No description available.

One unresolved issue in the study of cooperative breeding is why individuals that delay their own reproduction assist others in raising young. Red-cockaded woodpecker helpers may again future indirect fitness benefits by increasing survival of breeders, who produce offspring related to the helper in the future. Breeder survival may be enhanced because of general benefits of group living, either because of the helper's own presence or because helping increases the production of fledglings. I demonstrate that breeder survival increases in the presence of helpers and additional young. Helpers may also reduce the workload of the breeder, and this may increase breeder survival as well. I show that breeders spend less time incubating and provisioning young when a helper is present. Helpers may also gain fitness benefits if once they become breeders, they are assisted by young they previously helped raise. Expected frequencies of reciprocal exchange of helping are low (2%). Slightly higher observed frequencies may be accounted for by preferential helping of kin and effects of territory quality. Reciprocity occurs no more often than expected among helpers unrelated to the young they help raise suggesting that young males do not preferentially helper former care-givers. i conclude that helpers do not gain fitness benefits from reciprocity. I examined the proximate causes of delayed breeding and helping behavior by measuring plasma testosterone (T) and prolactin (PRL) concentrations in female breeders, male breeders, and male helpers during different stages of the reproductive cycle. Among male breeders and helpers, T is low during the nonbreeding stage, peaks during copulation and declines during the incubation and nestling-provisioning stages. Helpers appear physiologically capable of reproducing: their T concentrations are equal those of breeders. Helpers unrelated to the breeding female have higher T than helper related to her. Sexual inactivity by male helpers is best explained by behavioral suppression. Female breeder, male breeder, and male helper PRL was equal and increased from the nonbreeding stage through the copulation and incubation stages. During the nestling provisioning stage, male breeder and male helper PRL declined, while female PRL continued to increase. I conclude that the physiological bases of helping behavior and parental behavior are the same. / Ph. D.

A market maven is a highly social consumer who engages in many discussions regarding the marketplace and has a broad general knowledge of several products throughout the marketplace. They are eager to share the knowledge with other consumers and are often sought by other consumers for their information. It has been said that the behavior of market mavens is influenced by three different motives. The first is the obligation to share information, meaning some individuals feel that it is his or her duty to become knowledgeable and more discerning consumers. A second motive could be that of pleasure in sharing information. The final possible motive is the desire to help others. What drives market mavens to gather and disseminate product information? Are their motives truly selfless in nature? I contend that market mavens’ motives are not as altruistic in nature as prior research seems to suggest. Instead, in the present research, I suggest that a deeper and more selfish personal need to form and maintain a specific social identity may be attended to through market maven behavior. Perhaps the individual performing these marketing deeds is actually seeking approval and reassurance though his or her brand purchases and their resulting knowledge of products throughout the marketplace. The research in this thesis will act to uncover possible selfish and internally focused motives of marketing mavens.

This study investigated the relationships among prepartum parenting support groups, social support, marital support, and maternal perceptions of infants. The subjects were 20 prospective first-time parents; nine of the 20 women attended the workshops with their husbands. Subjects completed measures of social support number and satisfaction (SSQ-S and SSQ-N), marital support (MAT), and perceptions of infants (NPI) at three times: prepartum, at one week postpartum, and at 8 weeks postpartum. Social support number and satisfaction, and marital support, were stable and highly correlated with each other at all three times. None of the support variables predicted perceptions of infants. Postpartum perceptions of infants were significantly more positive than prepartum perceptions, most likely due to increased experience with infants. Women with low levels of marital support were significantly more likely to experience Cesarean section birth. The design of this study was modest, utilizing no control group. Results are discussed in light of this limitation. / Ph. D. / incomplete_metadata

The Kin Selection Hypothesis proposes that the genes associated with male androphilia (i.e., sexual attraction/arousal to adult males) may be maintained over evolutionary time if the fitness costs of not reproducing directly are offset by increasing one’s indirect fitness. Theoretically, this could be accomplished by allocating altruism toward kin which would increase the recipient’s ability to survive and reproduce. Evidence for this hypothesis has been garnered through research conducted in Samoa however, no support has been garnered from research conducted in more industrialized cultures (i.e., USA, UK, Japan). In this thesis, I use a Canadian population to examine: (1) the role geographic proximity plays in the expression of androphilic male avuncularity and (2) whether androphilic males direct altruism toward the children of friends who might represent proxies for nieces and nephews in more industrialized cultures. Other sociocultural factors that potentially influence the expression of androphilic male avuncularity are also discussed. / ix, 81 leaves ; 29 cm

