Psychology Chapter 9: Prosocial Behavior

Prosocial Behavior

• Defined as actions intended to benefit others or society.

Examples of Prosocial Behavior

• Assisting a sick friend by taking them to the hospital.
• Adhering to traffic laws, such as stopping at red lights.
• Actively listening to a boss's feedback on work.

Effective Rule of Law

• Members of society, including leaders, must respect and follow established rules.
• Leads to improved happiness within society and enhanced employee cooperation.
• Examples include fairness, justice, and public responsibility.

Evidence for Reciprocation

• Phil Kunz's 1976 study: Sending 578 Christmas cards to strangers resulted in 117 returned cards and phone calls, indicating innate human predisposition to reciprocate kindness.

Norms

• Socially established standards guiding expected behaviors.
• Norms promoting fairness significantly influence contributions to community good.

Sensitivity about Upward Comparison

• Concerns arise when outperforming peers, fearing resentment.
• Individuals may downplay their successes to avoid causing envy among friends.

Underbenefited vs. Overbenefited

• Underbenefited: Receiving less than deserved, often resulting in anger and resentment.
• Overbenefited: Receiving more than deserved, which can lead to feelings of guilt and depression.

Survivor Guilt

• Occurs when individuals feel remorse for surviving situations where others have perished, such as keeping a job during layoffs in a downturn.

Prisoner's Dilemma

• A scenario where individuals must choose between cooperation and competition.
• Communication enhances cooperation; lack of communication hinders it.

Tradeoffs in the Prisoner's Dilemma

• Balancing self-benefit against the collective good.
• Zero-sum game: One’s gain is another’s loss.
• Non-zero-sum game: Opportunities exist for mutual benefit or loss.

Tit-For-Tat Strategy

• Developed by Robert Axelrod through a computer tournament to analyze successful strategies in the prisoner's dilemma, emphasizing reciprocal behavior.

Forgiveness

• Involves letting go of anger and not seeking revenge against wrongdoers.
• Promotes relationship repair and offers health benefits to both individuals involved.

Research on Forgiveness

• Partners who forgive tend to experience greater happiness over time.
• Early relationship satisfaction does not predict future forgiveness; rather, forgiveness enhances relationship quality.

Obedience

• Defined as following commands from authority figures, crucial for societal function.
• Often has prosocial implications and contributes to social acceptance and group cohesion.

Milgram Experiment

• Investigated the extent to which individuals would obey orders that could harm others, revealing insights about human obedience and moral conflict.