ALTRUISM and AGGRESSION
Dr. Kavisha Bhatt
Introduction to Altruism
• Definition: Altruism refers to helping behavior that benefits others with no
expectation of reward and may involve personal cost or risk
• Key Questions:
• Why do people help others?
• When are people most likely to help?
• Who is most likely to engage in helping behavior?
• How can we increase prosocial behavior in society?
• Importance: Understanding altruism helps us promote cooperative,
supportive communities
Theoretical Perspectives on Helping
• Evolutionary Psychology: Kin
selection: We help genetic
relatives to promote survival of
shared genes
• Reciprocal altruism: We help
with expectation of future
reciprocation
• Group selection: Groups with
altruistic members may survive
better collectively
• Social Exchange Theory: Costbenefit analysis of helping
behavior Internal rewards
(reduced guilt, increased selfesteem) and external rewards.
• Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis:
True altruism exists beyond selfinterest, triggered by empathic
responses
Why Do We Help? Motivational Factors
Egoistic Motivations: Personal rewards
and recognition
• Avoiding guilt, shame, or social
disapproval
• Enhancing self-esteem and personal
growth
Collectivistic Motivations:
• Promoting group welfare and
cohesion.
• Fulfilling social obligations and roles.
• Maintaining social norms of
reciprocity and care.
Altruistic Motivations: Genuine concern
for others' welfare.
• Empathic response to others'
suffering.
• Internalized values and principles
about helping
Research Evidence: Studies show
complex mix of motives in most helping
situations
The Bystander Effect: When We Don't Help
Bystander Effect: As number of witnesses increases, likelihood of any
individual helping decreases.
Key Factors in the Bystander Effect:
• Diffusion of Responsibility: Assumption that others will take action.
• Pluralistic Ignorance: Looking to others for interpretation of
ambiguous situations.
• Audience Inhibition: Fear of embarrassment or making mistakes in
public
The Bystander Effect: When We Don't Help
Latané and Darley's Decision Model (1970):
• Notice the event
• Interpret as emergency
• Accept personal responsibility
• Know appropriate form of assistance
• Implement the decision to help
When Will We Help? Situational Factors
• Environmental Factors:
• Urban vs. rural settings (urban overload hypothesis)Noise, crowding,
and time pressure reduce helping
• Pleasant environments (good weather, pleasant aromas) increase
helping
When Will We Help? Situational Factors
Clarity of Need:
• Unambiguous emergencies receive more help than ambiguous
situations.
• Direct requests for help are more effective than indirect cues
Costs vs. Benefits:
• Time, effort, resources required
• Danger or risk involved
• Opportunity costs of helping
When Will We Help? Situational Factors
Mood and Emotional State:
• Positive mood generally increases helping (feel-good, do-good
phenomenon)
• Guilt can motivate reparative helping behavior
• Empathic concern specifically increases helping toward the target of
empathy
When Will We Help? Relationship Factors
Social Connection:
• We help those we perceive as similar to ourselves (in-group bias)
• Physical attractiveness increases likelihood of receiving help
• Prior relationship or interaction increases helping
Perceived Deservingness:
• Attribution of responsibility for the person's situation
• Belief that help will be effective and appreciated
• Judgment of whether need arose from factors within or beyond control
Reciprocity Norms:
• We help those who have helped us (direct reciprocity)
• We help others after receiving help, even from different sources
• Effects of cultural norms regarding debt and obligation
Who Helps? Individual Differences
Personality Traits:
• Empathy and emotional
responsiveness.
Gender Differences:
• Women more likely to provide
emotional support and care
• Agreeableness and prosocial
orientation
• Men more likely to engage in
heroic or physically demanding
helping
• Internal locus of control and selfefficacy
• Gender roles and socialization
influence helping styles
Who Helps? Individual Differences
Cultural Background:
Developmental Factors:
• Individualistic vs. collectivistic
cultural orientations
• Altruistic tendencies appear in
early childhood
• Cultural norms regarding
reciprocity and social responsibility
• Moral reasoning development
influences helping behavior
• Religious and moral frameworks
emphasizing charity
• Life experiences shape prosocial
tendencies
Empathy and Helping Behavior
Components of Empathy:
• Cognitive empathy: Understanding others' perspectives
• Emotional empathy: Vicariously experiencing others' feelings
• Empathic concern: Feeling compassion for others in need
Batson's Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis:
• Empathic concern produces genuinely altruistic motivation
• Experimental evidence separating egoistic from altruistic motives
Empathy-Helping Link:
• Higher dispositional empathy correlates with more helping behavior
• Experimentally induced empathy increases helping, even when escape is easy
• Empathy specifically increases helping the target of empathy
Social Norms and Helping
Norm of Reciprocity:
Norm of Social Responsibility:
• Universal expectation to return
help received
• Obligation to help those dependent
on our assistance
• Creates social debt that motivates
future helping
• Varies by culture and social context
• Functions to maintain cooperative
social systems
• More strongly applied to
vulnerable groups (children,
elderly, disabled)
Social Norms and Helping
Social Justice Norms:
How Norms Operate:
• Belief in fair outcomes motivates
helping disadvantaged groups
• Internalized as personal values
• Distributive justice concerns
influence charitable giving
• Just-world beliefs can sometimes
decrease helping of victims
• Reinforced through social approval
and disapproval
• Activated by situational cues
Benefits of Helping
For Recipients:
• Physical and emotional needs met
• Social connection and reduced isolation.
