal. We credit people for their good deeds, said b. f skinner, only when we can"t explain them. We attribute their behaviour to their inner dispositions only when we lack external explanations. When the external causes are obvious, we credit the causes, not the person. Egoism: a motive (supposedly underlying all behaviour) to increase you own welfare, the opposite of altruism, which aims to increase someone else"s welfare.