Abstract The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate and compare the effects of coworkers¡¦ relational demographic similarities and guanxi base on coworkers¡¦ helping behavior. Moreover, the mediation mechanisms of social liking between coworkers¡¦ relational demographic similarities and helping behavior, and guanxi obligation between coworkers¡¦ guanxi base and helping behavior were examined. Furthermore, the moderation effect of interdependent self on the relationship between relational demographic similarities and helping behavior, and the moderation effect of individual traditionality on the relationship between guanxi base and helping behavior were examined. There were three studies in this dissertation, and the data were collected by scenario experimental design combined with questionnaire survey. The subjects were working employees sampled from different industries. Results showed that both coworkers¡¦ relational demographic similarities and guanxi base have significant effects on the interpersonal-related helping behavior, but not on work-related helping behavior. Moreover, the mediation effects of social liking towards coworker, and guanxi obligation were significant in both study 1 and study 2. The moderation effect was not significant in study 1, but was significant in study 2. The individual traditionality moderated the relationship of guanxi base and guanxi obligation. The results of study 3 showed that coworkers with guanxi base have stronger effect on both interpersonal-related and work-related coworkers¡¦ helping behavior than coworkers with relational demographic similarities. The results were discussed and the limitations and suggestions for future research were proposed.

過去研究發現助人行為是促進自己與他人建立友好關係，使得雙方產生對彼此有歸屬感的一種策略。然而，對於嬰兒而言，由於其助人行為能力正在發展，我們很難於自然情境中得知他們是否會為尋求此歸屬感，而促發其助人行為。因此，本研究之目的為探討嬰兒的助人行為是否會受到與他人建立友好關係的歸屬感而影響。本研究藉由兩個實驗來探討。實驗一藉由觀察60位18個月大嬰兒在接受不同認知意涵的內隱圖片促發其歸屬感後，進入助人任務的助人行為表現。實驗結果發現接受在一起性質圖片的18個月大嬰兒，並未因圖片促發其助人行為來維繫其歸屬感。為排除助人任務性質可能造成的干擾因素，實驗二調整了實驗一的助人任務後，在相同條件下進行觀察嬰兒的助人行為表現。結果發現雖然在一起性質的內隱圖片仍未促發其歸屬感而引發助人行為，但若將圖片分類方式改為知覺層級，將具有成對性質的內隱圖片（在一起、背對背與基準）與接受單獨性質圖片比較後卻發現，18個月大的嬰兒在特定時間區段（0至20秒、0至30秒）中有顯著較多的助人行為。此結果說明知覺層級上的刺激能夠穩定的促發18個月大嬰兒的歸屬感，進而引發其助人行為。 / Previous studies propose that helping behaviors can be an effective strategy for establishing friendly relationship and affiliation with others. However, for eighteen-month-old infants, the ability of helping is under development. Hence, it is difficult to evaluate whether they pursuit affiliation by helping others, especially in natural conditions. In this thesis, two controlled experiments were conducted to understand whether the helping behaviors can be evoked by priming. In the first experiment, sixty eighteen-month-old infants were recruited and primed by several implicit photos to evoke their tendency of affiliation and to measure the influence of the primes. Results show that the primes do not significantly evoke the subjects to perform more helping behaviors in both conditions: primed by the photos imply together and primed by other photos (back-to-back, baseline, and alone). To exclude the possible interferences of the previous helping tasks, the second experiment undertook the same procedures and settings with the first experiment, but modified the task to clarify the needs of helping. Results reveal that the difference of priming effect is still insignificant between together and others. However, if the photos are grouped by the easier-perceivable meaning: representing photos having two objects as together, and representing photos having only one object as individuality, the significance of priming can be observed. Subjects primed by together photos performed significantly more helping than those primed with individuality photos in specific periods (0-20s and 0-30s). Based on these findings, this study suggests that the perceptual stimulus can stably evoke affiliation of eighteen-month-old infants, and influence the tendency of helping others.

No description available.

Thesis (M.Psyc.)--University of South Africa, 2001.

This social constructionist study originated from the researcher’s exposure to the counselling volunteers environment. The study aimed to document the voices of three people, constructed as counselling volunteers. The three semi-structured interviews are with individuals who constructed themselves, or accepted the constructions of their role, as volunteers. The “case study approach” was chosen as the most suitable method to gather the information. “Thematic content analysis” was the method of analysis. The case studies of participants were reconstructed in terms of themes. Recurring themes in these case studies were expounded and linked within the literature. This study allowed valuable and rich information about the volunteerism to emerge. Amongst the themes that emerged, the need to help, being a good counsellor and resilience were identified as particularly important areas for future research. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)