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

Abstract

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.