PSYC 321 Notes Ch 10-11 Dr Laugel
Prosocial behavior -- behavior
that benefits others
bystander intervention paradigm,
results from Kitty Genovese tragedy in 1960's
steps in deciding whether to
help: attend (preoccupied, not notice; seminarians); interpretation (uncertain:
assume things are OK; risk possible embarrassment)
am I responsible? (people in authority are, etc); ability to help , decide to
help (cognitive algebra, cost/benefit)
bystander effects and diffusion
of responsibility (friends, more discussion, more helping) – laboratory
research
External/Internal influences on helping
behavior
Situational factors; similarity (lost
letters); physical attractiveness of victim; copy me, increases helping
tendencies; (enhanced pos affect?)
role of stigmas (liquor
smell/bottle; style of dress); prosocial models, role
of tv/,media
+, - mood effects; odors, bakery; may
backfire; mild negative moods may increase helping
Internal factors: personality
dispositions, "dispositional empathy" (Archer); in infants; empathy
--> personal feelings of distress
genetic contribution .33
("heritability") (also, increases in secure attachment style)
Children, Lassie: exposure to empathy
increased it in children; maybe pre-high school years important
Gender:
females more than males in general
positive emotions increase psb (prosocial beh)
importance of role models in real
life, media, etc
role of long term commitment
self-interest vs. moral integrity
different identifiable groups in
society tend to focus on different "causes" : Afro Americans focus on homeless people;
whites focus on emergency personnel, animal rights,etc
"just
world" as anti-prosocial thinking.
to recruit volunteers,
focus on motivations: 1. values;
2. understanding of world; 3.
enhancement (personal growth etc); career; social relationships (meet
people etc); 4. protective (protect one's ego; as
escape from one's life problems) 2nd and 3rd are c/w most subsantial
commitment
reactance if forced; Erikson's concept of "generativity"
Batson and Thompson, three motives for psb: self-interest (gives us satisfaction; "I can get
to heaven", moral integrity, moral hypocrisy (want to "look
good")
what about being helped? can be negative experience if makes handicap salient; can
decrease self-esteem; neg view if perceived as
patronizing or insulting; if done out of liking, is best
Other considerations:
basic motiv:
increase rewards, decrease punishments; but why is it "rewarding"? cns/dopamine
etc, same as anything that is rewarding
hypothesis: empathy/altruism;
compassion is fundamentally important
increase by victim being similar
easier to aid one than millions; (ad campaigns for moneydonations,
feature individuals on posters etc)
Cialdini says have to id with
victim; empathy not sufficient. remains
unresolved: relative roles of
identification and empathy
Negative state relief idea: helping
relieves my distress (removes
a negative emotional state)
empathic joy, but fb is necessary so it is not just helping (we like to see
results; without feedback about results of helping, helping is decreased)
genetic determinism: helping, if
adaptive, has to increase fitness; concept of inclusive (Darwinian) fitness;
more genetic similarity, more helping, in variety of species incl humans
Ch 11 Aggression
intentional injury of another
its source; old theories:
1) drive (important concept in psychology; 2) biological Freud, Lorenz; agg males have more offspring etc
Frustration-aggression hypothesis (Dollard etc from late 1930's) , an
example of the “drive” idea frust always leads to aggression, and all aggression is a
consequence of frustration
newer: social learning;
general aggression model w/3 components:
arousal, affective states, cognitions
GAM (general aggression model): two input
variables : situation and person
Situation factors can incude
frustration, models etc; second input var is the person;
Person factors: there are individual differences here (dispositional
empathy, past learning etc)
three processes are involved:
general arousal; affective states within the person; and cognitions (activate
aggressive schemas etc)
social causes of agg: person has states, traits; reacting to stimuli; etc
frustration (one of the factors,not the only one) frust
can also cause depression (inward agg?)
