...Altruism and Prosocial Behavior Altruism occurs when our motive from our behavior is entirely for the interest of others and is not motivated by self-interest (Feenstra, 2011). Doing something for someone to make them happy with no alternative motive would be acting altruistically, because your ultimate goal was the happiness of the other person. The happiness of others is the true goal of altruistic motives is for the well-being of another person, not yourself (Feenstra, 2011). You might receive benefits because the person on the receiving end could show gratitude, but being altruistic is not asking or needing gratuity for actions that were made to make one happy. An altruistic person doesn’t look for anything in return for making one happy or doing a good deed for that person. When self-benefits are an unintended consequence of an action, that action is truly altruistic (Feenstra, 2011). The difference between egoistic and altruism is that egoistic is doing something for self-interest unlike altruism which has no motive for the action. Let’s say I do a good deed for someone by mowing their lawn and I do this because I know money will be offered and the money was my motive for mowing the lawn. An egoistic person motives involve an ultimate goal of self benefit. Anything one does as an egoistic person is geared toward self benefit, even though the act may be thought of as a caring act. The bystander effect is an overall tendency to watch while someone needs help. There...
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...56.091103.070141 Copyright c 2005 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved First published online as a Review in Advance on September 10, 2004 PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR: Multilevel Perspectives Louis A. Penner Karmanos Cancer Institute/Family Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 40202, and Research Center for Group Dynamics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109; email: pennerl@karmanos.org John F. Dovidio Psychology Department, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York 13346; email: John.Dovidio@UConn.edu Jane A. Piliavin Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706; email: jpiliavi@ssc.wisc.edu David A. Schroeder University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701; email: dave@uark.edu Key Words altruism, cooperation, helping ■ Abstract Current research on prosocial behavior covers a broad and diverse range of phenomena. We argue that this large research literature can be best organized and understood from a multilevel perspective. We identify three levels of analysis of prosocial behavior: (a) the “meso” level—the study of helper-recipient dyads in the context of a specific situation; (b) the micro level—the study of the origins of prosocial tendencies and the sources of variation in these tendencies; and (c) the macro level—the study of prosocial actions that occur within the context of groups and large organizations. We present research at each level and discuss similarities and differences...
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...Social Psychology: Prosocial Behavior Social psychology is one of the wide topics in sociology that have been widely studied. Social psychology is the study of human behavior in a social context. Stangor (2013) has described social psychology as the scientific study of how people think, feel and behave around people and how people’s feelings, thoughts and behaviors are influenced by these people. It aims at studying and explaining how individual personalities change due to social groups. Social psychology helps one understand how individuals fit in the society. Social psychology exists in our daily life. When we make friends, when we argue with friends, how we live with people and relate with them, are all examples of social psychology. There are different study areas in social psychology and they are; prosocial behaviors, prejudice, discrimination and diversity, self and social behavior, social influence, cultural links, psychology of gender and violence, conflict resolution and peace. In this paper I will discuss prosocial behavior. Prosocial behavior is the opposite of anti-social behavior. While anti-social people will exclude themselves from the society, are selfish and don’t contribute much in conversations, prosocial people are philanthropic, obedient and cooperate with others. Prosocial behavior has been described as the phenomenon where people help each other, either willingly or with a hidden motive. Prosocial behavior should not be confused with altruism, which is helping...
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...Empathy-altruism hypothesis Empathy-altruism hypothesis is a prosocial behavior that states people are motivated to act in an altruism manner by the empathy they feel for others. Altruism is defined as a true desire to help those in need and expect nothing in return, not even satisfaction. Empathy is defined as a feeling of understanding the experience that another being is facing. Empathy-altruism hypothesis has a very important significance to American culture as well as cultures around the world because we all should strive towards altruism motivation to ensure our own survival in the future. Empathy has different elements and different levels dependent upon the situation and feelings felt by the observer. If the observer has empathy towards the observed, and not only feel what they are experiencing, but understand what they are experiencing then the observer is experiencing the two elements of empathy. A person with a high level of empathy would be an example of the empathy-altruism hypothesis. A person with a low level of empathy would be considered selfish. “Empathy is a vicarious emotional experience in which you feel and understand what another person feels.” (Bell) Empathy is a natural feeling that most people experience, it is if they choose to embrace this feeling and act upon it that determines their individual level and whether it will trigger altruism motivation. Altruism is a desire to help other people without a sense of obligation and to expect nothing...
