Ind - prosocial behaviour

INTRO INTO PROCIAL BEHAV / FACTORS IN PROSOC BEH
1. Oskar Schindler - known as a gambler, drinker and womanizer before his acts of heroism during World War 2, where he risked his life to save 1200 Jews.
2. PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR - doing something good for someone or society. it builds relationships and allows society to function by: obeying the rules, conforming to socially accepted behaviour and cooperating.
  1. HELPING is the most typical idea of prosocial behaviour, however this is just an added bonus of prosocial behaviour. heroic acts are rare. FOLLOWING RULES IS ESSENTIAL, HELPING ISN'T.
3. obedience and conformity can be bad, mindless obedience to a demented leader can produce all sorts of terrible consequences. for the most part however obedience and conformity are good things as society would collapse otherwise
4. RULE OF LAW - society where people respect and follow the rules have an effective rule of law. if rule of law had broken down you would find life hard and dangerous.
  1. VEENHOVEN - 2004 - positive correlation between rule of law and happiness.
  2. ORGAN - 1988 - GOOD SOLDIER SYNDROME - people behave better when they think the rules are fair.
  3. SATOW - 1975 - public circumstances promote prosocial behaviour, wanting to make a good impression, one way mirror vs. no one watching, donated 7 times MORE in PUBLIC COND.
RECIPROCITY - the obligation to return in kind what another has done for us
1. TRIANDIS - 1978 - reciprocity norms are found in all cultures of the world
  1. reciprocity is also found in animal species
    1. reciprocity is so powerful that it even applies to situations where no one asks for a favour.
2. KUNZ AND WOOLCOTT - 1976 - received christmas cards in return when they sent them to strangers. sent 578, got back 117, none of the receivers knew who he was.
3. helping or not has an impact on one's reputation within the group.
  1. people's willingness to request of accept help often depends on whether they think they can pay it back or not, elderly people often refuse help because they don't think they will be able to pay it back.
FAIRNESS - PEOPLE DESIRE A SYSTEM BASED ON FAIRNESS AND SOCIAL EXCHANGE
1. NORMS are standards established by society to tell its members what behaviours are typical and expected.
2. EQUITY = each person receives benefits in PROPORTION to what he / she has contributed.
3. EQUALITY = everyone gets the SAME amount.
4. BUSS - 1999 - ability to reproduce largely depends on a person's position within the group. a person must invest time / energy into building relationships with others.
  1. need fairness so have value to other people in order to reproduce and avoid depression - ALLEN ET AL - 2003
5. FILIBERTI ET AL - 2001 - humans are unique in that they commit suicide, one reason is because people feel they are a burden on others. however there are huge negative effects for the people left behind. SUICIDES have the same concern with being fair and reciprocal. if they cannot reciprocate they feel worthless / burden.
6. UNFAIRNESS
  1. OUTPERFORMING OTHERS provides mixed emotions, sense of pride but a worry those we outperformed will reject us. known as SENSITIVITY ABOUT BEING THE TARGET OF A THREATENING UPWARD COMPARISON - EXLINE ET AL - 1999
  2. UNDERBENEFITED - getting less than you deserve
    1. UNDERBENEFITED - DE WAAL AND DAVIS - 2003 - monkeys were rewarded cucumber if they returned a rock, the researchers randomly gave some of the monkeys grapes (better). the monkeys who only got the cucumber got angry and progressed.
  3. OVERBENEFITED - getting more than you deserve (UNIQUELY HUMAN)
    1. people feel guilty when overbenefited. people who harm others prefer to do something nice for the person they harm, they prefer the nice act to exactly match the harm they did so fairness is restored - BERSCHEID AND WALSTER - 1967
      1. SURVIVOR GUILT - LIFTON - 1967 - people feel bad for living through terrible experiences in which others / loved ones died.
        BROCKNER ET AL - 1985 - people who keep their jobs during a company firing other people feel guilty.
COOPERATION
1. cooperation is based on reciprocity. cooperating is vital for social groups to succeed.
2. PRISONER'S DILEMMA, choose between a cooperative act and another act that combines being defensive / selfish / competitive. if one pair not cooperative then cooperation is doomed. what is best for everyone VS. what is best for one.
  1. BEGGAN - 1988 - cooperators see the prisoner's dilemma as good vs. bad. whereas competitors see it as weak vs. strong
  2. non-zero-sum game = prisoner's dilemma. zero-sum-game = either you win or not.
  3. two virtuous people can do well by eachother, but if either one plays selfishly then cooperation is destroyed. when both lean towards competition, no one does well.
3. cooperation is easily destroyed. across most species, competition is the norm and cooperation is rare. humans are better at cooperating than animals.
4. STEINFATT - 1973 - successful cooperation depends on communication/
FORGIVENESS
1. forgiveness is ceasing to feel anger towards someone who has wronged you.
2. if someone does something bad to you, the person owes you a kind of debt, forgiveness releases the person from this debt.
3. FENELL - 1993 - forgiveness helps repair relationships so they can continue their lives.
4. FINKEL ET AL - 2002 - the more strongly committed to someone, the more likely we are to forgive them.
5. PALEARI ET AL - 2005 - forgiveness leads to a better relationship. a good relationship / satisfaction does not predict forgiveness.
6. forgiveness has health benefits to both parties. - COYLE - 1997
7. downside of forgiveness being that it invites to offend again. HOWEVER this is not the case as people who have wronged seek to do more good in future.
8. forgiveness can prevent a destructive pattern in a relationship where grudges can escalate.
9. FORGIVENESS IS MORE LIKELY when an offense is minor and when the offender apologises.more easily forgive when you think you could have committed a similar thing. - EXLINE ET AL - 2008
  1. religious people, people committed to a relationship and people who are not self-centered are more likely to forgive.

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