Helping behavior

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Where does the psychology of helping behavior stem from? Who where the people who pioneered it?

-- Sam Abair (ABAIR863@yahoo.com), October 30, 2004

Answers

I'm not sure what you mean by "helping behavior," but you may wish to look at Darley & Latane's classics study of (lack of) bystander intervention.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), October 30, 2004.

Hello Sam,

Yes, as Chris said it would help if you could specify an example of 'helping behavior'. For instance, you could tell us what led you to ask the question. You could be talking about psychological help as a profession or bystander intervention or any other number of things.

My particular association with this term is connected with the area of developmental cognition where it is rejected in favor of terms like "guided participation", leading actions, and joint activities.

See:

Rogoff, B. (1990). Apprenticeship in Thinking: Cognitive development in social context. New York: Oxford University Press.

Cheers, Paul F. Ballantyne

-- Paul F. Ballantyne (pballan@comnet.ca), October 30, 2004.


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