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Social Responsibility - Coggle Diagram
Social Responsibility
Sociocultural Approach
SCT and prosocial behaviour
influence of social cognitive theory and observational learning on prosocial behaviour.
Study by Oliner (1992)
aim
: to investigate people who had rescued Jews all over Europe during the holocaust, to investigate altruistic identity
sample
: 400 people from all over Europe who had rescued Jews in the years before during World War II.
procedure
: The questionnaire itself was open-ended, and the study also included interviews with rescued survivors.
results
: the association that stood out most was altruism and personality; rescuers were characterised by values related to compassion, law, and order.
Culture and prosocial behaviour
behaviours like altruism are associated with cooperation, and cultural norms are the basis for cooperation.
Study by Whiting and Whiting (1975)
aim
: to investigate similarities and differences in child rearing practices and prosocial behaviours, for example, in different cultural contexts.
sample
: the research was conducted in Kenya, Mexico, Philippines, India, Japan, and the USA
procedure
: the researchers observed children in the home and community, taking note of prosocial behaviours related to food preparation, child care, household chores, etc.
results
: the researchers suggested that children in rural Kenya were the most prosocial in the sample, and children in the USA were the least prosocial. The researchers argued that this happens because traditional societies in the sample tended to live in extended families and that more household responsibilities are delegated to children in these societies. Comparatively, sample responsibilities were not observed in children from the more complex 'modern' societies who were paid to do household chores.
SIT and prosocial behaviour
ingroup membership may have some influence on whether individuals behave for the benefit of others.
Study by Nook et al (2016)
aim
: conducted a series of studies investigating whether prosocial conformity could endure after a time delay, and whether it could 'jump' from a charitable donation to feelings of empathic concern
sample
: 102 participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk
procedure
: completed 100 charity trials online
results
: The study showed that participants donated more in the generous norm condition than in the stingy norm condition, even though donations on the first trial were statistically identical for both group
Cognitive Approach
Empathy-Altruism Model
personal distress e.g. anxiety and fear (1) leading to egoistic helping
empathetic concern e.g. sympathy and compassion (2) leading to altruistic behaviour
Study by Toi and Batson (1982)
aim
: the aim of the experiment was to investigate if the manipulation of the participants' level of empathy would influence their likelihood of helping.
sample
: 84 female introductory psychology students
procedure
: participants were randomly assigned to conditions. In the 'low empathy' condition, participants were asked to listen to the information presented in the interview. It was predicted that these participants would display an egoistic pattern of behaviour. In the 'high empathy' condition, participants were instructed to imagine how the person interviewed felt about the situation. It was predicted that these participants would display an empathetic pattern of behaviour. After listening to the recorded interview, all participants were asked to complete a questionnaire about their emotional response to the information in the interview. They were given the chance to help the interviewee (Carol), and also given the chance to escape the responsibility. This was done by manipulating whether participants could anticipate seeing Carol in the future.
results
: participants in the low-empathy condition reported feeling less empathetic emotion than participants in the high-empathy condition. Participants in the low-empathy condition also helped less when the escape was easier. Participants in the high empathy condition helped even when escape was easy.
Negative-State Relief Model
the motivation to help is to avoid one's own emotional distress (e.g. embarrassment, sadness, guilt) from seeing someone in need of help
Study by Regan et al (1972)
aim
: investigating whether participants in a state of guilt would be more likely to help in order to relieve their negative mood state
sample
: naive participants at a shopping mall in the US, 40 female participants chosen by opportunity sample
procedure
: the women were approached by a male confederate who asked each participant to take his photograph for a project. The camera had been set up intentionally to not function.
In the guilt condition, the man implied that the participant broke the camera. In the no-guilt condition, the man assured the participant that it was not her fault for the camera not functioning.
results
: the researchers concluded that participants in the guilt condition had helped as a way of relieving the guilt they felt about 'breaking' the male confederate's camera.