Helping and Harming Others

Prosocial Behaviour

Prosocial behaviour refers to actions intended to benefit another person. This includes helping, giving, sharing, and cooperating. Such behaviours are fundamental to social cohesion and are studied extensively in social psychology.

• Helping: Providing assistance to others in need.

• Giving: Offering resources or support.

• Sharing: Distributing resources among others.

• Cooperating: Working together towards a common goal.

• Example: Helping a stranger change a tire, assisting an elderly person across the street, or giving food to someone in need.

Situational Influences on Helping

People are more likely to help in certain situations, influenced by factors such as the ability to escape, victim characteristics, mood, role models, conformity, and time pressure.

• Victim Characteristics: People are more likely to help those who appear deserving (e.g., someone using a cane).

• Good Mood: Positive emotions increase likelihood of helping.

• Role Models: Observing others help increases helping behaviour.

• Conformity: Social norms and group behaviour influence helping.

• Time Pressure: Being in a hurry reduces likelihood of helping (Samaritan study).

The Bystander Effect

The bystander effect describes the phenomenon where individuals are less likely to help in an emergency when others are present. This is due to diffusion of responsibility and social influence.

• Five Steps to Helping:

  1. Notice the event

  2. Interpret as an emergency

  3. Take responsibility

  4. Know how to help

  5. Act to help

• Diffusion of Responsibility: Each bystander assumes someone else will help.

• Social Influence: People use others as a guide for behaviour.

Why Do We Help Others?

Helping behaviour is influenced by both genetic and learned factors. Kin selection, norms of reciprocity, and social learning all play roles in prosocial actions.

• Kin Selection: Tendency to help relatives due to evolutionary advantages.

• Norms of Reciprocity: Expectation that helping will be returned.

• Social Rewards: Helping can lead to social approval.

• Internalized Values: Helping becomes part of one's moral code.

Altruism

Altruism is the motive to increase another's welfare without conscious regard for one's self-interest. Examples include disaster relief and helping strangers in emergencies.

• Example: Canadians bringing aid after Hurricane Katrina, people helping strangers during 9/11.

• Debate: Does true altruism exist, or is all helping ultimately self-interested?

Aggression, Attitudes & Prejudice

Aggression

Aggression is any behaviour intended to harm another person or living thing. It can be physical, verbal, or a deliberate failure to act. Aggression is classified as hostile (driven by anger) or instrumental (goal-oriented).

• Hostile Aggression: Motivated by anger, intent to harm.

• Instrumental Aggression: Harm as a means to an end.

• Intention: The intent behind the action is crucial for classification.

Situational Influences on Aggression

Several factors can increase aggressive behaviour, including frustration, evolutionary pressures, media influences, aggressive cues, arousal, substance use, and temperature.

• Frustration-Aggression Theory: Frustration from blocked goals leads to aggression.

• Evolutionary Theory: Aggression serves survival and reproductive functions.

• Media Influences: Exposure to violent media increases aggression.

• Aggressive Cues: Presence of weapons or aggressive individuals can trigger aggression.

• Arousal: Physiological arousal can amplify aggressive responses.

• Alcohol & Drugs: Lower inhibitions and increase impulsivity.

• Temperature: Higher temperatures are linked to increased aggression.

Culture of Honour

Some cultures encourage individuals to defend their honor, which can increase aggressive behaviour and influence conflict resolution. Studies show that insults can raise testosterone and aggression, especially in cultures valuing honor.

• Example: Southern U.S. students show higher aggression and testosterone after being insulted compared to Northern students.

Attitudes & Persuasion

Attitudes are evaluations of people, objects, or ideas, and persuasion is the process of changing attitudes to influence behaviour. The ABC Model of Attitudes breaks attitudes into affective, behavioural, and cognitive components.

• Affective: Emotional response.

• Behavioural: Actions or intentions.

• Cognitive: Beliefs and thoughts.

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

The ELM is a dual-process model of persuasion, proposing two routes: central (focused on information) and peripheral (focused on surface cues).

• Central Route: Careful, thoughtful consideration of arguments.

• Peripheral Route: Influenced by cues like credibility, attractiveness, and endorsements.

• Route Selection: Determined by motivation, ability, source, message, and audience.

Source, Message, and Audience Characteristics

Persuasion effectiveness depends on the source (credibility, attractiveness), message (two-sided, emotional appeals), and audience (age, self-esteem, intelligence).

• Source Credibility: Expertise and trustworthiness encourage peripheral processing.

• Message: Two-sided messages are more effective; emotional appeals can arouse specific emotions.

• Audience: Young adults, low self-esteem, and low intelligence are more easily persuaded.

Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is the unpleasant mental experience of tension from conflicting thoughts or beliefs. People are motivated to reduce dissonance by changing behaviour, rationalizing, or adding new cognitions.

• Example: Justifying unhealthy eating despite wanting a healthy diet.

• Reduction Strategies:

  1. Change behaviour

  2. Change cognitions

  3. Add new cognition

Prejudice & Discrimination

Definitions

• Prejudice: Negative attitude toward an individual based on group membership.

• Stereotype: Specific belief about individuals based on group membership.

• Discrimination: Negative action toward an individual based on group membership.

Nature of Prejudice

Prejudice is shaped by adaptive conservatism, in-group bias, and out-group bias. It can be explicit (conscious) or implicit (unconscious).

• Adaptive Conservatism: Evolutionary predisposition to distrust unfamiliar individuals.

• In-group Bias: Favoring one's own group.

• Out-group Bias: Viewing outsiders as similar.

• Explicit Prejudice: Openly admitted negative feelings.

• Implicit Prejudice: Automatic, unconscious biases measured by tools like the Implicit Association Test (IAT).

Roots and Contributing Factors

Prejudice is learned through parents, peers, and media. Contributing factors include scapegoat and just-world hypotheses, conformity, scarcity, and religiosity.

• Scapegoat Hypothesis: Blaming other groups for misfortunes.

• Just-world Hypothesis: Belief that the world is fair and people get what they deserve.

• Conformity: Adopting prejudiced attitudes to fit in.

• Scarcity: Competition for resources increases prejudice.

• Religiosity: Extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivations affect prejudice.

Real-World Examples and Studies

• Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes Experiment: Demonstrated how discrimination can be created and experienced.

• Robber's Cave Study: Showed that competition leads to hostility, but superordinate goals promote cooperation.

• Media Analyses: Studies of sports broadcasts reveal racial bias in descriptions of athletes.

• Implicit Bias in Policing: Research shows unconscious associations influence police decisions and contribute to racial disparities.

Additional info: These notes expand on brief points from the original slides, providing definitions, examples, and academic context for each concept. Images included are directly relevant to the explanation of prosocial behaviour, the bystander effect, aggression, attitudes, and prejudice.