Microsoft Word Chapter 1 done doc

5) 
Making final decision to help : During emergency situation 
keep is given to a person, only when a bystander makes a 
decision to help. Many times helping behaviour may be 
inhibited by potential negative consequences of the 
behaviour. Fritzsch and others held that helper engages 
himself in cognitive algebra where he weighs positive and 
negative consequences of it. In Mumbai, if any accident 
victim asks for help, the first consideration that a bystander 
has is what will be the consequences? Will he be questioned 
by the policeman for helping a person after the accident? 
To summarize, deciding whether to help or not to help 
is not a simple process. It requires series of decisions to be 
taken by the helper. 
12.6 SUMMARY : WHY PEOPLE HELP? 
 
People help during emergency situations because. 
1) We feel sympathetic towards them. Empathy altruism 
hypothesis suggests that some prosocial acts are solely 
motivated by the desire to help someone in need. 
2) The negative state relief model suggests that we help because 
such actions help us in reducing our own negative and 
unpleasant emotions. 
3) The competitive altruism view suggests that people help other 
during emergency because it boosts their own status and 
reputation. The benefits received are more than the costs 
incurred. 
4) The empathic joy hypotheses suggests that people respond to 
the needs of victim because, he wants to accomplish something 
and doing so is rewarding in itself. 

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Responding to Emergency – Steps in deciding to help – 
In an emergency situation the bystander may or may not 
respond in prosocial manner. The response may range from 
heroism to total apathy. 
Helping arises only when person or bystander must notice 
something unusual in happening. 
When many bystanders are present, there is likely to be 
diffusion of responsibility. According to this principle, greater the 
number of witnesses, the less likely are the victims to receive help.
The greater are the number of potential helpers, the less 
responsible any one individual will feel. In such a situation it is 
more likely that an individual will assume that someone else will do 
it. 
Similarly, when many people are around, we depend on 
social comparisons to test our interpretations. In a situation of 
pluralistic ignorance, many when none of the bystander respond to 
an emergency, no one knows for sure, what in happening and 
each depends on other for interpretation. 
5) The Kin selection theory suggests that people help because the 
main goal of all organisms is passing our genes in the next 
generation. In order to preserve our genes, we are more likely to 
help, those who are closely related to us. 
6) Bystander must assume responsibility to provide help. 
7) Person engaging in prosocial behaviour must decide that he/she 
has knowledge or skill to act. 
8) The bystander must finally decide to act.