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Human Observation Project

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Human Observation Project
Human Observation Project
General Psychology
Psyc 2301
Jazmin Rolon
20 August 2012

I. Problem:
Prosocial behavior refers to "voluntary actions that are intended to help or benefit another individual or group of individuals" (Eisenberg and Mussen 1989). This definition refers to consequences of the people who do the actions rather than the motivations behind those actions. These behaviors include a broad range of activities: sharing, comforting, rescuing, and helping. Though prosocial behavior can be confused with altruism, they are, in fact, two distinct concepts. Prosocial behavior refers to a pattern of activity, whereas, altruism is the motivation to help others out of pure regard for their needs rather than how the action will benefit oneself. A familiar example of altruism is when an individual makes an anonymous donation to a person, group or institution without any resulting recognition, political or economic gain; here, the donation is the prosocial action and the altruism is what motivates the doer to action. II. Theory:
Society teaches that a good person is helpful of others, this is where the procicial behavior, altruism, philanthropy and egoism and mutual benefit get very well separate although they are very similar. More males are whiling to help a good looking single woman that drops her keys than women are. Even little boys are more prone to help the subject mentioned above than little girls. III. Hypothesis:
Between the hours of 1:00 and 3:00 on Saturday and Sunday afternoon adults and children walking from the Wal-Mart parking lot to the store and back, tend to be more helpful of a woman that is dressed up and seems attractive with some items that she dropped than they do to a dirty not so attractive woman on the same situation on the following weekend. IV. Procedure or Methodology:
The investigator dressed up and made herself look appealing and acted very friendly. She smiled at the subjects as they



Bibliography: Batson, Daniel C. "Altruism and Prosocial Behavior." In The Handbook of Social Psychology, 4th ed., edited by Daniel T. Gilbert, Susan T. Fiske, and Gardner Lindzey. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN: 0195213769. Bentley, Richard J. and Luana G. Nissan. The Roots of Giving and Serving: A Literature Review Studying How School-age Children Learn the Philanthropic Tradition. Indianapolis: Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, 1996. Burlingame, Dwight F. "Altruism and Philanthropy: Definitional Issues." Essays on Philanthropy 10. Indianapolis: Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, 1993. Clary, E.G., and M. Snyder. "A Functional Analysis of Volunteers ' Motivations." Spring Research Forum Working Papers. Washington, D.C.: INDEPENDENT SECTOR, 1990. Darley, John M. and Bibb Latane. The Unresponsive Bystander: Why Doesn 't He Help? Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1970. ISBN: 0139386130. Eisenberg, Nancy and Paul H. Mussen. The Roots of Prosocial Behavior in Children. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. ISBN: 0-521-33771-2. McChesney, R.D. "Charity and Philanthropy in Islam: Institutionalizing the Call to do Good." Essays on Philanthropy 14. Indianapolis: Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, 1995. Morgan, Wesley G./University of Tennessee. "The Murder of Kitty Genovese" [online]. Available: http://web.utk.edu/~wmorgan/psy470/kitty2.htm[->0]. (12 December 2001). Pearson, Birger A. "Ancient Roots of Western Philanthropy: Pagan, Jewish, and Christian." Essays on Philanthropy. Indianapolis: Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, 1997. Wilson, Edward O. Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, 25th Anniversary Edition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000. ISBN: 0674002350.

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