Prosocial Behavior And Social Behavior

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

Psychologists state diffusion of responsibility is one of the main blames for the bystander effect being

1. After the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese, John Darley and Bibb Latane were in shock as the rest of the city/world that a 28 year old lady could be stabbed in a neighborhood with about 38 by standers or more and say or do nothing. Why didn’t anyone try and help her? How could people stand by and watch this go on? People speculated that the failure of people to get involved might be due more to the influence (socially) that bystanders have on each other. To test this theory, Darley and Latane, two psychologists, decided to conduct a study. “Diffusion of Responsibility” Everyone hopes that someone else will be the first to step up

Altruism is a concept in which the individual sacrifices regard for themselves in the interest of another. The ethics of altruism state that a person should act in a matter where their self-sacrifice yields the greater well being on the whole. To put that statement in the form of a fundamental principle of rightness, an action is right if and only if (and because) the action brings a net-gain of well being to anyone except the individual performing the action. The altruistic mentality of an individual according to this moral theory means that any action that they undertake should be in the interest of others rather than themselves. The ethics of this concept also state that relationships of greater value to the individual carrying out an action should come second in priority to those they have with strangers since the close relationship has a much more meaningful connection to a person’s life. In these situations, the only morally correct way of acting is in the way that defeats the well being of the agent of an action for the sake of others.

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.

Altruism, also known as selflessness, is one of the most puzzling topics in the public domain today. The main issue from the perspective of many scholars is how altruism can be effective. Even though many people get involved in lifelong altruism, only a few of them emerge to be effective in it. What could be the reason behind this? And what makes altruism such a common issue that everyone needs to engage in it? The producer, Peter Singer, puts on important points that give more light on the urgency of the altruism to the younger generation and how to make it effective in the long run.

For the individual that is selfish and take no action to help another, others chastise them for failure to act. Even, if others acknowledge, the individual taking action could have been a detriment to the individual. While the person, who attempts to help another, but fails then is ostracized

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

Altruism is the selflessness acts of an individual in which they involve themselves into the lives of other individuals in the hopes of positively affecting their feelings and/or well-beings. “Altruism and empathy permit the assessment of the extent to which volunteers perform voluntary service for selfless reasons” (Veludo-de-Oliveira, Pallister, & Foxall, 2015, p. 375). Veludo-de-Oliveira, Pallister, and Foxall believe in order for an interaction to be an altruistic one, “Firstly, the act must have the intention of benefit-ing others; secondly, the act must be initiated voluntarily by the helper; and thirdly, there should be no expectation of any reward from external sources.” (2015, p. 378).

Why do people have the incentive to help others? How does doing such a thing benefit them? Do specific people help more than others, and why? Altruism is identified as the behaviour that benefits others at a personal cost to the performing individual (Wilson, D.S and Dugatkin, L.A, 1992). Altruism can be performed in many diverse ways, and could assist various people that are dealing with many different situations. Prosocial behaviour, however, is acknowledged as the actions that help other people or the entire society as a whole (Twenge, Ciarocco, Baumeister, & Bartels, 2007). In other words, prosocial behaviour could be defined as a way of helping people, that may result in the person who is helping, to personally give up their time, money or any sacrifices to be useful to the opposite person in need. Psychologists have suggested that this particular behaviour may be greater than the associated costs, concerning the human longing to belong to a group. It has also been said that helping accelerates group work and in turn, may be responsible for individuals having vast benefits for the long run (Twenge et al., 2007). Altruism and prosocial behaviour can be seen as the descriptions of helping people. The outcome of this essay will thoroughly explain the background of model of helping behaviour and how these factors are put into practice to make people likely to want to help others, as well as discussing the attributes of the helper and the kind of people who specifically tend

Batson, C. D. (1991). The Altruism Question: Toward a Social-Psychological Answer. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Helping people is a noble thing to do especially when it comes to the application of natural justice, where human beings help those who are suffering. There is always a hidden intention in every action that is obscured by the notion of philanthropy. Returned favors expectation might not be the ultimate intention as to why people may perform an act (Michael, 1978). However, it will be illogical to say that these intentions were

First, it is important to understand what altruism is. Altruism is any act carried out by an individual in order to benefit another individual. [1, 2] At first glance,

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

Prosocial behaviour is an act by an individual or a group that is seen as valued by