Pro- and Anti- Social
Behaviour
Chapter 10
Pages 323-350
Pro Social Behaviour
• What is it?
Pro Social Behaviour
Any behaviour that is performed with
the intention of helping someone
else..
• What are some examples???
Giving blood.....
Factors
influencing prosocial behaviour
Situational
factors
Social
factors
Social
responsibility
norm
Bystander
intervention
and effect
Reciprocity
principle
Personal
factors
Empathy
Mood
competence
Factors influencing pro-social
behaviour
• Situational Factors:
 Bystander effect: the more witnesses that are
present at an emergency the less likely people will
help. (kitty Genovese case)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJqhWkTGu5o
 Diffusion of responsibility: a tendency for us not to
help those in need when there are other people
present because we believe that other people will
help.
Social Factors
• Social norms: the rules that a group uses for
appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs,
attitudes and behaviours. Failure to stick to these
rules can result in severe punishments such as being
excluded from a group. (helping others because of the
rules that society enforces upon us)
• Reciprocity principle: help others who have helped
us or help them if they are willing to help us in return.
• Social responsibility norm: we should help those
who are worse off than us.
Personal Factors
• Empathy: the ability to understand and
experience situations and emotions from
another person’s perspective.
• Mood: how we feel. We are more likely to
help if we are in a good mood.
• Competence: having the ability to help those
in need. If you know you are competent
enough to help then you are more likely to
help.
Did you know that attractive
people are more likely to be
helped than people who are
considered to be unattractive.
ALTRUISM
• Unselfish concern for the welfare of others.
• Altruistic acts are performed often at the
expense of the person executing the act.
• This is different to pro-social behaviour
because an altruistic act requires nothing in
return.
Can you think of any examples of
altruistic behaviours?
Anti-Social
Behaviour
Anti-social behaviour is any behaviour intended
to damage interpersonal relationships or is
culturally undesirable...
Any act that is performed with the intention of
causing deliberate pain, discomfort or
disruption to an individual, group or property.
For an act to be anti-social is must be:
1. Deliberate
2. Voluntary
3. Intended to cause harm
Factors
influencing antisocial behaviours
Diffusion of
responsibility
Audience
inhibition
Cost benefit
analysis
1. Diffusion of responsibility: less likely to do
anything when there are lots of people around.
2. Audience inhibition: tendency for people to be
reluctant to help others when in the presence of
company. Don’t want to risk being embarrassed
if the person doesn’t need help.
3. Cost-benefit analysis: evaluating the situation
before we decide to help. We weigh up the pros
and cons before we make a decision. We weigh
up the personal and social costs of helping. If
the cost is low then we are more likely to help.
*Read Pg 342 example*
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
How do we learn??
Social learning theory proposes that all our
behaviours are learned and occur as a result
of whether they are rewarded or punished.
Examples?????
Albert Bandura
• Came up with the social learning theory.
• He suggested that we learn pro social and anti
social behaviours through observation and
whether their behaviours are rewarded or
punished.
Modelling: a form of learning whereby we
observe the behaviours and consequences of
others and then replicate it.
Bandura’s BoBo Doll
experiment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCo33v3Fw
c4&feature=related
4min: goes over research method concepts. No
footage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCETgT_Xfzg
5:27min: more footage
Aggression
Aggression: behaviour that is intended to
cause harm.
Explanations of
aggression.
Ethological
approach
Biological
approach
Social
learning
approach
Psychodynamic
approach
ETHOLOGICAL APPROACH
• Konrad Lopez 1930’s
• Ethology is the study of animal behaviour in their
natural habitats.
• All creatures have an aggressive instinct.
• Uses a releaser (an environmental stimulus that
triggers aggressive behaviour) in his study because
instinct alone is not enough there needs to be a trigger.
• Eg: if a child is raised in an aggressive family these aggressive
genes will be passed down . If the right trigger is activated the
child will then act aggressively.
BIOLOGICAL APPROACH
• Hormones play a part in our aggressive
behaviour
• Brain damage can cause someone to be more
aggressive. (Phineas Gage)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXiMnDYzX0
5min
PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH
Sigmund Freud
• The psychodynamic approach looks at our unconscious
desires and wishes and how they form the motives for our
behaviours and actions.
• 2 instincts towards life and survival ,
1)libido (sexual urge/desire)
2)Thanatos (unconscious urge to die which is a more
destructive instinct)
• Aggression is an instinct.
• When we are growing up we suppress our aggressive
tendencies because they are not acceptable but as we get
older if given the correct circumstances then we can
perform aggressive/ violent acts.
SOCIAL LEARNING APPROACH
• Albert Bandura
• Aggression is learned from parents and
people who we associate with.
• We model their behaviour.
• Look at rewards and punishments
HOMEWORK
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ACTIVITY
10.3 questions 1 and 2
10.4 question 2
10.12 questions 1,2,3
10.3 questions 1 and 3