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Review
13
Summary
WHY DO WE HELP?
p. 244
• People may provide each other with help,
otherwise termed prosocial behavior, for a variety
of reasons. Some of these reasons may be egoistic
(selfishly motivated) or altruistic (selflessly
motivated).
emergency, we decide there must not be one. People do not accept
responsibility for helping in groups—all the more when other people
are present (diffusion of responsibility). Finally, people will not be able
to decide how to help if they do not have the appropriate knowledge
set or are insecure in that knowledge.
WHAT ARE OTHER INFLUENCES
ON HELPING? p. 252
• Egoistic models of prosocial behavior include the influences of
existing negative mood, the desire to improve one’s mood, and the
relative costs and benefits of helping. Being in a negative mood,
having no desire to improve one’s mood, and perceiving more costs
than benefits tend to decrease helping.
• Altruistic models of prosocial behavior include the influences of
empathy, nurturing feelings toward the target, and a goal to promote
the target’s welfare on the likelihood of helping behavior. Each of
these factors tends to increase helping.
• Models that discuss the influence of norms suggest that the norm of
reciprocity increases helping, because we expect that if we help others,
they will help us (and they often do). They also suggest that social
norms about when helping is appropriate impact our tendency to help.
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WHEN DO WE HELP?
p. 248
• According to the decision model of bystander
intervention, there are five steps that are required
for helping to occur: noticing the emergency, interpreting the situation as an emergency, feeling a
personal responsibility to help, deciding how to
help, and then providing the help.
• Being aware of the obstacles that arise in completing each step
can enable you to overcome them. People do not notice emergencies
because they are focused on their own concerns or are otherwise
distracted—or the event is not clear or nearby. People do not interpret
situations as emergencies when they are ambiguous, when the
relationship between the parties involved is unclear, or when pluralistic
ignorance occurs; if others do not seem to think there is an
• Many other factors can influence helping behavior.
Some of these factors include the attractiveness of
the target person (whether physical or in terms of
personality), the similarity of the helper to the target
person, behavioral mimicry of the helper, the helper having the five traits
composing an “altruistic personality,” and modeling of helping behavior.
• People do not always welcome help. Sometimes it is embarrassing
to need help; people sometimes want to feel self-sufficient. People
often do not like to be helped with matters that are tied to their selfesteem; in particular, they want to be able to accomplish things on
their own in areas important to them. If the helper exudes superiority
while helping, it will also make the help less welcome and less appreciated. Indeed, such assistance may hurt more than it helps.
HOW DO WE INCREASE
PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR?
p. 257
• People’s tendency to help can be increased by
others modeling prosocial behavior to them. Models
can be real-life people or people in the media.
Older children tend to benefit more from this sort
of modeling, and it is prosocial behavior that must be modeled for
helping to increase—not just positive behavior in general.
• By being educated about psychological principles related to
prosocial behavior, you can apply them to your real-life situations and
possibly catch yourself before you decide not to help someone who is
truly in need.
Key Terms
altruistic having a selfless motivation for
helping 244
altruistic personality a proposed personality
composite consisting of five traits, each of which
correlates positively with helping behavior: empathy, internal locus of control, belief in a just world,
a sense of social responsibility, and low
egocentrism 255
bystander effect a phenomenon in which as
more people are present, each individual is less
likely to help 251
cost-benefit analysis the act of weighing the
relative costs and benefits of helping to decide
whether or not to provide the help 245
decision model of bystander intervention the
model derived by Bibb Latane and John Darley
that explains the five steps required to provide
help to someone in need and what can interfere
with successful completion of each of these
steps 249
diffusion of responsibility a decreased feeling of
responsibility to help in a group; if an emergency
arises in a group setting, it is less likely that any
one person will help than if someone was witnessing the emergency alone, because being in a
group decreases each person’s feeling of personal
responsibility to help 251
egoistic having a selfish motivation for
helping 244
empathy having compassion for others and a
feeling of seeing the world through the eyes of
another individual 244
empathy-altruism model of prosocial behavior
a model suggesting that true altruism is a
product of empathy; this empathy can create
nurturing feelings toward a target or a goal to
increase the target’s welfare 246
enlightenment effect the effect wherein
learning about how humans fall prey to obstacles to helping can aid us in overcoming those
obstacles in the future; it extends to benefits
from learning about other human biases as
well 259
kin selection the tendency of people to help their
biological relatives over nonfamily members, even
at great cost to themselves, thus favoring the
reproductive success of one’s relatives over his or
her own survival 248
morally cleansing engaging in actions that
restore, in one’s own mind, the proper moral
order 244
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negative state relief model a model positing
that the reason people help others is to improve
their own negative mood 244
prosocial behavior behavior designed to help
another person 244
reciprocity norm the idea that if others help us,
we should help them, and that if we help them,
they will help us 247
social responsibility norm the idea that we have
social responsibility to help others; the extent to
which this extends to outgroup members varies by
culture 247
Test Your Understanding
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Charitable donations activate the same brain region that is
activated when
we smile.
