Helping behavior refers to voluntary actions intended to help the others, with reward regarded or disregarded. It is a type of prosocial behavior (voluntary action intended to help or benefit another individual or group of individuals,^[1][2] such as sharing, comforting, rescuing and helping).

Altruism is distinguished from helping behavior. Altruism refers to prosocial behaviors that are carried out without expectation of obtaining external reward (concrete reward or social reward) or internal reward (self-reward).^[3]

Perspectives on helping behavior[link]

Kin selection theory[link]

Kin selection theory explains altruism in evolutionary perspective. Since natural selection aids in screening out species without abilities to adapt the challenging environment, preservation of good traits and superior genes are important for survival of future generations (i.e. inclusive fitness).^[4][5] Kin selection refers to the tendency to perform behaviors that may favor the chance of survival of people with similar genetic base.^[6][7][8]

WD Hamilton has proposed a mathematical expression for the kin selection:

rB>C

“where B is the benefit to the recipient, C is the cost to the altruist (both measured as the number of offspring gained or lost) and r is the coefficient of relationship (i.e. the probability that they share the same gene by descent).”^[9]

An experiment conducted in Britain supports kin selection^[9] The experiment is illustrated by diagrams below. The result shows that people are more willing to provide help to people with higher relatedness and occurs in both gender and various cultures. The result also show gender difference in kin selection which men are more affected by the cues of similar genetic based than women.

Reciprocal altruism[link]

Reciprocal altruism is the idea that the incentive for an individual to help in the present is based on the expectation of the potential receipt in the future.^[10] R. Trivers believes it to be advantageous for an organism to pay a cost to his or her own life for another non-related organism if the favor is repaid (only when the benefit of the sacrifice outweighs the cost).

As Peter Singer^[11] notes, “reciprocity is found amongst all social mammals with long memories who live in stable communities and recognize each other as individuals.” Individuals should identify cheaters (those who do not reciprocate help) who lose the benefit of help from them in the future, as seen in blood-sharing in vampire bats.^[12]

Trade in economic trades and business^[13] may underlie reciprocal altruism in which products given and received involve different exchanges.^[14] Economic trades follow the “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” principle. A pattern of frequent giving and receiving of help among workers boost both productivity and social standing.

Negative-state relief model[link]

The negative-state relief model of helping^[15] states that people help because of egoism. Egoistic motives lead one to help others in bad circumstances in order to reduce personal distress experienced from knowing the situation of the people in need. Helping behavior happens only when the personal distress cannot be relieved by other actions. Therefore the model explains why people’s avoidance behavior from people in need: this is another way of reducing distress.

Supporting studies[link]

1) Guilt feelings were induced to subjects by having participants accidentally ruin a student’s thesis data or seeing the data being ruined. Some subjects experience positive events afterwards, e.g. being praised. Results show that subjects who experience negative guilt feelings are more motivated to help than those who had neutral emotion. However, once the negative mood was relieved by receiving praise, subjects no longer had high motivation in helping.^[16]

2) Schaller and Cialdini^[15] found that people who are anticipating positive events (listening to a comedy tape), will show low helping motivation since they are expecting their negative emotions to be lifted up by the upcoming stimulation.

Empathy-altruism hypothesis[link]

Helping behavior may be initiated when we feel empathy for the person, that is, identifying with another person and feeling and understanding what that person is experiencing.^[17][18]

According to the Empathy-altruism hypothesis by Daniel Batson (1991),^[19] the decision of helping or not depends primarily on whether you feel empathy for the person and secondarily on the cost and rewards (social exchange concerns). It can be illustrated in the following diagram:

The hypothesis was supported by some studies. For example, a study conducted by Fultz and his colleagues (1986)^[20] divided participants into a high-empathy group and a low-empathy group. They both had to listen to another student, Janet, who reported feeling lonely. The study found that high-empathy group (told to imagine vividly how Janet felt) volunteered to spend more time with Janet, whether or not their help is anonymous, which makes the social reward lower. It shows that if the person feels empathy, they will help without considering the cost and reward, and it complies with the empathy-altruism hypothesis.

