Sociology

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Much research on helping behaviour can be criticised as being

ethnocentric, conducted in the USA alone. Thus, the studies are rather

limited in terms of the lack of variety in the people studied. Latane

and Darley were the first to systematically investigate the

circumstances under which bystander's are/are not likely to intervene

to help others, and promote pro-social behaviour. However, we must be

cautious not to generalise the findings to other cultures. We cannot

assume that the same circumstances apply equally to any human

population. The tendency to make this assumption is something we need

to be very aware of when drawing broad conclusions regarding

pro-social behaviour from a limited sample. This implication

highlights the need for cross-cultural research into pro-social

behaviour.

Each cultural group has social norms. Cultures also share values,

which specify what kinds of pro-social behaviour are considered

desirable. We all need to go through the processes of socialisation to

acquire the norms and values relevant to our culture. If we behave

differently from the prescribed cultural norms, there are likely to be

negative consequences, such as disapproval of others.

Norms and values vary considerably between cultures and subcultures

because there is such cross-cultural variation in social structures.

We need to remember, then, that what may be true of the social

behaviour of Americans does not necessarily apply to people living in

the Kalahari Desert or indigenous people of New Zealand.

Hsu (1971) proposed that cultures could be divided into two broad

groupings, individualist and collectivist. In individualistic

c...

... middle of paper ...

...ry studies, particularly

those involving American participants, tend to emphasise that people

will avoid the need to request help as far as possible. In contrast,

field studies, particularly those involving participants from Asian

cultures, emphasise that people will sacrifice time and effort in

order to attend to those that deserve help (Wills, 1992). However,

these conflicting results may not simply be the product of cultural

differences alone. Moreover, lab-based studies tend to lack the social

context of seeking help. Faced with a limited time period with

anonymous fellow participants, there would seem little point in

attempting to develop a social relationship in such an artificial

context. In the real world, however, people actively seek out the help

of others to extend their social relationships (Moghaddam 1998)

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