1 exam ii psy 321. 2 exam ii grades (mean = 75; median 76)
TRANSCRIPT
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Exam II
PSY 321
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Exam II Grades (Mean = 75; Median 76)
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A B+ B C+ C D F
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Distribution of Grades
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Breakdown
As & Bs (44% of the class) Cs & Ds (41% of the class) F (15% of the class)
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Helping Others
PSY 321
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Outline
Why do we help?
Situational factors that affect helping
Personal Influences
Interpersonal Influences
Reactions to Receiving Help
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Why do We Help?
Gaining Rewards, Avoiding Punishment
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Evolutionary Factors in Helping: The “Selfish Gene” What is important is survival of the
individual’s genes, not survival of the individual.
Kinship selection is the tendency to help genetic relatives. Strongest when biological stakes are
particularly high.
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Kinship Selection
Help close relatives over distant relatives Especially in life/death situations Help youthful relatives over elderly Even true among Kids!!!
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Evolutionary Factors in Helping: Reciprocal Altruism What is the reproductive advantage of
helping someone who isn’t related to you? E.g. Female Vervet Monkeys
Through reciprocal altruism, helping someone else can be in your best interests. Increases the likelihood that you will be helped
in return.
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Evolutionary Factors in Helping: The Cooperative Group Humans can sometimes increase their
reproductive success in two ways: By protecting their own self-interest in relation
to other individuals; and By protecting their group’s interests in relation
to other groups.
Helping based on social connections rather than genetic relationships.
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Rewards of Helping:Helping Others to Help Oneself
More likely to help when the potential rewards of helping seem high relative to the potential costs.
Arousal: Cost-Reward Model What are the costs and rewards associated
with helping?
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Rewards of Helping: Helping to Feel Good More likely to help:
If self-esteem has been threatened by failure. Feeling guilty about something.
Relationship between helping and feeling better.
Helping others to feel good is often not a conscious decision, but it can be.
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RECENT STUDY!!!
Helping behavior among elderly decreases mortality risk!!!
Mortality was significantly reduced for individuals who reported providing instrumental support to friends and neighbors
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Rewards of Helping: Helping to Be or Appear Good May help because motivated to behave in
ways that are consistent with moral principles.
Sometimes help for the appearance of morality but really have selfish motives. Moral hypocrisy (people try to convince others
that they are driven to help others when they really have selfish reasons)
Overhelping (helping someone who doesn’t need help for personal gain)
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Costs of Helping or of Not Helping
Helping has its costs as well as its rewards.
Helping can also be more sustained and deliberate. Courageous resistance
Helping can have negative health effects if involves constant and exhausting demands.
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Altruism or Egoism: The Great Debate Is helping motivated by altruistic or egoistic
concerns? Altruistic: Motivated by the desire to increase
another’s welfare. Egoistic: Motivated by the desire to increase
one’s own welfare.
Batson: The motivation behind some helpful actions is truly altruistic.
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The Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis(Batson et al.)
Criticism = Is empathy path selfless?
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Telling the Difference Between Egoistic and Altruistic Motives
Important factor: How easy it to escape from a helping situation?
If egoistic motive, helping should decline when escape from the situation is easy.
If altruistic motive, help is given regardless of ease of escape.
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When Empathy Helps
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Egoistic Alternatives
Empathy encourages helping because of concern about the costs to the self of not helping.
Empathy highlights the potential rewards for helping others. Negative state relief model
Helper experiences empathic joy by helping another person.
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Altruism vs. Egoism: Limits and Convergence Strong evidence for the empathy-altruism
hypothesis. Limitations to empathy-altruism hypothesis:
Not all helping is altruistically motivated. Motives do not guarantee behavior. Is the assumption that there is a clear divide
between the self and the other a valid one?
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Why Does The Motivation to Help Matter? Helps us determine whether or not helping
will even occur. Motivational factors play important roles in
more long-term helping behaviors. Particularly, self-oriented motivations.
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Table 10.1: Motivations to Volunteer to Help People With AIDS
Adapted from Frank et al., 1993
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Situational Influences
When Do People Help?
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Bystander Effect
The tragic story of Kitty Genovese, 1964
Attacked 3 separate times by same killer
38 people saw or heard her cries for help
By the time someone called police, Kitty was dead
Why did no one help?
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Bystander Effect
The tragic story of Kitty Genovese. Latané & Darley: Were social psychological
processes at work?
Bystander Effect: The presence of others inhibits helping.
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Bystander Effect
Films\helping\bystander_effect.mov
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The 5 Steps to Helping in an Emergency
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Figure 10.4: Even in our imagination:Bystander Effect
S.M.Garcia, K. eaver, G.B. Moskowitz, and J.M. Darley (2002) Crowded Minds: The Implicit Bystander Effect." Copyright © 2002. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 843-853.
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Bystander Helping in a Chat Room
From P.M. Markey, Computers in Human Behavior, 16 (2002) 183-188.
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Time Pressure
Time pressure can conflict with one’s good intentions of helping those in need.