Responsbility-Prosocial value orientation[link]

A strong influence on helping is a feeling of and belief in one's responsibility to help, especially when combined with the belief that one is able to help other people. The responsiblity to help can be the result of a sitution focusing responsibility on a person, or it can be a characteristic of individuals (leading to helping when activated by others' need). Staub has described a "prosocial value orientation" that made helping more likely both when a person was in physical distress and psychological distress. Prosocial orientation was also negatively related to aggression in boys, and positively related to "constructive patriotism." The components of this orientation are a positive view of human beings, concern about others' welfare, and a felings of and belief in one's responsibility for others' welfare.^[21]

Social exchange theory[link]

According to the social-exchange theory, people help because they want to gain goods from the one being helped.^[22] People calculate rewards and costs of helping others, and aim at maximizing the former and minimizing the latter, which is known as a “minimax” strategy.

Rewards are incentives, which can be materialistic goods, social rewards which can improve one’s image and reputation (e.g. praise) or self-reward.^{[23][24][25][26]}

Rewards are either external or internal. External reward is things that obtained from others when helping them, for instance, friendship and gratitude. People are more likely to help those who are more attractive or important, whose approval is desired.^[27][28] Internal reward is generated by oneself when helping, for example, sense of goodness and self-satisfaction. When seeing someone in distress, one would empathize the victim and are aroused and distressed. We may choose to help in order to reduce the arousal and distress.^[29] Preceding helping behavior, people consciously calculate the benefits and costs of helping and not helping, and they help when the overall benefit of helping outweigh the cost.^[30]

Implications[link]

Cultural differences[link]

A major cultural difference is the difference between collectivism and individualism. Collectivists attend more to the needs and goals of the group they belong to, and individualists focus on their own selves. With such contrast, collectivists would be more likely to help the ingroup members, but less frequent than individualists to help strangers.^[31]

Economic environment[link]

Helping is influenced by economic environment within the culture. In general, frequency of helping behavior is inversely related to the country economic status.^[32]

Rural vs. urban area[link]

The context influences helping behaviors. While there is a myth that small towns are "safer" and more "friendlier", it has yet to be proven. In a meta-analytical study by Nancy Steblay, she found out the in either extreme, urban (300,000 people or more) or rural environments(5,000 people or less), are the worst places if you're looking for help. ^[33]

Choosing a role[link]

Edgar Henry Schein, former professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, assigns three different roles people follow when responding to offers of help. These generic helping roles are The Expert Resource Role, The Doctor Role, The Process Consultant Role.^[34]

The Expert Resource Role is the most common of the three. It assumes the client, the person being helped, is seeking information or expert service that they cannot provide for themselves. For example, simple issues like asking for directions or more complex issues like an organization hiring a financial consultant will fall into this categorey.^[35]

The Doctor Role can be confused with the Expert Role because they seem to overlap each other. This role includes the client asking for information and service but also demands a diagnosis and prescription. Doctors, counselors, coaches, and repair personnel fulfill this kind of role. Contrary to the expert role, the Doctor Role shifts more power to the helper who is responsible for the previously mentioned duties; diagnosing, prescribing, and administering the cure.^[36]

Schein describes the Process Consultant Role where the helper focuses on the communication process from the very beginning. Before help can start, there needs to be an establishment of trust between the helper and the client. For example, in order for a tech consultant to be effective, he or she has to take a few minutes to discuss what the situation is, how often the problem occurs, what has been tried before, etc before transitioning into the expert role or the doctor role.^[37]

References[link]

Sindhu Menon (born 17 June 1985) is an Indian actress, who has mainly appeared in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil films. She debuted as a child artist in the 1994 Kannada film Rashmi.

