Helping

Instructor: Mehrunnisa
• Helping behavior, in the context of social psychology, refers to voluntary actions
intended to assist others, often motivated by empathy, altruism, or social norms.
• According to David Myers, a prominent psychologist, helping behavior refers to
voluntary actions intended to benefit or assist others, often without expectation of
personal gain.
Extent of helping behavior:
Prosocial Behavior
• Prosocial Behavior includes any act that helps others, regardless of motive.
• Altruism means helping someone when there is no expectation of a reward
(except for feeling that one has done a good deed)
• Reciprocity means responding to a positive action with another positive action,
rewarding kind actions.
Why do we Help? Theories of Prosocial Behavior

• Psychological Approaches
• Social Approaches
• Evolutionary Approaches
• Learning Approach
• SOCIAL-EXCHANGE THEORY The theory that human interactions are
transactions that aim to maximize one’s rewards and minimize one’s costs.
• The benefits of helping:
• Increasing positive emotion
• Reducing negative emotion
• Feel Bad/Do Good Phenomenon
• Exceptions?
• Guilt
• A Learning Perspective
• We learn to be helpful through reinforcement and observation.
• Children help and share more when they are reinforced for their helpful behavior.
• Children and adults exposed to helpful models are more helpful.
• For children, helping may depend largely on reinforcement, but as they get older, helping
may be internalized as a value.
• Social Norms (We ought to help others)
• Reciprocity Norm
• An expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them.
• Effective when pressure to reciprocate is public.
• Pride + Hope of reward drives reciprocation.
• Implication:
• Builds Social Capital (The supportive connections, information flow, trust, and
cooperative actions that keep a community healthy.
• Proud, high self-esteem individuals will be reluctant to seek help.
• Simply relying on reciprocity will not make the world a better place.
• Evolutionary Psychology (Humans = Super cooperators)

• Adaptive Mechanisms
• Kin Selection = If you carry my genes, I’ll favor you(Genetic egoism).
• The idea that evolution has selected altruism toward one’s close relatives to enhance the
survival of mutually shared genes
• Reciprocity
• Direct = We scratch each other’s backs.
• Indirect = I’ll scratch your back, you scratch someone’s, and someone will scratch mine.
• Group selection: Back-scratching groups survive
• Groups of mutually supportive altruists outlast groups of non-altruists
Summary-Approaches to Helping
Egotistic and Altruistic Routes to Helping
• Altruistic Routes to Helping
• Empathy
• The vicarious experience of another’s feelings; putting oneself in another’s shoes.
• Empathy drives altruism
The Murder of Kitty Genovese
In 1964, 28-year-old bar manager Kitty Genovese was attacked by a man
with a knife.
38 witnesses observed the murder yet remained inactive
Influenced Darley and Latane to theorize Bystander effect (The finding
that a person is less likely to provide help when there are other
bystanders.)
WHEN WILL WE HELP?
• Number of Bystanders
• as the number of bystanders increases
• any given bystander is less likely to notice the incident
• less likely to interpret the incident as a problem or an emergency
• less likely to assume responsibility for taking action
• Helping When Someone Else Does
• Prosocial models
• Time Pressures
• People in a hurry are less likely to help
• Similarity
• we are more empathic and helpful toward those similar to us
Time Pressures
• Good Samaritan” study (Darley & Batson, 1973)
• Participants were seminary students asked to give a short sermon
• Some were told to hurry across campus, others to take their time
• 63% of those not in a hurry vs. 10% in a hurry helped a groaning stranger
they passed.
• Time pressure particularly affected those who believe their research
participation was of vital importance (Batson et al., 1978).
Similarity
Who will Help?

• Personality Traits and Status

• Personality test scores have served as only modest predictors of helping.
• However, new evidence indicates that some people are consistently more
helpful than others.
• Gender
• Men = heroic and chivalrous help. (In danger)
• Women = Nurturant help (Charitable help)
• Religious faith
• predicts long-term altruism, as reflected in volunteerism and charitable
contributions.
Who Helps

• Individual Differences:
• Personality Traits: Empathetic, altruistic, and socially responsible individuals are
more likely to help.
• Gender: Research suggests that men and women may help in different ways; men
in heroic situations and women in caregiving roles.
• Cultural Influences: Cultural norms and values can shape helping behaviors.
• Social Identity:
• People are more likely to help those who they perceive as part of their in-group or
community.
When Help is Given

• Situational Factors:
• Emergency Situations: Immediate and visible need often prompts quick
assistance.
• Non-Emergency Situations: Ongoing needs, such as mentoring or caregiving,
elicit sustained help over time.
• Bystander Effect:
• The presence of others can reduce the likelihood of helping due to diffusion of
responsibility.
• Cost-Benefit Analysis:
• Individuals weigh the potential costs and benefits of helping before deciding to
act.
Why Help is Given
•Altruism:
•Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis: Helping driven by genuine concern
for others' well-being.
•Social Exchange Theory:
•Reciprocity Norm: Helping with the expectation of future help or
social rewards.
•Social Responsibility Norm: Helping because it is perceived as a
societal obligation.
•Moral and Ethical Beliefs:
•Personal values and principles that emphasize the importance of
helping others.