Social psychology chapter 8

1. Chapter 12
Helping
Behavior

2. Definitions
 Altruism means helping someone when
there is no expectation of a reward (except
for feeling that one has done a good deed)
 Prosocial Behavior includes any act that
helps others, regardless of motive.
Prosocial
Behavior
Altruism

3. Definitions
 Types of Helping (McGuire, 1994)
 Casual help, e.g., giving directions
 Substantial help, e.g., lending $$
 Emotional help, e.g., listening
 Emergency help, e.g., taking someone to E.R.

4. Definitions
 In general, we tend to be more
helpful to those we know and care
about than to strangers

5. Theoretical Perspectives
 An Evolutionary Perspective
 Many examples of prosocial behavior have been
observed among animal species.
 Endangering one’s own life to help another, on
the surface, seems incompatible with
reproductive fitness.
 “Kin selection” provides an explanation.
 Animals help others more who are genetically related.
 Mothers are more helpful than fathers.
 However, these ideas are controversial.

6. Theoretical Perspectives
 A Sociocultural Perspective
 Human societies have gradually evolved
beliefs or social norms that benefit the
welfare of the group.
 Norm of Social Responsibility
 Help those who depend on us
 Norm of Reciprocity
 Help those who help us
 Norm of Social Justice
 Maintain equitable distribution of rewards

7. Theoretical Perspectives
 A Learning Perspective
 We learn to be helpful through
reinforcement and observation.
 Children help and share more when they are
reinforced for their helpful behavior.
 Children and adults exposed to helpful
models are more helpful.
 For children, helping may depend largely on
reinforcement, but as they get older, helping
may be internalized as a value.

8. Theoretical Perspectives
 A Decision-Making Perspective
 People decide whether or not to offer
assistance based on a variety of
perceptions and evaluations. Help is
offered only if a person answers “yes” at
each step.

9. Theoretical Perspectives
(Latané & Darley, 1970)

10. Theoretical Perspectives
 Perceiving a Need
 Characteristics that lead us to perceive
an event as an emergency:
 Event is sudden & unexpected.
 Clear threat of harm to a victim.
 Harm will increase unless someone intervenes
 Victim needs outside assistance.
 Effective intervention is possible.

11. Theoretical Perspectives
 Taking Personal Responsibility
 Being given responsibility increases
helping.
 Perceiving oneself as competent to help
increases the likelihood of taking
responsibility.

12. Theoretical Perspectives
 Weighing the Costs and Benefits
 At least in some situations, people weigh
the costs and benefits of helping and of
not helping.
 However, in other cases, helping may be
impulsive and determined by basic
emotions and values rather than by
expected profits.

13. Theoretical Perspectives
 Deciding How to Help & Taking Action
 In emergencies, decisions are made
under high stress. Well-intentioned
helpers may not be able to give
assistance or may mistakenly do the
wrong thing.

14. Theoretical Perspectives
 Attribution Theory
 We are more likely to be empathetic and
to perceive someone as deserving help if
we believe that they did not cause their
problem.

15. Who Helps?
 Mood and Helping
 People are more willing to help when they
are in a good mood.
 Mood-maintenance
 Good moods increase positive thoughts
 “Feel good” effect is short lived.

16. Who Helps?
 Mood and helping
 Negative moods sometimes lead to more
helping.
 Negative-state relief model suggests that
people may help as a way to make themselves
feel better.
 Less likely to occur if a person is focused on
themselves and their own needs.

17. Who Helps?
 Personal Distress refers to our own
emotional reactions to the plight of
others.
 Occurs when we are preoccupied with
our own feelings and leads us to focus on
reducing that distress.
 Fosters “egoistic helping:” We’ll help
only if we cannot easily escape the
situation or ignore others’ suffering.

18. Who Helps?
 Empathy refers to feelings of
sympathy and caring for others.
 Occurs when we focus on the needs and
the emotions of the victim.
 We are more likely to feel empathy for
those who are similar to us and those
who did not cause their own distress.
 Fosters altruistic helping.

