Chapter 9 Pro-social Behaviour

1. Chapter 9
Pro-social Behaviour

2. Introduction
• Pro-social behaviour can be described as one person helping another in the absence of any obligation.
• Pro-social behaviour can be distinguished from helping behaviour that is considered as a broader concept
and altruism, which is a comparatively smaller concept under pro-social behaviour (Bierhoff, 2001).
• Crisp and Turner (2007 p. 284) define helping behaviour as 'acts where people voluntarily and intentionally
behave in a way that they believe will benefit others, although at the same time the behaviour may benefit
them as well'. Helping behaviour does not include behaviours that are incidental or that are as a result of
some selfish motive. But the concept is broad enough to include such behaviours that result in benefits for
others as well as self.
• Altruism can be defined as 'an act performed voluntarily to help someone else when there is no expectation
of receiving a reward in any form' (Sears, Peplau & Taylor, 1991, p. 367). This is a more specific term
where there is no benefit to self but it does benefit others. The term was introduced by August Compte in
1851 (Hodgetts et al., 2010) to explain the effects and moral acts of individuals directed towards helping
other individuals.

3. What is Pro-social Behaviour
Pro-social behaviour is defined as 'any act that helps or is designed to help others,
regardless of the helper’s motives' (Sears, Peplau & Taylor, 1991, p. 367). Stang and
Wrightsman in 1981 defined pro-social behaviour as 'voluntary behaviour performed
with the intention of benefiting another person or group of persons' (Raven & Rubin,
1983, p. 309).
This is a term that can be distinguished from antisocial behaviour and mainly
involves behaviour that is voluntary in nature and directed towards the benefit of
others. The voluntary and conscious nature of this behaviour is important to
differentiate this behaviour from other behaviours incidental or forced that may result
in benefiting others.

4. Approaches and Perspectives to
Pro-social Behaviour
• Biological approach (kin selection, reciprocity)
• Individualistic approach (mood states, personality characteristics)
• Learning perspective
• Decision-making perspective
• Interpersonal approach

5. Situational Factors that Determine
Pro-social Behaviour
• Environmental conditions: Environmental conditions such as
weather, area and its size, noise levels, etc. can influence pro-social
behaviour.
• Time pressures: The focus here is on the time pressure that the person
has to reach somewhere or get some work done and how that has an
impact on pro-social behaviours.

6. Who is More Likely to Receive Help?
1. Whether the individual was responsible for the
problem or not?
2. Attraction and similarity
3. Group membership
4. Deservingness of the person

7. Bystander’s Apathy
• This can be described as decreased likelihood of receiving help when in
presence of others
• Darley and Latane in 1968 stated that the bystanders apathy could be as a result
of diffusion of responsibility, that is, so many people are present atet no one
feels responsible to take action (Baron & Byrne, 1995).
• Piliavin’s Bystander—calculus model
Stage 1: Physiological arousal is experienced
Stage 2: The arousal or the emotional response is labeled
Stage 3: The cost of helping and not helping is calculated

8. Outcome of Receiving Help
• Though the person who is helping may strongly believe that the help did make a difference to the
person in need, it may not be so, and the person receiving help may have a different perspective.
• Further, the person who engaged in pro-social behaviour may derive satisfaction from helping,
despite of certain negative consequences, but the person who receives help may feel inferior and
incapable and, thus, they may start giving weightage to their own contributions and undermine the
role played by the person who helped.
• As stated by Fisher, Depulo and Nadler (1981), there are four elements that need to be discussed with
reference to this relationship (Bierhoff, 2001):
- Characteristics of the individual who helps, including his/her intentions.
- Characteristics of the individual who receives help, including his/her self-esteem and self-concept
- Characteristics of the help provided such as amount, degree and nature of help.
- Characteristics of the situation including opportunity to return the favour/help.

9. Theories Related to Varied Reaction
From Recipients of Help
• Social exchange theory
• Reactance theory
• Attribution theory

10. Social Support
• Buunk (2001, p. 378) defined social support as 'the feeling of being supported by
others, usually divided in to four components, that is, emotional support, appraisal support,
informational support and instrumental support'.
• Social support deals with the give and take of help in relationships while coping with life events or
troubles in daily life.
• Social support generally plays an important role in helping individuals cope with certain distressing
life events.
• It also has a sort of buffer effect, where persons who perceive the presence of social support are less
affected by events that are stressful as compared to persons who perceive that they do not have social
support.
• Though the popular belief is that social support does help people cope between with their situations
or distress, it is necessary that there is a match between the support received and the requirement of
the individual.