Social, Individual and developmental Psychology (PS5002)
Class notes
Prosocial Behaviour in Psychology
3 views 0 purchase
Course
Social, Individual and developmental Psychology (PS5002)
Institution
Kingston University
This document provides lecture notes, in bulletpoint form, on Social Psychology - Prosocial Behaviour at a university level however can be used to expand A-level questions. Theories and experiments are mentioned throughout.
Social, Individual and developmental Psychology (PS5002)
All documents for this subject (1)
Seller
Follow
natashawoodgate
Content preview
Prosocial behaviour
Definitions:
• Prosocial behaviour - actions that are generally valued by other people in a particular society
• Helping behaviour - acts where people voluntarily and intentionally behave in a way they
believe will benefit others
• Altruism - an act which benefits others but is not expected to have any personal benefits
Why do we help?
Modelling
→ We have learnt to help others by observing the behaviour of others e.g. blood donation study
(Rushton & Campbell, 1977)
→ Social learning theory (Bandura, 1972) - demonstrates behaviour is appropriate & increases
self-efficacy, but only if observed behaviour had positive outcome e.g. lost wallet experiment
(Hornstein, 1970)
Social norms
→ Reciprocity - replicating positive behaviour to each other
→ Social responsibility - individual responsibility to society
→ Social justice
But…
→ Verbal endorsement ≠ actual helping behaviour
→ External factors play a role e.g. need persistence (Warren & Walker, 1991)
Latané and Darley's Cognitive Model (1968)
○ Attend to the incident
○ Define the incident - evaluating the incident, evaluating the need for help
○ Accept personal responsibility
○ Decide what to do
○ Final decision
Tested their model by investigating when and whether the presence of other bystanders would
influence responses to an emergency.
• 75% of participants who were alone reported the smoke to the experimenter
• Only 38% of those with two other participants took any action
• Only 10% of those with two confederates raised the alarm
→ Bystander apathy effect
In what situations do we help?
Case of Kitty Genovese (1964) lead to research to understand why people help in some situations
and not in others - explanations of bystander intervention
→ But, see Manning et al. (2007) - 'modern parable' of the 38 witnesses - what about power of
groups to promote helping behaviour?
How can we explain the bystander apathy effect?
Diffusion of responsibility
• In some situations there is a clear emergency (not ambiguous and no fear of 'getting it wrong')
• When others are present people believe they are less personally responsible
Audience inhibition
• People are inhibited from helping for fear of negative evaluation by others if they intervene
and the situation is not an emergency
• Can be a product of: Normative Social Influence, Informational Social Influence
Piliavin's Bystander-Calculus Model (1981)
Also takes into account the role of diffusion of responsibility in explaining the bystander apathy
effect.
WEEK 4 Page 1
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller natashawoodgate. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $6.41. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