--provocation
-- roles of
emotion and cognition acting together. Zillman, excitation
transfer theory: arousal contributes to aggression: an event heightens arousal, the arousal stays, doesn't dissipate quickly
psychological effects in subsequent situations, minor incidents trigger
aggression (events that follow an
anger-arousing event may trigger more aggression because of the prior arousal)
Media violence effects: in laboratory
studies: watch aggressive / violent tv as
children, more aggressive as adolescents. (but
cause-effect not demonstrated)
GAM interpretation: exposure creates
hostile expectation bias: expect aggression from others, etc like a "life
context" Strong role of
expectation, in other words (schemas
become easy to activate, etc)
violent porno ("hard core")
--> densensitizes people; eg,
view rape victims as less victimized; more "just world" thinking
Cultural factors in aggression:
"insulted honor" idea as justification for violent acts; sexual
jealousy prominent
Latin America: sexual infidelity by wife
justifies aggression (L America and Southern US vs
therefore, jealousy is cause of
aggression, sometimes excusable in the context of the culture that sanctions it
Personal causes of aggressive behavior:
Type A more than Type B for hostile aggression but
they are matched on instrumental aggression.
some people have a hostile attributional bias (makes internal att
in others, hostile intents etc; biased in this way)
narcissism: feel transgressed by
others; easily feel self-image is threatened by others (narcissists have
fragile self-esteem by definition, might be supersensitive to insults, etc)
Sensation seeking (Zuckerman): seek aggressive encounters as a thrill? evidence: higher verbal, physical aggression in high SS
people
Gender difference? complex:
males more than females for unprovoked aggression and direct aggression;
females, more indirect aggression (rumor spreading,etc)
Situational factors: heat? yes, in laboratory investigations; crime statistic analysis
suggests an inverted U function with heat (mid-hot, more agg)
Alcohol, yes; reason: lower inhibitions,
maybe; increases sensitivity to being provoked, maybe also distorts perceptions
of consequences (decreases
reasons not to be aggressive in
the cognitions of the aggressive individual).
Alcohol may impair reversals in initial
aggressive stages, so people more likely to carry out budding aggression, less
likely to accept apologies, etc (interferes with
cognitive processing)
alcohol may increase aggessiveness in normally low-aggressive people
alcohol seems to affect low
dispositional empathy people more than high
Bullying (agg
against a non-retaliator): motives: power, status, to lower depression; the
third in girls, not boys
whether someone is a bully or a
victim may change in different contexts and situations;
bullies perceive more internal
aggression in others, attack others to enhance self-image; mistrustful of
others, bullies see aggression as an effective strategy to gain respect from
others
how to reduce bullying, four items to
consider: 1) recognize the problem eg in school; 2)
authorities come out against it; 3)
victims clearly told what to do in response ;
4) consult experts as
appropriate to treat causes, etc.
Workplace violence: (some by outsiders,
not employees; is in reality pretty rare). Nonviolent aggression more common than actual violence
often workplace agg is covert: verbal, obstructing workplace procedures
like memos, some times overt: physical assaults
abusive supervisors, hold
employees for public ridicule, being rude.
Causes: perceived unfairness, downsizing,
layoffs; neighborhood norms (where the company is located)
Prevention/control of aggression:
Punishment: why punish? --should fit the crime; weigh the severity of the crime,
"make amends" --second reason: to deter others
most people tend to
emphasize the first reason, not the second; people weigh "harm done"
in the crime as the best reason for severity of the penalty
deterrence not high in people's
consideration .
prison at least removes
would-be offenders from victims, whatever else it may or may not do
to be effective,
punishment should be prompt, predictable/certain, strong, and perceived by
recipients as justified. Otherwise it doesn't work very well
Those four conditions aren't met in
reality, at least in the
Cognitive factors in overcoming agg: empathy training;
apology is effective often, to
diffuse agg (agg often is a
response to a perceived lack of respect).
be aware that aggression
is from emotional, not rational factors; emotionality leads to schematic
processing, not rational or deeply considerate of details.
If anticipate a negative encounter, don't
dwell on negative things; brace yourself psychologically for meeting someone
you perceive has -ve traits
Forgiveness increases self-esteem,
decreases negative affect levels. These benefits are amplified with emotionally
close others
some people are more forgiving
than others; role of 1) empathy, 2) reducing internal attributional
thinking about causes of opponent's behavior, 3) stop thinking about things
forever
-end