This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by McGuire, A. M. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by McGuire, A. M. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Helping Behaviors in the Natural Environment: Dimensions and Correlates of Helping

Vassar College

The two studies reported here begin a research program designed to augment evolutionary theories of helping behavior by adding cognitive, affective, and social processes, but the issues addressed are relevant to many other approaches. Participants in the first study described incidents of helping actually experienced in systematically varied circumstances. The incidents reported were sorted into 72 homogeneous categories, and in a second study participants rated each of the 72 types of helping behaviors on 22 wide-ranging characteristics (antecedents, consequences, etc.). Factor analysis of the 72 behaviors yielded four well defined factors: Casual, Substantial Personal, Emotional, and Emerging Helping. Factor analysis of the 22 judgmental scales yielded three factors: perceived Benefits, Frequency, and Costs of helping. The two factorial solutions have theoretical relevance and identify an economically few helping behaviors and perceptual dimensions that represent a broad range of actually experienced helping. They also indicate types of helping behaviors across which obtained relations can and cannot be safely generalized.

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 20, No. 1, 45-56 (1994)
DOI: 10.1177/0146167294201004


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				L. Bowes-Sperry, J. F. Veiga, and J. N. Yanouzas An Analysis of Managerial Helping Responses Based on Social Role Theory Group Organization Management, December 1, 1997; 22(4): 445 - 459. [Abstract]