we receive a monetary reward.
we eat something we like.
we are praised by a classmate.
a.
b.
c.
d.
2. Which of these does not factor into a cost-benefit analysis?
a. emotional harm to oneself
b. someone saying “thank you”
c. increased popularity from helping
d. emotional harm to the target
3. Why does positive mood influence helping?
a. Rewards are more accessible.
b. Penalties are more accessible.
c. You like the target better.
d. none of these
4. In the empathy-altruism model of prosocial behavior, what
him to buy your raffle tickets, he will
a. buy more tickets.
b. want to buy more tickets but not do it.
c. offer to tell friends about the raffle.
d. offer you a soda.
9. Which of these is a trait not necessarily possessed by someone
with an altruistic personality?
empathy
social responsibility
extroversion
belief in a just world
a.
b.
c.
d.
10. Sometimes we don’t want to be helped. Which of these is not a
reason why?
The person has fewer resources than we do.
Doing it on our own is important to our self-esteem.
The helper exudes superiority.
The person has more resources than we do.
a.
b.
c.
d.
ESSAY RESPONSE
1. Consider the negative state relief model. Can we ever say for sure
that this is not the cause of a given helpful behavior? What might we
have to do to discount the possibility that the improvement of negative mood is the cause?
2. What does it take to help when doing so is costly to oneself?
Consider the research in this chapter in your explanation.
3. The reciprocity norm was shown by infant research to be somewhat
innate. What are the possible reasons for this? Consider evolutionary possibilities as well as perspectives regarding the individual’s and
culture’s interests.
4. Consider why attraction might lead us to help someone whom we
6. According to the decision model of bystander intervention, why
might we not notice a need for help?
a. distractions
b. being self-focused
c. distance from event
d. all of the above
7. If others do not act as though there is an emergency happening,
you will interpret the event as a nonemergency. This is called
diffusion of responsibility.
egoism.
reciprocity effect.
pluralistic ignorance.
a.
b.
c.
d.
are likely never to meet. Discuss any egoistic, altruistic, normative,
and alternative reasons that may exist.
5. Modeling has profound effects on long- and short-term behavior.
Discuss some ways in which parents can inadvertently influence
their children and we can inadvertently influence our peers.
APPLY IT!
Think about any time you’ve been out with your friends and seen a scuffle
of some sort. Maybe you saw a couple fighting outside a restaurant. Maybe
you saw two men shouting about something on the street. Maybe you saw
a woman striking a child, or a man dragging an animal down the street.
How could you have fairly assessed whether or not there was an emergency? How could you have responded in a way that would have provided needed help to a potential victim while still ensuring your own safety?
Remember to check www.thinkspot.com for additional information,
downloadable flashcards, and other helpful resources.
PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR: WHY WE HELP, AND WHY WE DON’T
5. According to research, if you give someone a soda and then ask
What is not something that would stop them at this stage?
feeling embarrassed
limited time to help
having no training in how to help
lack of confidence in how to help
a.
b.
c.
d.
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promotes helping?
a. similarity
b. nurturing feelings
c. reciprocity norm
d. attraction
8. People who have decided to help must figure out how to do so.
ANSWERS: 1. b; 2. d; 3. a; 4. b; 5. a; 6. d; 7. d; 8. b; 9. c; 10. a