1. Social Responsibility 8.1
Human Relationships:
Social Responsibility 8.1

2. Learning outcomes
Discuss the extent to which biological, cognitive and sociocultural factors influence human relationships
Evaluate psychological research relevant to the study of human relationships
Distinguish between altruism and pro-social behaviour
Contrast two theories explaining altruism in humans
Explain cross-cultural differences in pro-social behaviour with reference to research studies
Examine factors influencing bystanderism

3. Definitions Pro-social behaviour Helping behaviour Altruism
Behaviour that benefits another person or has positive social consequences
Vague- discusses the outcome of behaviour not the motivation of the behaviour
Helping behaviour
Behaviour that intentionally helps or benefits another person “making a difference”—going to help in clinics
Altruism
Helping other with no expected reward and even risking your own life

4. Biological Altruism Roots in evolutionary psychology
Behaviour is advantageous to the family group not just the individual
Kin Theory
Degree of altruism depends on number of genes shared by individuals
Supported by empirical studies with animals
Dawkins selfish gene theory
Innate drive to propagate and survive—driven by genes

5. Biological Altruism- Kin theory
Animals living in social groups share genes
Individuals are willing to sacrifice themselves to protect the lives of kin
Does not explain individuals that help complete strangers
Can not be tested under controlled conditions (unethical)

6. Biological- Reciprocal Altruism
Trivers (1971)
Explains altruism among individuals that are not related
Favours given in expectation that they will be returned in future
Karma- tit for tat– what goes around comes around
I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine
Mutual cooperation increases survival- symbiotic relationships found in nature

7. Reciprocal Altruism Axelrod and Hamilton (1981)
Prisoners dilemma (p.260)
Individuals A and B can choose to cooperate or defect
If both cooperate both gain reward
If both defect, no pay off for either
Rewards are based on strategy of both players
Cooperation is an evolutionary stable strategy

8. Social Contract Theory
Thomas Hobbes ( )
Actions determined by self-interest or not necessarily in the group’s interest
People are motivated by self-interest but uncontrolled pursuit leads to chaos
Governments must prevent the chaos

9. Evaluation of Biological Explanation
Can’t generalize animal behaviour to humans
Does not take into account the effect of culture on human behaviour
Some things ring true in regards to our behaviour to kin and those that have helped us
But there are behaviours that do not benefit kin and are not explained by biological model

10. Psychological Altruism
Roots in cognitive psychology
Seen in higher-level mammals
Conscious cognitive component
Lerner and Lichtman (1968)
Altruistic behaviour in response to “anxiety” of stranger

11. Psychological Altruism
Negative-state relief model (Schaller and Cialdini, 1988)
Egoistic motives lead us to help other in bad situations in order to reduce the distress we experience from watching the situation
Explains some behaviour but can not predict how one will behave in any given situation

12. Psychological Altruism
Empathy-altruism model (Batson et al, 1981)
People experience two types of emotions when they see others suffer
Personal distress (anxiety, fear) which leads to egoistic helping
Empathetic concern (sympathy) which leads to altruistic behaviour
Empathy leads to selfless help- relieving suffering is the most important things
When you do not feel empathy you consider the costs/benefits of helping (selfish)

13. Psychological Altruism
Batson’s finding have been consistently replicated
Only focuses on short term altruism
Personality factors not taken into account
Theory can predict behaviour but it is difficult to measure levels of empathy
Are there biological differences in empathy levels
Do we learn how to be empathetic
Van Baaren et al, imitation and helping- mirror neurons

14. Pro-social Behaviour and the bystander effect
Why do people help in some situations but not others?
Picking up dropped things
Giving up your seat on a bus
Good Samaritan (Bateson and Darley, 1973)
Situational factors have a more significant role than dispositional factors

15. Bystanderism Diffusion of responsibility Latane and Darley
When you see others watching you assume others have called for help
Diffusion of responsibility
Someone else can, should, will offer assistance
Study showed that 85% of participants would help if they thought they were the only one able to, 65% helped if they thought there was another person, 31% if they thought there were four people available to help

16. Bystanderism Pluralistic ignorance
Looking to others to know how to react
Informational social influence
If others do not react, you will not
Must understand that help is needed
If it is difficult to understand what is going on people are less likely to intervene
Especially with domestic violence

17. Social Exchange Theory
Piliavin el al (1969, 1981)
Arousal-cost-reward model
Weigh the costs (humiliation, pain, financial loss) against the benefits (financial reward, affection, esteem)
Covers emergency and non-emergent situations
Empathizes interaction of mood and cognition
Arousal is the emotional response to the need or distress of others
Arousal is a motivational factor- it is unpleasant
Links to negative-state relief model

18. Social Exchange Theory
We help others to reduce our unpleasant feelings based on
Cost of helping, effort, embarrassment, possible physical harm
Cost of not helping, self-blame, perceived censure of others
Rewards of helping, praise from self, onlookers and victim
Rewards of not helping, getting to work/school on time

19. Role of Culture in pro-social behaviour
Studies of hero’s
Civil rights workers
Christians that helped Jewish in WWII
Study of bystanders – man attacking woman
“I don’t know you”- 65%
“I don’t know why I married you” – 19%

20. Social Norms societies can promote altruism and pro-social behaviour
Beaman (1978)- research supports this idea
Societal privacy expectations influence our attitudes towards domestic violence
we should not interfere vs. helping

21. Cross-Cultural Research
Structure of the family
Significant differences found in nurturing and helping behaviour in children in 6 countries
Correlated to the children’s involvement in the responsibilities of family life
Decreased caring with going to school
Increased with looking after younger siblings

22. Social Identity Theory
Pro-social behaviour increases in environment that models and expects members of the group to contribute to the common good
We provide help to our “in-group”
Levine et al (1990’s)- predictors of helping behaviour
Low population density
Low economic productivity
Slower pace of life
Social harmony valued
Nature of local people

23. Evaluation of Helping Research
How do you measure the pro-social behaviour?
Can we translate behaviours across cultures?
Can we really generalize about an entire culture? And can we see universal trends?
Can we attribute meaning to a person’s refusal to help?
Ecological validity- field research can not predict cause and effect relationships

24. Task 1
Read and research about John Rabe (p. 263) and answer the questions referencing both biological and psychological explanations
Research three other examples of altruistic behaviour
On A4 paper, outline the events (with historical context when necessary) and discuss why the behaviour would be considered altruistic
Post your research results on the bulletin board

25. Task 2
To what extent do the experiments of Piliavin et al. Support the following theories
The arousal-cost reward model
The negative-state relief model
The empathy-altruism model
For each state what the theory would predict and compare this to the findings of the experiment

26. Task 3
How would you develop a study of helping behaviour in two different cultures. How would you go about it?
What would be an appropriate helping behaviour to consider? Justify your decision.
How would you overcome some of the criticism of field research in the area of helping behaviour.