Prosocial Behavior And Prosocial Behaviors

Throughout life, one is to see many people they don’t know Humans walk past each other and no interaction occurs. Depending on a particular situation one might be in, it can change the ability to react, help and care for a stranger in need. In the article “We are all bystanders”, by Jason Marsh and Dacher Keltner, it shows how in certain settings people don’t act to help another, even though one might want to. “Everyday Stuart would board the bus and a couple of boys would tease him. I would sit silent and watch. I wish I would’ve helped” (Marsh/Keltner 3). People develop a feeling that prevents them from caring for strangers. This is due to a thought of peer pressure or judgement that could be given to an individual for taking action.

The short story"Aha Moment" by Julia Alvarez demonstrates that the point is not to pay back kindness but to pass it on. The story expresses the idea that simple acts of kindness can make a great impact on people both mentally and physically. It can turn frightening and tense situations into assurance and aplomb. In paragraph 8, it is stated," no one screamed,no one panicked. I could hear small pockets of soothing conversation everywhere." By holding the hands and by chatting about everyday life, the passengers emboldened each other and created an optimistic atmosphere. The author points out,"someone was comforting me and kept asking me,'Are you okay?" According to Julia if someone does something good and beneficial for you, you should pass

Humans are prenatally motivated to help those around us due to its evolutionary benefits that our species has a better chance of survival if all cooperate. Humans can also be nurtured to exhibit altruistic behavior through good parenting. Although most of the population agrees that altruism benefits society, scientific research has shown that even those who believe they are altruistic are not when they are put in situations which calls for selfless behavior. One phenomena that refutes the claim that most of the population strives for selfless behavior is known as the bystander effect. The bystander effect is when a person feels less responsible for doing selfless acts when they are in an environment of a group of

5. Promotion and acceptance of the expression of positive and negative feelings, becomes: "Being present to, and supportive of the expression of positive and negative feelings as a connection with deeper spirit of self and the one-being-cared-for" (p. 469).

Bartel (1976) defines prosocial behaviour as ‘behaviour that intentionally helps or benefits another person’. Batson (1987) defines altruism as ‘helping another person for no reward, and even at some cost to oneself.’ This definition of altruism seemingly depicts the behaviour as selfless, however there is a wealth of research which suggests that this is not the case.

Suggests that someone who needs help will have an increased amount of empathic emotion which leads to long-term helpful behaviours.

Th instance Schwalbe gave us was taking a pot of unguarded donated money. The person taking if will benefit financially, but the recipients would suffer. The suffering trickles all the way down from the donators to the individuals loved ones. When the individual was contemplating taking the money they were just thinking of the benefit they would receive, not the toll it would take on others. To be sociologically mindful we must consider the affect that our outward actions and feeling will have on other people. To be able to feel for and with others we must respect others feelings. Showing this can be as simple as social courtesies such as, simple greetings, saying thank you, or holding a door. Doing these small acts not only benefits an individual but also shows how they feel about themselves and want to be treated. Most human behavior is characterized by how we feel others react to and evaluate us. Because of this we usually fall back to traditions. We let the society we are in shape us, and because this is comfortable, one does not typically question it. It’s hard to feel socially accepted when you imagine others judging

Using children as a test subject is reliable in verifying human nature due to the fact that developing minds are less influenced by political and religious views. Results from this test showed that praise ended up promoting generosity in charitable acts. The trend of being offered a reward for supporting charitable acts continued with women taking telephone surveys who were offered money. These women were less likely to continue their generosity if they were not offered money just a few days later; also, repeated blood donors who were reminded of the personal benefits of donating blood tended to be less motivated to donate their blood. At the end of the article Kohn states, “...whenever people seem to act altruistically, there must be egotistical reasons for it. Based on the research provided Kohn is able to conclude that it is human nature to be selfish towards people in

There is a time in every person’s life where a certain other person gives them words of strong encouragement. There is also a time in every person’s life where they distribute words of kindness to others as well.

Emotion can determine an individual’s capacity to succeed or fail. In Chapter 7 of Giver and Take, Adam Grant shows that givers who frequently care about others’ feelings tend to lead themselves to failure. Granted, it is good to take into consideration of other people’s feelings, but setting limit on how much one can sympathize with another when giving assistance is necessary. Givers should not be too emotional towards the people they approach because prioritizing other people’s feelings can cause them to make a wrong decision, which could set them back in their goals and aspirations.

In the anthropology department, at the end of the day, we’re trying to understand humans. One of the major puzzles in human evolution is the origin of altruism. Helping someone that we don't know at all is often considered one of the most extreme forms of altruism. Yet it happens frequently. The assumption is that helping strangers must be altruism because there’s no way for them to pay you back, and that this makes us unique because no other animals would be able to do this. So then there are a lot of hypotheses saying it must be culture, it must be social norms, it must be language that makes this possible.

Understanding these reasons for volunteering, is important and could give us concrete answers as to why people would participate in long-term volunteering. The issue of sufficient support networks for people in need is very important. It has a very crucial role to play in the well-being of people. We all need support when we are going through difficult times and knowing that there is someone there for you, someone who cares, can make all the difference in the world.

Helping behavior has been a challenging topic to analyze over the years. The familiar case of where a Good Samaritan rescued a little boy who almost was kidnapped beside the road when other children only stood there witnessing the horrid incident. During the incident, they thought that adults would help him instead of themselves. They also had looked at him, but decided not to help because they were afraid of the consequences or because they did not know the victim. Helping behavior needs to be observed among individuals to ensure peaceful and safer coexistence. Although several people have claimed that helping is an individual’s choice, a social scientist, Arthur Breaman’s research has shown that when individuals are educated on the five stages of helping behavior responds to the situations that require a helping hand twice as fast as compared to those that have no idea of the five stages (Slater 109). His statement is clearly valid; therefore, in order to reduce crime, lack of concern among individuals as well as swifter response to situations, and the five stages of helping behavior needs to be introduced and be taught in schools.

According to Aronson, Wilson, and Akert (2013) prosocial behavior is defined as an act performed for the benefit of another person. Altruism is referred to as the want to help another individual even if it means no benefits, or possibly a cost, for the helper (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2013). One particular factor, the bystander effect, has a profound impact on whether or not people help others. The bystander effect states that as the number of people who witness an emergency increases, the likelihood that any of those people will help decreases (Aronson et al., 2013). Processes associated with the bystander effect such as pluralistic ignorance, diffusion of responsibility, and victim effect all impact the likelihood of prosocial

Another similar theory proposed by Patterson in 1982 deals with providing information, regulating interaction, and expressing intimacy. “However, Patterson (1982) also proposed two other functional categories, social control and service-task functions, neither of which is identified in the earlier classification systems” (Edinger and Patterson, 1983, p. 31). The main function, and more readily accepted is social control. Social control, or attempting to change the behavior of another, is unique because it describes a motivational contrast with the function of intimacy (Edinger and Patterson, 1983, p. 31). Intimacy, or the underlying affectionate reaction towards another, also deals with negative and positive reactions. The positive affect could result in concern for, liking, love, or interest in another; however, the negative ends results in dislike or hate (Edinger and Patterson, 1983, p 31). “…The social control function is characterized by independence of affect and nonverbal behavior…in some cases the real affect is opposite to the affect represented behaviorally; for example, when smiling at, gazing at, and standing close to a disliked superior to win favor with that person”(edinger and Patterson, 1983, p. 31). In this case, by standing close, smiling at and gazing at a disliked superior the person is using intimacy to gain