Impact of Desired Relationship Type on Affective Reactions to Choosing and Being Required to Help

Donors' reactions to choosing and being required to help were examined. Among subjects led to desire a communal relationship with the recipient, both choosing and being required to help elevated positive affect and alleviated negative affect relative to not being asked to help. Changes in affect as a result of choosing to help did not differ from changes as a result of being required to help. Among subjects led to desire an exchange relationship with the recipient, choosing to help caused positive affect to deteriorate, relative to being required to help or to not helping. Changes in affect in the required condition did not differ from those in the no-help condition. Psychological processes that may underlie these effects are discussed.

[1]  E. Diener,et al.  The independence of positive and negative affect. , 1984, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[2]  Auke Tellegen,et al.  The structure of mood change: An idiographic/nomothetic analysis. , 1982 .

[3]  M. Harris.  Effects of altruism on mood. , 1977, The Journal of social psychology.

[4]  S. Sommers.  Reported emotions and conventions of emotionality among college students. , 1984 .

[5]  Leonard Berkowitz,et al.  Success, failure, and social responsibility. , 1966 .

[6]  R. Cialdini,et al.  Altruism as hedonism: a social development perspective on the relationship of negative mood state and helping. , 1976, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[7]  M. Clark,et al.  Perceptions of Exploitation in Communal and Exchange Relationships , 1985 .

[8]  P. Warr,et al.  On the independence of positive and negative affect. , 1983 .

[9]  Y. Yinon,et al.  On the reinforcing value of helping behavior in a positive mood , 1987 .

[10]  D. Watson,et al.  Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[11]  S. Schwartz,et al.  Chapter 14 – Helping and Cooperation: A Self-Based Motivational Model1 , 1982 .

[12]  Leonard Berkowitz,et al.  Social Norms, Feelings, and Other Factors Affecting Helping and Altruism1 , 1972 .

[13]  M. Clark,et al.  INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS AND GROUP PROCESSES Providing Help and Desired Relationship Type as Determinants of Changes in Moods and Self-Evaluations , 2004 .

[14]  Kyle D. Smith,et al.  Altruism reconsidered: The effect of denying feedback on a victim's status to empathic witnesses. , 1989 .

[15]  M. Clark,et al.  Interpersonal attraction in exchange and communal relationships. , 1979 .

[16]  Shalom H. Schwartz,et al.  The Justice of Need and the Activation of Humanitarian Norms , 1975 .

[17]  M. Clark,et al.  Evidence for the Effectiveness of Manipulations of Communal and Exchange Relationships , 1986 .

[18]  C. Batson,et al.  Buying Kindness: Effect of an Extrinsic Incentive for Helping on Perceived Altruism , 1978 .