Book | Chapter
Prosocial behaviour
pp. 345-364
Abstract
This chapter critically reviews existing socio-psychological literature on prosocial behaviour, with a focus on helping in response to humanitarian communications, including giving to charity, as a case study.The author shows how mainstream social psychology's conceptualisation of the individual as self-contained and separate from their socio-historical context, its neglect of ideological and societal factors, and the restrictive impact of cognitive-experimental methods lead to a problematic disregard of crucial aspects of complex, conflicted and ambivalent prosocial behaviour in the humanitarian contexts.The chapter shows the benefits of a critical psychological approach to prosocial behaviour through the discussion of several studies on public responses to humanitarian and human rights communications.
Publication details
Published in:
Gough Brendan (2017) The Palgrave handbook of critical social psychology. New York, Palgrave Macmillan.
Pages: 345-364
DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-51018-1_17
Full citation:
Bruna Seu Irene (2017) „Prosocial behaviour“, In: B. Gough (ed.), The Palgrave handbook of critical social psychology, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 345–364.