Early life[link]

Sindhu Menon was born in Bangalore, Karnataka, India into a Malayali family.^[1] She has one younger brother, Karthik, who worked as a Kannada music channel VJ and turned actor, recently.^[2] Menon is able to communicate fluently in several languages, including Malayalam, her mother tongue, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and English.^[3][4] She was also brought up in her birth place, Bangalore, where she pursued studies at the Sheshdaripuram College among others.^[5]

Career[link]

Sindhu Menon, a trained Bharatanatyam dancer from her childhood, got her entry into the film industry when Bhasker Hegde, one of the judges of a Bharatanatyam competition in which Menon participated and emerged as the winner, introduced her to Kannada film director K. V. Jayaram, who cast her in his film Rashmi in 1994.^[1][5] Subsequently, she got several offers to act and became a full-time actress, by enacting the female lead role character in the 1999 film Prema Prema Prema, when she was merely 13 years old.^[1]

Later, at the age of 15, she entered the Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil film industries as well, by acting in the films Bhadrachalam, Uthaman and Samuthiram, respectively. She went on to act in Bharathiraja's Kadal Pookkal (2002), Trinetram (2002), Khushi (2003) and got the female lead role in the 2006 Malayalam film Pulijanmam, which was awarded the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in 2007.^[6]

Menon then moved to the "small screen", hosting TV shows and acting in serials, which include "Sriman Srimathi" and "Stree Hrudayam",^[7][8] before accepting film offers again.she originated as a miss world 4 years back and Currently, she is acting in the Malayalam films, Bharya Onnu Makkal Moonnu, and Rahasya Police. She acted in the Tamil film Eeram, produced by popular Tamil director S. Shankar.

Personal life[link]

Menon married Prabhu, a UK-based information technology professional in April 2010.^[9]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sindhu Menon at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with Sindhu Menon

Saranya Mohan born 20 February 1989) is an Indian film actress, who has acted in Malayalam and Tamil films. She is probably best known for her performances in Yaaradi Nee Mohini and Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu.

Early life[link]

Saranya was born on 20 February 1989 in Alappuzha, Kerala as the eldest daughter to Palakkad Iyer parents Mohan and Devika, and has a younger sister named Sukanya.^[1] Her mother, Devika, is a trained classical dancer, who runs a dance school in Alappuzha, where Saranya herself also learnt dancing bharatanatyam. She studied at St. Joseph's College in Alappuzha, completing her B. A. degree in English literature.^[2]

Career[link]

She was brought to light by Malayalam director Fazil, who had seen Saranya dancing at her dancing school.^[3] After approaching and persuading her parents, he casted her for a child character in the 1997 Malayalam film Aniyathi Pravu and its Tamil remake, Kadhalukku Mariyadhai. Following two more roles as a child artiste, she took a break, concentrating on her studies,^[4] before enacting a supporting role in another Fazil directorial, Oru Naal Oru Kanavu (2005), in which she acted as a sister to the male lead character.

Her subsequent release, the Dhanush-Nayantara starrer Yaaradi Nee Mohini (2008), brought her into limelight. Her comedic performance as the younger sister to the lead female, who has a crush on her sister's love interest, won her fame and many accolades. She subsequently appeared in a number of Tamil films, which, however, were less successful. 2009, she had six releases, four of which being Tamil projects. Out of her Tamil releases, the tragedy sports film, Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu, directed by debutante Suseenthiran, and the supernatural thriller Eeram proved to be commercially as well as critically successful. Later that year, she made her Telugu debut with Village Lo Vinayakudu and made her comeback to Malayalam films, starring in Chemistry. In 2011 she acted in M.Raja's Velayudham which turned out to be a huge hit. Her role as Vijay's sister won her a lot of good reviews. She also acted in another film named Dharani's Osthi in 2011.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

http://manoramanews.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bin/MMOnline.dll/portal/ep/mmtvContentView.do?contentId=10618722&programId=9958865&tabId=0&BV_ID=%40%40%40

External links[link]

• Official website
• Saranya Mohan at the Internet Movie Database