HELPING BEHAVIORS IN THE NATURAL-ENVIRONMENT - DIMENSIONS AND CORRELATES OF HELPING

The two studies reported here begin a research program designed to aug ment evolutionary theories of helping behavior by adding cognitive, af fective, and social processes, but the issues addressed are relevant t o many other approaches. Participants in the first study described inc idents of helping actually experienced in systematically varied circum stances. The incidents reported were sorted into 72 homogeneous catego ries, and in a second study participants rated each of the 72 types of helping behaviors on 22 wide-ranging characteristics (antecedents, co nsequences, etc.). Factor analysis of the 72 behaviors yielded four we ll-defined factors: Casual, Substantial Personal, Emotional, and Emerg ency Helping. Factor analysis of the 22 judgmental scales yielded thre e factors: perceived Benefits, Frequency, and Costs of helping. The tw o factorial solutions have theoretical relevance and identify an econo mically few helping behaviors and perceptual dimensions that represent a broad range of actually experienced helping. They also indicate typ es of helping behaviors across which obtained relations can and cannot be safely generalized.