For this week’s blog post, I am going to discuss pro-social behavior and some of the theories of pro-social behavior. Do you voluntarily help others? Why do people help others? Imagine that you encounter a stranger who appears to have collapsed on the street, what factors would influence your decision whether to help or not???….. Pro-social behavior is a voluntary action of behavior with the intention to help or benefit people or society as a whole; these behaviors include a broad range of activities such as helping, sharing, donating, cooperating and volunteering (Eisenberg and Mussen 2017). Prosocial behavior can be confused with altruism, but they are two distinct concepts. Pro-social behavior refers to a pattern of activity, whereas, altruism is the motivation to help others out of pure regard for their needs rather than how the action will benefit oneself (Levine, M. 2017). Altruism is people’s desire to help others even if the costs outweigh the benefits of helping. In fact, people acting in altruistic ways may disregard the personal costs associated with helping. Some researchers suggest that altruism operates on empathy (Eisenberg, N. 1987). Empathy is the capacity to understand another person’s perspective, to feel what he or she feels. An empathetic person makes an emotional connection with others and feels compelled to help (Miller, P. 1987). Other researchers argue that altruism is a form of selfless helping that is not motivated by benefits or feeling good about oneself. Absolutely, after helping, people feel good about themselves, but some researchers argue that this is a consequence of altruism, not a cause (Penner, L, et al. 2005).
One among the several principles that many psychologists study has to do with the bystander effect which was first demonstrated in the laboratory by John M. Darley and Bibb Latané. The bystander effect is a social psychological phenomenon that refers to situations in which individuals do not offer any means of help in an emergency when other people are present (Darley, J. M. 2005). The greater the number of people present at the moment, the less likely someone will help. Two main factors come into play in the bystander effect. One is the diffusion of responsibility with many others present, the responsibility is shared throughout the group, and no one feels that it’s down to them to do anything. The other is our desire to conform and follow the actions of others. When no one else does anything, it’s easier to feel that it’s not necessary, or even appropriate, to take action. Emergency situations are often unclear or chaotic, and we tend to look to others to decide on the correct action or inaction. When an emergency situation occurs, observers are more likely to take action if there are few or no other witnesses (Latané, B. 2005). Being part of a large crowd makes it such that no single person has to take responsibility for an action (or inaction).
Pro-social behavior is essential to both groups of close interpersonal relationships and interactions among individuals and groups without close ties. People, as individuals or as members of a group, often assist others in need or distress, as well as others whose needs are relatively trivial. In my research, I found out that there are four theories of pro-social behavior; empathy-altruism, Kin selection, Reciprocity norm, and Altruistic personality traits (Richardson R. 2015). The theory of kin selection states that people are more likely to help blood relatives under challenging situations because this increases the odds that their genes will be transmitted to subsequent generations. The closer the relationship between the people, the higher the likelihood that help will be given (Richardson R. 2015). The norm of reciprocity sometimes referred to as the rule of reciprocity, is a social norm by which if someone does something for you, you feel obligated to return the favor. Have you ever felt compelled to do something for someone because they had done something for you before? The norm of reciprocity is just one type of social norm that can have a powerful influence on our behavior on how positive actions bring about more positive responses while negative actions bring about more negative responses (Rohmann, E. 2004). One of the main reasons behind the behavior of helping others is personality traits. In most instances, the differences in personality traits are important determinants of behaviors that emerge in social events. Altruistic personality traits are the acts of helping others without looking after one’s interest (Bierhoff, H. W 2004). Such behavior reveals that the individual is not selfish or egoistic, but is rather individually and socially responsible. An important factor underlying altruistic behavior is personality traits.
We tend to help people as described above and helping makes us feel good about ourselves in different ways, the pro-social behavior is any helping behavior designed to benefit another; the decision to help will depend on what an individual has learned through socialization and cultural norms.
Reference:
Williams, K. E., & Berthelsen, D. (2017). The development of prosocial behavior in early childhood: Contributions of early parenting and self-regulation. International Journal of Early Childhood, 49(1), 73. 10.1007/s13158-017-0185-5
http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/social-psychology/prosocial-behavior/
Darley, J. M. & Latané, B. (2005). “Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 8: 377–383. doi:10.1037/h002558
Richardson R. (2015) Evolutionary Psychology, Altruism, and Kin Selection. In: Breyer T. (eds) Epistemological Dimensions of Evolutionary Psychology. Springer, New York, NY
Eisenberg, N., Guthrie, I. K., Cumberland, A., Murphy, B. C., Shepard, S. A, Zhou, Q., & Carlo, G.(2002). Prosocial development in early adulthood: A longitudinal study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 993–1006.
