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Amity Law School Noida
BA LLB (H) 3rd Sem
Social Psychology For Lawyers
Dr. Pranav Tewari
1
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Pro-Social Behaviour
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What is Pro Social Behavior?
Introduction
1.May range from small favours to great deeds.
2.Studies the factors of onlooker choice – to be either an
unresponsive bystander or a good Samaritan.
3.Explains the pro social behaviour in terms of moods, personality
characteristics and true altruism.
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Is Pro-Social Behavior . . .
Definition and concepts:
Helping: Refers to actions intended to improve the situation of the help
recipient
Pro social behaviour: Refers to helping that is not motivated by professional
obligations and that is not based on an organisation.
Pro-social behaviour refers to actions we take that benefit
others (Eisenberg, 1982).
Altruism: Refers to pro-social behaviour that has the ultimate goal of
benefitting another person.
Types of Pro-Social Behavior Name of Institution
Proactive : Behaviour is done in expectation of
benefit to the individual performing behaviour.
Reactive : Behaviour done as a result of a need
recognized in others.
Altruistic: Motivated by nothing more than doing
good for others.
The Bystander Effect Name of Institution
Studies have indicated that willingness to help is higher when bystander is alone than
when he or she is in the company of other. (Latane & Nida, 1981)
1. Number effect: Refers to the reduced likelihood of intervention in groups of by-
standers. The larger the number of bystanders the less likely any one bystander will be
to intervene and help. (Darley and Latane, 1968).
Example:
The most famous example of the bystander effect is the story of the
murder of Kitty Genovese. Kitty was murdered in front of her
apartment in New York in the 1960s; it was reported 38 people
witnessed the murder throughout the course of her assault and
eventual murder over the night, but no one stopped the murderer or
called for help until it was too late.
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Theory of Unresponsive Bystanders
2. Diffusion of responsibility: Cognitive appraisal which divides responsibility among
several onlookers or bystanders. Each member feels less responsible that when alone.
3. Implicit modelling of ‘nothing has happened’: because bystanders in emergencies are
overwhelmed by the sudden and unexpected event, they initially hesitate to provide
help. When they see that other bystanders are doing the same, they each reach the false
conclusion that the other bystanders interpret the event as harmless. This is sometimes
called ‘pluralistic ignorance’.
4.Fear of embarrassment: The stressful experience of a person whose behaviour in a
situation is observed by bystanders. Especially when the situation is unfamiliar, social
anxiety is elicited which reduces the tendency to help victims of emergencies.
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Theory of Pro-Social Behavior
• Norm of reciprocity: the norm that we should do to others as they do to us.
Reciprocity calls for positive responses to favourable treatment but negative
responses to unfavourable treatment. Prosocial reciprocity occurs when people
help in return for having been helped.
• Prosocial reciprocity is threatened by cheating. Cheaters may exploit any
prosocial tendencies which are based on the assumptions that the helped
person will repay the favour.
The individualistic approach Name of Institution
Moods and emotions
People’s feelings fluctuate during their daily activities. Current mood may affect someone’s
willingness to respond pro-socially to the needs of others. Helping is fostered by positive
mood.
•Negative feelings show to have contradictory effect on the prosocial behaviour:
•Sad mood: Person may hesitate to help others.
•Interpersonal guilt: Negative feelings about oneself which result from the knowledge that
one is responsible for the distress of others or for damage done to them.
•Interpersonal guilt is associated with a high-level pf pro-social behaviour.
•Negative State Relief Hypothesis (Cialdini, Kenrick and Baumann, 1982): Idea that prosocial
behaviour is a mood management technique. During socialization people have learned that
prosocial behaviour is self-reinforcing. When they feel bad, they employ prosocial behaviour
to improve their feeling state.
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• The prosocial Personality: The set of personality attributes (e.g., empathy, social
responsibility) that contribute to willingness to help others. An alternative term is
‘altruistic personality.
Personality influences are more influential when situational pressures are weak.
• Focuses on personality attributes associated with increased levels of prosocial
behaviour. Specifically,
• Empathy: Tendency to experience an emotional response that is congruent with
the emotional state of another person. It results from adopting the perspective of
the other and compassionately understanding his or her emotions.
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• Social Responsibility: Prescribes that people should help others who are dependent on
them. It is contrasted with the norm of self-sufficiency, which implies that people should
take care of themselves first.
• Internal locus of control
• Just world belief: Generalized expectancy that people get what they deserve.
Undeserved suffering of others threatens belief in a just world and motivates attempts to
restore it. These include reducing the victims’ suffering by helping or derogating the
victims, depending on whether help can effectively be given or not., and Esteem
enhancement.
• Personal norm: Feeling of obligation to perform a specific action in accordance with
personal values and normative beliefs. (Schwartz, 1977)
