Altruism and Prosocial Behavior Quiz

Altruistic vs. Prosocial Behavior

• Prosocial behavior: Actions intended to benefit others. Examples include helping, sharing, and comforting.
• Altruistic behavior: Actions intended to benefit others, driven by empathy or concern for their welfare, often at personal cost.

Latané and Darley's 4 Steps to Helping

• Help Needed? Initial assessment if help is needed.
• Evaluation apprehension: Fear of social judgment influences whether observers help.
• Pluralistic ignorance: Failing to intervene due to assuming others will act when they don't.
• Responsibility: Determining personal responsibility to act.
• Bystander effect: The more bystanders, the less likely any individual is to intervene.
• Diffusion of responsibility: Responsibility for helping is spread amongst bystanders, leading to inaction.
• Knowledge: Knowing how to help.
• Costs vs. Benefits: Weighing potential risks and rewards of acting. This is influenced by social exchange theory: helping only occurs when benefits outweigh costs.

Whom Do We Help?

• Attractive individuals: We are more likely to help those who we find physically appealing.
• Similar individuals: We are more likely to help those who are similar to us in terms of background or values.
• Sympathy & Empathy: Help is more common for those towards whom we feel sympathy or empathy.
• Blaming the victim: Attributing hardship to the victim's character rather than external causes, decreasing helpfulness.
• Belief in a Just World: The belief that people get what they deserve, which may lead to decreased helping for victims who appear to have caused their own problems.

Theories of Prosocial Behavior

• Empathy-altruism hypothesis: Helping is motivated by genuine empathy for the recipient.
• Negative-state relief model: Helping stems from a desire to reduce one's own negative feelings.
• Empathic joy hypothesis: Helping is motivated by the pleasure derived from the recipient's happiness.
• Genetic determinism: Traits like altruism might have genetic roots.

How to Increase Helping

• Increase awareness of situational factors that inhibit helping.
• Highlight the value of social contact and connection.

Aggressive Behavior

Types of Aggression

• Prosocial aggression: Aggression used in service of a higher good or moral cause (e.g., self-defense).
• Antisocial aggression: Aggression aimed at harming others without justification.
• Sanctioned aggression: Aggression sanctioned or approved by social authorities.
• Instrumental aggression: Aggression used as a means to achieve a goal.
• Hostile aggression: Aggression stemming from anger or hostility.

Theories of Aggression

• Instinct theory: Aggression is a natural instinct inherent in humans.
• Negative Affect: Aggressive responses can be linked to negative emotions.
• Excitation transfer: Physiological arousal in one context can be misattributed to aggression in another context.
• Drive theory: Aggression is a response to frustration.
• Frustration-aggression hypothesis: Frustration leads to aggression. The original hypothesis had a direct link, while the revised one suggests frustration only increases the likelihood of aggression.
• Common sources of frustration: Lack of resources, blocked goals, and pain.
• Social Learning Theory: Aggression is learned through observation and imitation.
• Reinforcement: Positive outcomes from aggressive behavior makes it more likely to be repeated.
• Modeling: Observing aggressive behavior increases the likelihood of imitating it. Bandura's Bobo doll studies are key to this theory.

Gender & Aggression

• Relational aggression: Indirect aggression that harms relationships.
• Overt aggression: Direct and physical aggression.

Alcohol & Aggression

• Deindividuation: Reduced self-awareness and personal responsibility when intoxicated leads to disinhibited behavior and aggression.
• Reduced inhibitions: Alcohol impairs judgment, increasing impulsive aggression.
• Difficulty in perceiving intent: Alcohol can impair the ability to assess the intentions of others, increasing hostility.

Sexual Aggression

• Pornography: Differentiation between non-violent erotica and pornography.
• Sexual scripts: Societal norms about appropriate sexual behavior.
• Rape myth: Beliefs that often justify sexual violence.
• Date rape: Non-consensual sexual activity within a dating relationship.
• Jealousy: Strong negative emotion toward another person relating to sexual relationships.

Media & Aggression

• Media effects on aggression: Correlational, experimental, and longitudinal studies investigate the link; correlation, doesn't indicate causation.
• Three pathways to aggression:
• Cognitive: Activation of aggressive thoughts and schemas.
• Affective: Increased arousal and emotional response.
• Behavioral: Imitation of aggressive behavior; increased likelihood.
• Violent video games: Limited evidence to suggest direct causal impacts.

Preventing Aggressive Behavior

• Social modeling: Exposing individuals to prosocial behavior.
• Reduce exposure to violence: Minimizing exposure to media violence.
• Social skills training: Developing and reinforcing prosocial behaviors.
• Appropriate punishment: Using punishments that reinforce nonaggressive behavior.
• Diffuse frustration: Using apologies and clear communication to alleviate frustration.
• Teaching empathy: Encouraging compassion and understanding to reduce aggression.

This quiz explores the concepts of altruism and prosocial behavior, including key theories and steps to effective helping. Test your understanding of the differences between these behaviors and the factors that facilitate or hinder helping in social situations.