Social Psychology: Altruism and Peacemaking

Altruism

• Defined as unselfish regard for the welfare of others, involving actions like volunteering or donating without personal gain.

Bystander Effect

• Indicates that individuals are less likely to offer help in emergencies when others are present, counterintuitive to common expectations.

Factors Influencing Helping Behavior

• Helping is more likely when:
  • The person appears to need and deserve assistance.
  • The victim is similar to the helper.
  • The victim is female.
  • The helper has witnessed others being helpful.
  • The helper is not in a hurry.
  • The incident occurs in a rural area.
  • The helper feels guilty.
  • The helper is in a positive mood.

Happiness and Helpfulness

• There is a reciprocal relationship: happiness promotes helpful behavior, which in turn fosters more happiness.

Social Exchange Theory

• Proposes that people help when the perceived benefits outweigh the costs, focusing on maximizing rewards and minimizing disadvantages.

Reciprocity Norm

• Reflects the expectation that individuals will respond with help to those who have helped them, fostering mutual assistance.

Social-Responsibility Norm

• Suggests a moral obligation to assist those who need help, particularly vulnerable individuals like children.

Conflict

• Defined as a perceived incompatibility in actions, goals, or ideas between individuals or groups.

Social Trap

• Refers to situations where short-term solutions lead to long-term detrimental effects, such as environmental degradation due to overexploitation.

Balancing Personal and Collective Well-being

• Social traps encourage the need for cooperation and awareness of mutual responsibilities to enhance community welfare.

Mirror-Image Perceptions

• Arise in conflicts where each side views itself as ethical and peaceful while seeing the opponent as evil and aggressive.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

• A prediction that comes true simply because it was made, often due to biased actions responding to the belief.

Contact and Conflict Resolution

• Close contact between conflicting parties can be beneficial if it is noncompetitive and involves equal status individuals.

Superordinate Goals

• Shared objectives that require cooperation to achieve, helping bridge differences and foster collaboration among opposing groups.

GRIT Strategy

• Emphasizes initiating small, conciliatory acts to reduce tension between conflicting parties while maintaining strength.

Factors Affecting Helping Behavior Review

• Help is most likely when one notices an incident, interprets it as an emergency, and feels responsible. Presence of other bystanders can impede help (bystander effect).

Social Exchange Theory vs. Social Norms

• Social exchange theory emphasizes self-interest in helping behaviors, whereas social norms recognize learned social responsibilities like reciprocity and social responsibility.

Social Conflict Dynamics

• Social traps and mirror-image perceptions intensify conflicts by fostering distrust and harmful self-interest among parties.

Promoting Peace

• Peace is achievable through collective efforts toward superordinate goals, enhanced by processes of contact, cooperation, communication, and conciliation.