Exam 9: Prosocial Behavior: Doing What’s Best for Others

In one well-known study on empathy, participants had to watch a confederate ("Elaine") receive electric shocks. They were told either that they had to watch 10 full trials of shocks, or that they could leave after watching the first two trials only. They were also told that their values and interests were similar to those of the confederate (similar group), or that their values and interests were different from those of the confederate (dissimilar group). After the first two trials had been completed, participants were asked whether they would switch places with the confederate-she was apparently very upset by the shocks due to a negative childhood experience with electricity. The researchers found that, in the similar group, ____ agreed to switch places.

In general, how does mood affect helping?

Research on helping indicates that once people are educated about phenomena such as the bystander effect, diffusion of responsibility, and pluralistic ignorance, they are less likely to fall prey to them themselves.

____________________ is going along with the crowd.

In one well-known study of helping behavior, researchers examined helping among a sample of theology students. Students were either (a) put under time pressure or not put under time pressure and (b) expecting to give a speech about the parable of the (very helpful) Good Samaritan or expecting to give a speech about something else. What did the researchers find?

The so-called prisoner's dilemma is a paradigm that is used by social psychologists to study people's tendency to ____.

What percent of women wash their hands after using the restroom if they believe no one else is in the restroom?

In Vohs et al.'s (2006) experiments, people who had been primed with a screensaver of dollar bills tended to ____ than people who had a blank screen or a fish screensaver image as a prime.

If a bus full of mixed-sex beautiful people crashed into a bus full of mixed-sex unattractive people, would the beautiful group be more likely to receive top-notch help?

The term "sensitivity about being the target of threatening upward comparison" refers to ____.

Standards that are established by society regarding what types of behavior are typical or expected are known as ____.

Before conducting his classic research on obedience to authority, Milgram conducted a survey in which he asked a number of psychiatrists to predict what percentage of people would "go all the way" and administer the highest levels of shocks. The psychiatrists in his survey predicted that ____ would do so.

Business deals are often win-win propositions; both parties to the deal can end up benefiting. Social psychologists would describe such deals as ____.

If a society has law, regardless of how well they are obeyed, it is said to be under the rule of law.

The prisoner's dilemma is best described as a(n) ____.

In one well-known study on empathy, participants were given the option of (a) leaving the study, or (b) switching places with a confederate who was receiving random electrical shocks but was very upset by them (because of a negative childhood experience she had with electricity). Participants were given this option after having been told that their values and interests were similar to those of the confederate or after having been told that their values and interests were different from those of the confederate. What were the results of this study?

McKelvey sees her cousin crying because she has lost a toy. She feels sad because her cousin feels sad. McKelvey is experiencing which emotional response?

Research suggests that some people are more forgiving than others. In particular, _____ tend to be especially forgiving.

How does money impact self-sufficiency?

As discussed in the text, the sociologist Phil Kunz once performed a study in which he sent 578 Christmas cards to a sample of complete strangers living in Chicago, Illinois. He received a total of 117 cards in return, as well as several phone calls-despite the fact that he did not know any of these people. Kunz's findings provide good evidence of ____.