psychology vocab 6.1

the selfless concern for the well-being of others

people can only act off of their own self interest

behavior which people benefit others

the idea that any helping event that causes an emotional arousal in the bystander, defers to a cognitive calculation of the cost of helping vs. the reward of helping the goal is to reduce the emotional arousal so an individual can do so by avoiding the situation or engaging in the helping based on the situation

the more people who are present in a helping situation spreads responsibility for helping out among others

we observe the actions of others in normative social influence. if we see others are not helping a temporary social norm is established

altruism causes an individual to behave in ways which reduces its own personal fitness but boosts the fitness of other members of its gene pool the cost of the helper needs to be offset by the reproductive potential of the individual being helped

the degree of altruism that one demonstrates depends on the number of genes shared by individual *based on evolution and theory of natural selection

a negative emotion makes us want to help relieve the negative emotion we can seek others to help us feel better or we see someone needing help which leads to a negative state that motivates us to help *you don't help if your observation of someone in need does not upset you

human beings weigh the cost of helping vs the cost of not helping against the benefits of helping vs the benefit of not helping

the amygdala may play a significant role in our tendency to be altruistic i.e. psychopaths have reduced amygdala in response to fearful facial expressions (Marsh)

they have more than enough resources (time, money, body parts, etc.) to meet their personal needs and they choose to use a proportion of the excess to try to benefit others to a much greater extent than it costs them