For Helpers:
• "Helper's high" - positive emotions.
• Enhanced meaning and purpose
Research Evidence: Volunteering improves health and Prosocial spending
increases happiness
Personal Strategies
• Perspective-taking exercises
• Exposure to diverse experiences
• Reducing Barriers
• Knowledge and skills training
• Planning specific helping actions
• Cultivating Helper Identity: Seeing oneself as "a helper”
• Integrating helping into values
Applied Research
Organ Donation:
• Opt-out systems increase donation rates
• Personal testimonials improve willingness
Charitable Giving:
• Identifiable victim effect
• Matching programs leverage reciprocity
Community Volunteering:
• Social recruitment more effective
• Structured opportunities reduce barriers
Introduction to Aggression
Behavior intended to harm someone who wants to avoid harm
Key Characteristics:
• Intent is critical
• Physical or psychological harm
• Target wants to avoid it
Types of Aggression
• Physical vs. Verbal
• Physical: Hitting, pushing, weapons
• Verbal: Insults, threats, hate speech
• Direct vs. Indirect
• Direct: Face-to-face confrontation
• Indirect: Gossip, exclusion
• Reactive vs. Proactive
• Reactive: Response to threat (hot)
• Proactive: Planned, goal-directed (cold)
Hostile vs. Instrumental
Hostile Aggression:
• Primary goal is to harm
• Driven by anger and impulsivity
• Example: Hitting after insult
Instrumental Aggression:
• Harm as means to another goal
• Calculated and strategic
• Examples: Robbery, dominance bullying
Mixed Forms Most aggression contains both elements
Drive Theories
• Evolutionary Perspective
• Competition for resources and mates
• Sex differences in aggression types
• Genetic Factors
• Twin studies show heritability
• MAOA "warrior gene"
• Neurobiological Mechanisms
• Amygdala: Emotional processing
• Prefrontal cortex: Impulse control
• Serotonin and testosterone
Social Learning Theory
Bandura's Key Concepts:
• Aggression learned through observation.
• Vicarious learning from models where consequences determine
imitation.
• Bobo Doll Experiments: Children imitated observed aggression
Influenced by model's rewards/punishments Implications
• Media violence influences behavior
• Parental modeling shapes aggression
Cognitive Models
Social Information Processing:
Aggressive individuals show
biases.
Hostile Attribution Bias:
Interpreting ambiguous acts as
hostile creates a cycle of
perceived hostility
Cognitive Scripts:
• Learned patterns for specific
situations
• Develop through experience and
observation
• Automatically guide behavior
General Aggression Model
• Integrated Approach (Anderson & Bushman)
• Combines biological, psychological, social factors
• Key Components:
• Person factors: Traits, attitudes, beliefs
• Situation factors: Provocations, cues, incentives
• Routes: Affect, cognition, arousal
• Outcomes: Appraisal and action
• Cycle of Violence
• Repeated aggression strengthens patterns
Situational Influences
• Environmental Triggers:
• Provocation Effects:
• Heat increases irritability
• Direct provocations strongly
predict aggression
• Noise and crowding create stress
• Perceived intentionality matters
Situational Influences
Weapons Effect
Alcohol Effects
• Presence of weapons increases
aggression
• Narrows attention to
provocative cues
• Primes aggressive thoughts
• Impairs impulse control
Media Influences
Research Findings:
Mechanisms:
• Short-term: Increases aggressive
thoughts
• Learning aggressive techniques
• Long-term: Predicts later
aggressive behavior
• Desensitization to violence
• Normalizing aggressive behavior
Media Influences
Video Game Violence:
Mitigating Factors:
• Active participation vs. passive
viewing
• Parental mediation
• Reward systems for violent
actions
• Critical media literacy
Social Influences
Social Norms:
• Cultural variations in acceptable aggression
• Gender norms around aggression
Culture of Honor:
• Defending reputation through aggression
• Regional differences in responses to insults
Group Influence:
• Anonymity reduces personal responsibility
• Group contexts normalize aggression
Socialization:
• Parental modeling and discipline
• Peer reinforcement
Individual Differences
Personality Traits:
•Trait aggressiveness
•Narcissism and ego threats
•Low empathy
Cognitive Factors:
•Moral disengagement mechanisms
•Dehumanization of victims
•Justification of violence
•
Self-Regulation:
•Ability to override aggressive impulses
•Executive functioning control
Early Experiences:
•Child maltreatment
•Community violence exposure
Individual Approaches
Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions:
•Anger management training
•Social skills development
•Cognitive restructuring
Empathy Development:
•Understanding emotional impact on others
•Perspective-taking training
Catharsis Myth Debunked:
•"Venting" often increases aggression
Self-Regulation Training:
•Mindfulness for trigger awareness
•Implementation intentions for high-risk situations
Interpersonal Approaches
Conflict Resolution
Win-win negotiation techniques
GRIT: Graduated reciprocation
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Contact and Communication
Intergroup contact under optimal conditions
Cooperative learning tasks
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Restorative Justice
Focus on healing rather than punishment
Victim-offender mediation
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