Reference no: EM133304412
Assignment:
Read link: Helping and Prosocial Behavior
1. Pluralistic ignorance suggests that inactions by other observers of an emergency will decrease the likelihood that help will be given. What do you think will happen if even one other observer begins to offer assistance to a victim?
2. In addition to those mentioned in the module, what other costs and rewards might affect a potential helper's decision of whether to help? Receiving help to solve some problem is an obvious benefit for someone in need; are there any costs that a person might have to bear as a result of receiving help from someone?
3. What are the characteristics possessed by your friends who are most helpful? By your friends who are least helpful? What has made your helpful friends and your unhelpful friends so different? What kinds of help have they given to you, and what kind of help have you given to them? Are you a helpful person?
4. Do you think that sex and gender differences in the frequency of helping and the kinds of helping have changed over time? Why? Do you think that we might expect more changes in the future?
5. What do you think is the primary motive for helping behavior: egoism or altruism? Are there any professions in which people are being "pure" altruists, or are some egoistic motivations always playing a role?
6. There are other prosocial behaviors in addition to the kind of helping discussed here. People volunteer to serve many different causes and organizations. People come together to cooperate with one another to achieve goals that no one individual could reach alone. How do you think the factors that affect helping might affect prosocial actions such as volunteering and cooperating? Do you think that there might be other factors that make people more or less likely to volunteer their time and energy or to cooperate in a group?