Sibicky, Schroeder, and Dovidio (1995) Compared Participants Who Were Induced

question 31

Multiple Choice

Sibicky, Schroeder, and Dovidio (1995) compared participants who were induced to feel empathy with participants who were not so induced. Those who were induced to feel more empathy gave fewer hints to help other participants when they were told that the hints could harm the other participants later in the experiment. This finding:

• A) supports the claim that genuine empathy can lead to helping that is sensitive to the needs of others and not simply motivated to avoid feeling bad.
• B) supports the idea that empathy leads to helping that is motivated by the desire to avoid feeling bad and, therefore, is actually selfish.
• C) is inconsistent with the idea that there is a biological basis to empathy.
• D) shows that empathy is actually unrelated to peoples' motives for helping.

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Definitions:

Neo-Freudian

A revision of Freud's psychoanalytic theory that emphasizes social relationships and a sense of self over innate drives.

Freud's Theory

An approach to understanding human behavior that focuses on the role of unconscious desires and conflicts as the primary drivers of human actions.

Adult Personality

Characteristics and patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior that are established during adulthood.

Ego

In Freud’s structural model, the part of personality that considers external reality while mediating between the demands of the id and the superego.