PSY 490 Seminar: Course Schedule

Course Schedule - Psychology of Helping

DATES	TOPICS	READINGS
WEEK 1
January 26	Introduction	Readings in bold are required Resources for Social Psychology
January 28	Why do we help? Evolutionary perspectives	The evolution of altruism in humans / Off-campus Evolutionary perspectives on prosocial behavior Proximal and Distal Causes Meiosis refresher Caring for loved ones top priority
WEEK 2
February 2	Why do we help? Evolutionary perspectives	Multilevel selection theory and major evolutionary transitions Multilevel selection Altruistic punishment in humans Powering up with indirect reciprocity in a large-scale field experiment Banishment Public caning
February 4	Why do we help? Evolutionary perspectives	Tribalism is human nature Your dog has your back Why hate the good guy?
WEEK 3
February 9	Why do we help? Personal and social perspectives	Intuitive prosociality Empathy-induced altruistic motivation The emerging study of positive empathy Video: Empathy-induced altruism Empathy-altruism hypothesis: Turning to experiments Spontaneous giving and calculated greed
February 11	Why do we help? Personal and social perspectives	Property damage and exposure to other people in distress differentially predict prosocial behavior after a natural disaster Narcissism and self- versus recipient-oriented imagery in charitable giving Searching for the prosocial personality Prosocial conformity Suffering and compassion Empathy in relationships
WEEK 4
February 16	Why do we help? Biological perspectives	The neuroscience of empathy VIDEO: Mirror neurons Opiods and social bonding: Effect of naltrexone on feelings of social connection and ventral striatum activity to close others Oxytocin and the pharmacological dissection of affiliation Social effects of oxytocin in humans: Context and person matter Oxytocin selectively improves empathy accuracy Tryptophan promotes charitable donating Tryptophan promotes interpersonal trust Video on research Hunger games: Fluctuations in blood glucose levels... Acetaminophen reduces empathy?
February 18	Why do we help? Biological perspectives	The amygdala and helping A neural link between empathy and helping of strangers
WEEK 5
February 23	Why do we help? Developmental perspectives	How infants and toddlers react to antisocial others Not noble savages after all: Limits to early altruism Concern for group reputation increases prosociality in young children 5-yr-olds demonstrate bystander effect 5-yr-old helps homeless man
February 25	Why do we help? Developmental perspectives	The social origins of human prosociality The need to contribute during adolescence Beyond good and evil: What motivations underlie children's prosocial behavior? Children understand revenge before reciprocity Humans' unique turn-taking skills Children delay gratification for cooperative ends VIDEO: Shared intentionality Ingroup love versus outgroup hate Infants help even when hungry
WEEK 6
March 2	What are the consequences of helping?	Prosocial spending and happiness: Using money to benefit others pays off Giving to others and the association between stress and mortality When charitable acts are "tainted" by personal gain "Companies that raise money for schools keep 48% for themselves" Learning by helping?
March 4	What are the consequences of helping?	The bystander effect: A meta-analytic review... Does volunteering improve well-being?
WEEK 7
March 9	What are the consequences of helping?	The (revised) case of Kitty Genovese 50 years later, the case of Kitty Genovese Commuters free trapped passenger Bystanders helping Technology for people with disabilitites How bad can throwing away one plastic bottle be? 30 million wonder
March 11	MIDTERM EXAM REVIEW AND DISCUSSION	From empathy to apathy: The bystander effect revisited
WEEK 8
March 16	When do we help?	The smell of virtue.... / off campus Are you being served...? Making it easier to accept help A meta-analytic review of moral licensing Self-serving justifications: Doing wrong and feeling moral
March 18	When do we help?
WEEK 9
March 23	When do we help?
March 25	When do we help?
WEEK 10
March 30	Who helps?	When we are hungry we remain helpful Helping under time pressure
April 1	Who helps?	Enduring Goodness: A person-by-situation perspective on prosocial behavior
WEEK 11
April 6	Love fuels hate: Two sides of the same coin?	Geographical differences in subjective well-being predict extraordinary altruism Our genes want us to be altruists World Humanity Summit
April 8	Forms of helping: Time vs. money	Identification with all humanity as a moral concept... Motivational processes underlying both prejudice and helping / off campus Displays of care and aggression in response to cute stimuli Why familiarity breeds contempt We take care of our own: Caregiving salience increases out-group bias... Processing fluency The benefits of processing fluency Ingroup love and outgroup hate
WEEK 12
April 13	Forms of helping: Caregiving	The happiness of giving: The time-ask effect When does familiarity promote versus undermine interpersonal attraction? Extreme rituals promote prosociality Time, money, and morality Ice bucket challenge The martyrdom effect Research on giving
April 15	Forms of helping: Caregiving	Caregiving and coping in carers of people with anorexia nervosa Issues in Dementia caregiving Volunteerism research
WEEK 13
April 20	Increasing helping
April 22	HONORS DAY (NO CLASS)	Effective helping: Interviewing and counseling techniques Kidney donor
WEEK 14
April 27	Increasing helping	"Helping" vs"Being a Helper" Helping fellow beings: Anthropomorphized social causes... Long-term relations among prosocial-media use, empathy, and prosocial behavior Compassion training alters altruism... Do defaults save lives? The International Flag of Earth The Briefcase Alternatives to The Briefcase
April 29	Increasing helping	Impediments to effective altruism: The role of subjective preferences in charitable giving Priming Buddhist concepts Nudging empathy The effects of playing prosocial video games 500 Questions Exercising your empathy
WEEK 15
May 4	NO CLASS	Is an outgroup member in need a friend indeed? Increasing intergroup distinctiveness: The benefits of third party helping Self-affirmation among the poor GiveDirectly The Red Cross' Secret Disaster
May 6	FINAL EXAM	Harm to others outweighs harm to self The identifiable victim bias The number of fatalities drives disaster aid Giving help that is needed Brits won't take free cash Donating at the register South Park - donating at register Homeless people read mean tweets about themselves Hero dog