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...for centuries have debated if a prosocial act regardless of the degree of generosity or unselfishness the act may appear on its surface exists genuinely altruistic (Kowalski & Westen, 2009). People who volunteer to work at the local food closet may do so based on a genuine desire to help other people or to assist in alleviating a personal anxiety. I believe altruism exists and will provide a personal example to support this belief. In addition, I will explain further altruism, how it relates to psychology, and to personal, professional, and social responsibilities, and its effect on the future of psychology. Personal Experience Summary My life as I perceive it exists busy; consequently, I reside perpetually behind schedule. However, I do make time to drop food and personal hygiene items off and visit with the managers of the local food bank the first Wednesday of every month. The individuals and families that enter the building are each gracious and grateful for the food and other products offered. I have never witnessed any person display embarrassment for the need for assistance, in fact, I had not thought about that emotion until this assignment. Each person I have encountered either dropping off or in need have resided authentically friendly and appreciative. Genuinely, I do not believe that any person possesses expectations. Consequently, I do believe true altruism exists. The Roles of Altruism Like self-control, altruism exists as a valued temporally extended...
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...of lower quality than their conventional counterparts, but green goods benefit the environment for everyone. Because biologists have observed that altruism might function as a “costly signal” associated with status, we examined in 3 experiments how status motives influenced desire for green products. Activating status motives led people to choose green products over more luxurious nongreen products. Supporting the notion that altruism signals one’s willingness and ability to incur costs for others’ benefit, status motives increased desire for green products when shopping in public (but not private) and when green products cost more (but not less) than nongreen products. Findings suggest that status competition can be used to promote proenvironmental behavior. Keywords: altruism, environmental conservation, costly signaling, status competition, consumer behavior ported that the number one reason for purchasing the car is because it “makes a statement about me.” What statement does the Prius make? “It shows the world that its owner cares” (Maynard, 2007). At first blush it may seem puzzling why individuals would pay a premium to forgo luxury or comfort for the sake of displaying that they care. The current research, however, suggests that there may be important links between displays of caring, environmental behaviors, and competition for status. Whereas traditional approaches associate status with preferences for...
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...As we know in the field of psychology, behavior is a term that plays a major role in relation to different changes that many go through in life as an individual. In the contents of this paper, I will be discussing prosocial behavior, in which I will be defining the term, and also some of the steps that contribute to it as well. Prosocial behavior is behavior that is overly intended to benefit others (Fiske, 2014). These behaviors that are promoted through prosocial behavior includes, helping, comforting, sharing, cooperating, reassuring, and also showing concern to others as well (Fiske, 2014). With the intents of helping others, prosocial behavior helps others from a strong social perspective, in which it can occur with the changes of time...
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...to volunteering changed in such a way that social psychologists could attribute part of that change to altruistic behaviour. Volunteering and altruism shares common connection as such some volunteering work can be seen as altruistic though not every part of altruism can be said to mean volunteering. Volunteering is just one part of the different parts of altruism. Within this understanding it is possible to say the two concepts are strongly related and connected as well. This essay will try to explore the concept of volunteering in relation to altruism and to show that the large number of people that volunteered after September 11th had their altruistic tendency invoked. Altruism from social psychologists point of view is a prosocial behaviour that has been defined as “a motive to increase the welfare or wellbeing of another person without conscious regard for one’s own self-interests (David Myers, 2010). It is a norm or an act that is highly valued and cherished by individuals and society alike. According to Wispe, (1972) as cited by (Michael A. Hogg, 2008) it is a positive attitude that contributes to the physical and psychological well-being of another person. It is a different type of helping behaviour in which the motive of “intentions and benefits” to the person rendering it matters (Dovidio, et al, 2006, p. 25). Altruism is a special way of helping, it is somewhat different from...
