Instructor Notes

In the fall of 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the southern coast of the United States. The hurricane created billions of dollars in damage, destroyed a good part of the city of New Orleans and other southern towns, and caused the dislocation of thousands of people. The hurricane made news across the world, and the disaster was not ignored. Hundreds of thousands of people made financial contributions to help rebuild the cities and repair the lives that were devastated by the storm. During the first few months after the storm, thousands more people came from across the country, and even from around the world, to help clean up the mess and repair the damage that the storm had caused. Many of these volunteers had been to New Orleans, and some had families and friends there. Others came simply because they had heard about the disaster and wanted to help the people who were so profoundly affected by it.

When you hear about this type of behavior, you may wonder about its meaning for human nature. In this module, we will look at why people would sacrifice so much of themselves for others who cannot help them in return? Is helping part of the normal human experience, or are these acts unusual, unexpected, and rare? Who is most likely to help, who are we most likely to help, and under what social circumstances do we help or not help? And what biological, personal, social, and cultural factors influence helping?

This week contains a number of “Major Points” with videos and discussion and assignment prompts to support the topics. This chapter contains an abundance of content. As an instructor, you will want to choose just 1 or 2 videos and perhaps just a few of the “Major Points” to cover and meet the learning outcomes of your course. You may wish to reference the “How to use this Resource” section for ideas on how to tailor your course offering.

Readings

Chapter 8: Helping and Altruism in Principles of Social Psychology – 1st International H5P Edition.

Teaching Materials

• Major Points
• Selected video presentations (choose 1 or 2)
• Class Discussion

Student Tasks

• Online Discussion forum
• Assignment: Helping
• Chapter Quiz (Available upon request)

Major Points

1. Prosocial Behavior
   1. Definition
   2. Altruism
2. Evolutionary Explanation
   1. Survival of the individual genes
   2. Survival of the species
   3. Helping those who are genetically related
3. Social and cultural norms
   1. Norm of reciprocity
   2. Norm of social responsibility
   3. Cultural norms: Self-concern/Other-concern-
   4. Modeling helping behavior
4. Emotions
   1. Positive mood
   2. Guilt
   3. Personal distress
   4. Empathy
5. Bystander Effect
   1. Latene and Darley’s model of helping
   2. Pluralistic ignorance
   3. Diffusion of responsibility
   4. Role of cultural norms
6. Personality variables
   1. Altruistic personality
   2. Religiosity: Internal, External, Quest-oriented
   3. Gender Differences
   4. Belief-in-just-world
7. Increasing Helping
   1. Rewarding and modeling
   2. Highlight other-concern
   3. Counter diffusion of responsibility

Videos

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzyX72vinzY

Ted Talks

Elizabeth Dunn: Helping others makes us happier- but it matters how we do it is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License. (14:21)

Discussion

Assignment

Content Attributions

The instructor notes are adapted from Principles of Social Psychology – 1st International H5P Edition by Dr. Rajiv Jhangiani and Dr. Hammond Tarry which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.