PSYC 2310 Chapter Notes - Chapter 13: Collectivism, Ingroups And Outgroups, Reciprocal Altruism
22 Jul 2013
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Document Summary
Prosocial behaviour: any behaviour that has the goal of helping another person. Altruism: helping without expectation of personal gain. People sometimes act in altruistic ways to help someone, even at a great personal cost. This happens when such behaviour will help ensure the survival of their genes, which can then be passed on. Kinship selection: the idea that we"re more likely to help those we are genetically related to. Findings indicated that relationship factors, including emotional closeness and similarity, influence helping, in part because genetic factors lead to these relationship factors. In other words, we help those who are similar to us and emotionally close. According to the reciprocal prosocial behaviour perspective, people help others to increase the odds that they, in turn will be helped by others. Because helping others leads them to reciprocate, this type of cooperation among group members, regardless of their genetic connection, increases survival.