Fulker, D. W., Nealle, M. C., Nias, D. K. B., & Eysenck, H. J. (1986). Altruism and aggression: The heritability of individual differences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 1192-1198.
Bierhoff, H. W., & Rohmann, E. (2004). Altruistic Personality in the Context of the Empaty- Altruism Hypothesis. European Journal of Personality, 18, 351-365.
Eisenberg, N., and Miller, P. (1987). The relation of empathy tt pro-social and related behaviors. Psychol. Bull.101: 91-119.
Eisenberg N, Fabes RA. 1991. Pro-social behavior and empathy: multimethod developmental perspective. See Clark 1991,pp.34-61
Denham, S. A. (1986). Social cognition, prosocial behavior, and emotion in preschoolers: Contextual validation. Child Development, 57, 194–201.
Darley, J. M., & Latané, B. (2005). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 8, 377-383. Copyright © 1968 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission.
Manning, R., Levine, M. & Collins, A. (2007). The Kitty Genovese murder and the social psychology of helping: The parable of the 38 witnesses. American Psychologist, 2007;62(6): 555-562.
http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/social-psychology/prosocial-behavior/bystander-effect/
Social Cognition 2018 
I agree with you that pro-social behavior are based on a mixture of egoistically motivated and altruistically motivated sources. However, pro-social behavior directly correlates with social and cultural norms. Sure we help people to feel good about ourselves but that is because it is an example that has been laid down for us in our different communities. I believe, the frequencies of most types of pro-social behavior increase during childhood until adolescence. For instance, an adult is more likely to help others if, as a child, his/her parents were models of pro-social behavior.
Bierhoff, H. W. (2002). Prosocial Behaviour. New York: Psychology Press.
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In one of my previous blogs I wrote about pro-social behaviour and altruism in relation to religiosity. Interestingly, I found that children who were raised religious were less likely to display altruistic behaviour (Cornwall, 2015). I thought this was interesting because generally you would think it would be the opposite since religions often have altruistic practices. However, as children age, they became increasingly altruistic. I thought this was interesting, and found it to be related to how much an individual thinks about their religions.
Cornwall, W. (2015). Nonreligious children are more generous. Retrieved from http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/11/nonreligious-children-are-more-generous doi:10.1126/science.aad7395
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Fascinating blog! I had no idea prosocial behaviour is related to altruism. It is true that most people feel better after helping others depending on their personality and situations. I think prosocial behaviours also vary among genders and culture as well. In a study conducted by Espinosa & Kovářík 2015, they suggest that female social behavior tends to be more affected by social and emotional aspects, whereas men tend to adjust their behaviour more than women when subjects are motivated to reason further about their behavior. The cultural variability in the extent of ingroup bias, social distancing and the effect of communication in fostering pro-social sentiment (Gurven et al., 2008).
Gurven, M., Zanolini, A., & Schniter, E. (2008). Culture sometimes matters: intra-cultural variation in pro-social behavior among Tsimane Amerindians. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 67(3-4), 587–607.
Espinosa, M. P., & Kovářík, J. (2015). Prosocial behavior and gender. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 9, 88. http://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00088
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We have all helped people in dire situations and helping makes us to feel good about ourselves in different ways, i.e. some people give their unwanted clothing, shoes, toys and other valuables charities, because they felt somebody might benefit from them. For instance, in a study conducted, we present two studies demonstrating that the emotional benefits of spending money on others (prosocial spending) are unleashed when givers are aware of their positive impact. In Study 1, an experiment using real charitable appeals, giving more money to charity led to higher levels of happiness only when participants gave to causes that explained how these funds are used to make a difference in the life of a recipient. In Study 2, participants were asked to reflect upon a time they spent money on themselves or on others in a way that either had a positive impact or had no impact. Participants who recalled a time they spent on others that had a positive impact were happiest. Together, these results suggest that highlighting the impact of prosocial spending can increase the emotional rewards of giving.
Reference:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268113000176
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Yamasue et al. (2008) argue that humans have to practice altruistic cooperation to have a highly organized society. Our brains have evolved in a way that we capable of practicing reciprocity as a pattern of human altruism that is directed to those that are not our relatives. Living in a big society like humans do, prosocial behaviors are essential for our civilization
Yamasue, H., Abe, O., Suga, M., Yamada, H., Rogers, M. A., Aoki, S., . . . Kasai, K. (2008). Sex-Linked Neuroanatomical Basis of Human Altruistic Cooperativeness. Cerebral Cortex, 18(10), 2331-2340. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm254
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