19. Who Helps?
 Toi & Batson (1982)
 All participants learned about Carol, who had
broken both legs in an accident and needed
assistance catching up with schoolwork.
 High empathy condition was told to focus on
Carol’s feelings; Low empathy condition was told
to be objective.
 71% high empathy, 33% low empathy helped.

20. Who Helps?
 There is a controversy over
interpreting studies on empathy.
 Batson views empathy as increasing
altruistic motivation
 Cialdini argues that helping based on
empathy is not entirely altruistic
because the helper’s goal is to improve
his/her own mood.

21. Who Helps?
 Personality Characteristics
 There is no single type of “helpful
person.” Rather particular traits and
abilities lead people to help in different
specific types of situations.
 E.g., people who help in potentially dangerous
emergencies are bigger and tend to have
training in coping with emergencies.

22. Who Helps?
 Gender and Helping
 Men are more likely to engage in helping
that is heroic and chivalrous.
 Men are more likely to help strangers—
especially if the person needing help is
female, if there’s an audience, and if the
situation is dangerous.

23. Who Helps?
 Gender and Helping
 Women are more likely to engage in
helping that is nurturant.
 Care-giving, emotional support, doing favors.

24. Bystander Intervention
 Bystander effect = people are less
likely to help (and take longer to help)
the more people there are present
 Kitty Genovese murder sparked research
 Why does the bystander effect occur?
 Diffusion of responsibility
 Pluralistic ignorance
 Evaluation apprehension

25. Bystander Intervention
 Environmental Conditions affect helping.
 People are more helpful when it’s pleasantly
warm and sunny.
 People are more likely to help strangers in small
towns & cities than in big cities.
 What matters is current environmental setting, not
where person was raised.
 Explanations: anonymity of cities, fear of crime,
information overload, feelings of helplessness.

26. Bystander Intervention
 “Good Samaritan” study (Darley & Batson, 1973)
 Participants were seminary students
asked to give a short sermon
 Some were told to hurry across campus,
others to take their time
 63% of those not in a hurry vs. 10% in a hurry
helped a groaning stranger they passed.
 Time pressure particularly affected those who
believe their research participation was of vital
importance (Batson et al., 1978).

27. Volunteerism
 Volunteer helping is planned, sustained,
and time-consuming.
 Motives for volunteering:
 Expressing Values
 Gaining knowledge, skills, & experience
 Gaining social approval and new relationships
 Advancing career
 Putting aside own problems
 Gaining personal growth & self-esteem
 Self-focused reasons may promote long-
term helping.

28. Caregiving
 Most helping is given to friends and
relations.
 Helping given to strangers is usually
spontaneous, that given to intimates
is usually planned.
 Women are more involved in care-
giving helping than are men.

29. Receiving Help
 Reactions to receiving aid are quite
varied.

30. Receiving Help
 Attribution Theory
 If being helped implies a personal
deficiency rather than a difficult
situation, it can be threatening to self-
esteem.
 If being helped implies the others’
genuine caring, it can boost self-esteem.

31. Receiving Help
 The Costs of Indebtedness
 Helping is most appreciated when it can
be reciprocated so that an equitable
balance is maintained in the relationship.
 One-way helping threatens equity and
creates power imbalances.

32. Receiving Help
 Reactance Theory
 Helping may be perceived as a threat to
independence and induce reactance.
 According to reactance theory (Brehm,
1966), people want to maximize their
personal freedom and choice. Feeling
that one’s freedom is threatened leads
to negative reactions.

33. Receiving Help
 New Ways to Obtain Help
 Self-Help Groups minimize the costs of being
helped because they offer opportunities for
reciprocal helping and foster knowledge that
others have the same problem.
 Computers can provide assistance anonymously
and with no expectations of reciprocity and also
minimize costs of being helped.