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...Essay ‘Using social psychology theories, discuss the situational factors that affect the likelihood that people will engage in prosocial behaviour. What is the evidence for these effects, and how might changes in our society affect the likelihood of people acting prosocially? According to Gross (2010) the term prosocial behaviour is used to describe behaviours carried out by individuals intended to benefit others, such as helping, cooperating, comforting, reassuring, defending, sharing, donating to charity and showing concern. Whether one displays prosocial behaviour can, to a certain degree, be dependent on several situational factors as explained in social psychology. These factors typically include the individual’s analysis of the situation, the number of bystanders and the cost of helping (Piliavin, Dovidio, Gaertner, & Clark, 1981). When discussing this issue, it is essential to refer to social psychology theories as they provide insight and evidence on why people act prosocially. The key theories addressed throughout this essay include social cognition theory, attribution theory and the social exchange theory. By understanding prosocial behaviour, psychologists have led the search in finding ways to influence an increase in helping behaviours. The first apparent situational factor linked to prosocial behaviour is the individual’s internal assessment of the situation. The decision model of helping, devised by Latané and Darley (1970), outlines a five step process...
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...Stephen Leider, Markus M. Möbius, Tanya Rosenblat, Quoc-Anh Do DIRECTED ALTRUISM AND ENFORCED RECIPROCITY IN SOCIAL NETWORKS The Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 2009 Lana Shifrina Groups in Economic Decision-Making Jingjing Zhang 14.05.12 The authors of the paper choose a real world social network (Facebook) to conduct a prosocial behavioral experiment. The motivation behind the experiment is to expand on the previous studies, examining peoplesʼ underlying altruism vs. granting favors in exchange for expected future returns. The authors observe that measuring underlying altruism empirically is quite difficult because people tend to socialize within their social circles and the decisions they make are based on feelings toward individuals within these circles and not on the true nature of the decision maker. In order to overcome these prejudices, the authors believe that this experiment was designed in such a way, that the personal favoritism can be removed and individualsʼ baseline altruism can then be measured. The real world application and the goal of the experiment is to help economists better explain disturbances within systems of informal insurance, provided by social networks, and to predict the necessary measures required to stabilize the system. The paper identifies three natures of prosocial giving: “(1) baseline altruism toward randomly selected strangers, (2) directed altruism that favors friends over random strangers, and (3) giving motivated by...
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...To understand why people engage or not in prosocial behaviours we should predominately look at their situational factors together with the other pre-dispositional psychological, environmental and emotional imperatives that comprise the basis of people’s core beliefs and value systems. Attitudes to multiculturalism are influenced by situational factors that have been shown to have an effect on social behaviour, including; racial bias, prejudice, conformity, obedience, attitudes and changes to group norms. Out-group bias identified by race can influence prosocial behaviour as in-group members are more productive for their groups benefit and less helpful to the out-groups (Stepanikova, Simpson, 2011). Prosocial behaviour is behaviour intended to solely help or benefit another (Eisenberg, 2007). Research into the relationship between prosocial behaviour and socioeconomic status has also shown that lower socio economic groups have more compassion and therefore behave more prosocially when allocating resources (Piff, Kraus, 2010). Situational factors include people being more likely to help their family members. Kin selection refers to the theory that people will choose to help people first that are related to them so that their family’s biological genes will live on. Kinship can be extended to other groups that we are familiar with, community groups that we may belong to and people that we socialise with and share common values (Hippel, Hasselton, 2007). Social learning and...
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...Developmental psychologists have long been interested in how parents impact child development. However, finding actual cause-and-effect links between specific actions of parents and later behavior of children is very difficult. Some children raised in dramatically different environments can later grow up to have remarkably similar personalities. Conversely, children who share a home and are raised in the same environment can grow up to have astonishingly different personalities than one another. Despite these challenges, researchers have uncovered convincing links between parenting styles and the effects these styles have on children. During the early 1960s, psychologist Diana Baumrind conducted a study on more than 100 preschool-age children (Baumrind, 1967). Using naturalistic observation, parental interviews and other research methods, she identified four important dimensions of parenting: * Disciplinary strategies * Warmth and nurturance * Communication styles * Expectations of maturity and control Based on these dimensions, Baumrind suggested that the majority of parents display one of three different parenting styles. Further research by also suggested the addition of a fourth parenting style (Maccoby & Martin, 1983). The Four Parenting Styles 1. Authoritarian Parenting In this style of parenting, children are expected to follow the strict rules established by the parents. Failure to follow such rules usually results in punishment. Authoritarian...