Darley & Batson’s (1973) Good Samaritan study Princeton Theological Seminary students told the must
deliver an impromptu sermon on Good Samaritan Time pressure manipulation:
You have plenty of time You must go now You’re late
On the way there, they see man doubled over in pain
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Darley & Batson’s (1973) Results
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Percentage who helped
Ahead ofSchedule
On Time Late
Note: Many participants actually stepped over the man needing help.
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Location and Culture
Do individuals have a worse chance of being helped in an emergency in a big city than in a small town?
Greater population density is associated with less helping.
Greater cost of living is associated with less helping.
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Helping in the U.S.A.
From "Helpfulness Index: How U.S. Cities Rank," The Boston Globe, July 7, 1994.
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Scents and Sensibilities(Baron, 1997)
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Good Moods Lead to Helping: Reasons Why does feeling good lead to doing good?
Desire to maintain one’s good mood. Positive expectations about helping. Positive thoughts. Positive thoughts and expectations about
social activities.
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Good Moods Lead to Helping: Limitations Why feeling good might not always lead to
doing good? Costs of helping are high. Positive thoughts about other social activities
that conflict with helping.
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Cunningham et al. (1980)
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Percentage who helped next person
Believed Broke Camera No Broken Camera
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Bad Moods and Helping
When negative moods make us more likely to help others: If we take responsibility for what caused our
bad mood (i.e., feel guilty). If we focus on other people. If we are made to think about our personal
values that promote helping.
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Bad Moods and Helping (cont.)
When negative moods make us less likely to help others: If we blame others for our bad mood. If we become very self-focused. If we are made to think about our personal
values that do not promote helping.
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Helping and Role Models
Social learning revisited: Role models are important in teaching children about helping
How do role models inspire helping? Provides an example of behavior to imitate
directly. Teaches that helping is valued and rewarding. Increases awareness of societal standards of
conduct.
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Helping and Social Norms
Norm of reciprocity Norm of equity Norm of social responsibility Concerns about justice or fairness Norm of self-interest
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The Norm of Social Responsibility in India and the U.S. (Miller et al, 1990)
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Personal Influences
Who Is Likely to Give Help?
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Are Some More Helpful Than Others?
Some evidence of individual differences in helping tendencies. Tendency may be relatively stable over time. Differences are in part genetically based.
Is there an altruistic personality?
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Essential Qualities for an Altruistic Personality Empathy
Internalized and advanced moral reasoning
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Children's Empathy and Moral Reasoning (Miller et al., 1996)
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Interpersonal Influences
Whom do we help?
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Attractiveness of Person in Need
More likely to help physically attractive people.
More likely to help friendly individuals.
Charisma of one person can determine how much help other people receive.
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Magic Johnson’s Influence on Helping Others
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Helping Stigmatized Groups
Why do you think people are reluctant to help the homeless?
Why do you think people are reluctant to help the elderly?
Why do you think people are reluctant to help those with Aids?
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Attributions of Responsibility
Beliefs about the needy person’s responsibility influences helping. AIDS as a result of blood transfusion vs.
sexual behavior
Effect particularly strong among those who believe in a just world.
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The Fit Between Giver and Receiver: Similarity More likely to help those who are
similar .
May be a form of kinship selection.
More likely to help ingroup members
Intergroup biases in helping can be reduced if perceive selves as members of a common group.
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Emotions and Helping
Pity and admiration increase helping
Envy and contempt decrease helping
Competence/Warmth
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The Fit Between Giver and Receiver: Closeness
People help their friends more than strangers or acquaintances.
What if person’s ego is threatened?
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Ego threat of similar others
Ps perform poorly on a task that is: Ego-relevant Ego-irrelevant
Given opportunity to help friend perform well on same task
Results…
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Not Giving Much Help to Our Friends(Tesser & Smith, 1980)
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Gender Norms and Helping
Classic male-helper scenario:
“Knight in shining armor”
Classic female-helper scenario: “Social support”
Gender differences in type of support given.
Gender differences in willingness to seek help.
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Reactions to Help
How do you think people react to receiving help?
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Threat-to-Self-Esteem Model
Help is experienced as self-supportive when recipient feels appreciated and cared for.
Help is experienced as self-threatening when recipient feels inferior and overly dependent.
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When Is Receiving Help Perceived as Threatening? Those with high self-esteem tend to react
more negatively than those with low self-esteem.
Being helped by a similar other may imply that recipient is inferior.
Help from a significant other on an ego-relevant task can threaten one’s self-esteem.
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Overall Interpersonal Themes
Evolutionary: genetic connections of reciprocal kinship and within group helping
Cognition/Emotions: Perspective taking (cognitive) and Emotional (empathy)
Familiarity: Knowing victim or group reduces bystander effect
Similarity: Increases helping Close-relationships: Easier to give and more
comfortable to receive.
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Key Concepts on Exam III
Predictions of kinship selection Environmental Factors related to helping (e.g.
population density, # of people present, ambiguity of need for helping)
Individual Factors (e.g. mood, time pressure) Egoistic v. Altruistic Empathy/Altruistic Hypothesis Obstacles in Helping Behavior