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...social cognition | Attribution | attitudes | Heuristics | persuasion | Empathy | attraction | Idiosyncracy credit | prosocial behavior | Individualism | stereotype | Collectivism | prejudice | Personal identity | discrimination | Multiculturalism | social psychology | Prejudice | conformity | Normative influence | schemata | Sexism | idiosyncrasy credits | Racism | obedience to authority | Schema | altruism | Reciprocity norm | bystander effect | Self-assessment | halo effect | Self-presentation | kin selection | Social influence | reciprocity norm | Flattery | empathy-altruism hypothesis | mere exposure | altruistic personality type | propinquity effect | 1. Write 1-2 sentences of definition/explanation opposite to each concept. 2. Write the appropriate scientists' names. 1. Kurt Lewin was a famous psychologist who is largely considered to be the father of social psychology, due to the fact that his studies paved the way for future psychologists to look at the relationship between a person's thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and the society around them. 2. Solomon Asch was a famous social psychologist whose study on conformity showed that people often conform to the group, even when they know the correct answer. 3. Albert Bandura is a famous social psychologist whose Bobo doll study illustrates the social learning theory of psychology. 4. Edwin Hollander made idiosyncrasy credit theory popular in 1958. 5. Serge Moscovici believed that...
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...Social motivation Psyc104 Aggression and violence * Why do humans hurt one another? aggression is a fundamental social motive * The role of learning and modelling people become violent by watching violence, if children see a lot of aggression they become aggressive which is called social learning accounts * Bandura argued (1980) children come into the world who are innocent and their learning from parents, siblings, television and they conducted the BoBo doll experiment sat them behind the window watching an adult bashing this doll and playing and some adults were very violent and others were gentle and the children were then allowed to do whatever they wanted with the doll the children who saw the adults aggressive with the doll mimicked such * Greitemeyer and mugged (2014) meta analysis of 98 studies of 37,000 people, found significant, positive relationship between violent video games and aggressive behaviour Social learning problems * Doesn’t explain the origins of human violence * Why have humans behaved aggressively throughout history and across cultures? * Why are humans attracted to violence, even though they fear it * Is human aggression learned (social learning) or instinctive or both? “instinctive” accounts * Aggression as instinct: * Darwin-aggression functions to assert power and dominance * Threat and appeasement displays Freud and Lorenz * Freud the ‘death’ instinct hurt people they...
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...stamps. In that case, they turn to local food pantries for help with food. The donations they receive can truly make a difference. Out of the realm of typical behavior, I recently donated two turkeys to Our Daily Bread Food Pantry to be distributed to their client families for their own Thanksgiving celebrations. The volunteers were overwhelmed with the support received during this time when the economy is weak. They were tremendously grateful for the local generosity and asked that I "please keep giving." I'm a firm believer in doing helpful deeds. I'm a naturally kind and compassionate person, and I believe that every negative experience in one’s life can result in something positive. I would not consider my behavior to be prosocial for the reason that I had no motive for donating both turkeys to the local food pantry designed to help others. My behavior was altruistic. Why? My act was voluntarily to help needy families with no expectation of a reward in any form, except perhaps a feeling of having done a good deed. Prosocial behavior ranges over a continuum from the most selfless acts of altruism to helpful acts that are motivated entirely by self-interest (Taylor, Peplau, Sears, 2006). The fact that I was directly gaining a tax deduction for my charitable donation did not affect my feelings about the behavior. My empathic concern motivated me to help the families in need. Because the goal of empathic concern is to enhance the welfare of someone else, it provides...
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