Psychology of Good and Evil : Why Children, Adults, and Groups Help and Harm Others

by Staub, Ervin

• ISBN13: 9780511055522
• ISBN10: 0511055528
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2003-07-21
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book gathers the knowledge gained in a lifelong study of the roots of goodness and evil. Since the late 1960s, Ervin Staub has studied the causes of helpful, caring, generous, and altruistic behavior. He has also studied bullying and victimization in schools as well as youth violence and its prevention. He spent years studying the origins of genocide and mass killing and has examined the Holocaust, the genocide of the Armenians, the autogenocide in Cambodia, the disappearances in Argentina, the genocide in Rwanda. He has applied his work in many real world settings and has consulted parents, teachers, police officers, and political leaders. Since September 11th, he has appeared frequently in the media explaining the causes and prevention of terrorism. Professor Staub's work is collected together for the first time in The Psychology of Good and Evil.

Table of Contents

Introduction and Core Concepts

Introduction: good and evil: themes and overview

Studying the pivotal role of bystanders

Studying and promoting altruism and studying and working to prevent genocide: the guiding role of early survival

Is evil a useful concept for psychologists and others?

Basic needs and their role in altruism and aggression

The Roots of Helping and Passivity

Helping a distressed person: social, personality, and stimulus determinants

Spontaneous (or impulsive) helping

Social and prosocial behavior

The power to help others: report on a Psychology Today survey on values, helping, and well being

How Children Become Caring and Helpful vs. Hostile and Aggressive

Culture, Socialization, and Children's Experience

Origins of caring, helping, and nonaggression: parental socialization, the family system, schools, and cultural influence

Natural socialization: participation in positive behavior and experiential learning

The origins of hostility and aggression

Cultural societal roots of violence: youth violence

Bystanders and bullying

Students' experience of bullying and other aspects of their lives in middle school in Belchertown

Self-esteem and aggression

Father-daughter incest

Interventions to Reduce Aggression and Promote Caring and Helping

Reducing boys' aggression: learning to fulfill basic needs constructively

The Caring Schools project

The Origins of Genocide and Other Collective Violence

A note on the cultural societal roots of violence

Psychology of bystanders, perpetrators, and heroic helpers

Steps along a continuum of destruction

The SS and the psychology of perpetrators: The interweaving and merging of role and person

The origins of genocide: Rwanda

Bystanders as evil: the example of Rwanda

Individual and group identities in genocide and mass killing

Mass murder: origins, prevention, and US involvement

When instigation does not result in mass murder

Persian Gulf Conflict was reflection of stormy undercurrents in US psyche

Mob violence: societal-cultural sources, instigators, group processes, and participants

Understanding and Preventing Police Violence

The Aftermath of Mass Violence: Trauma, Healing, and Reconciliation

Preventing group violence

Kosovo: the need for flexible bystander response

The effects of violence on groups and their members

Healing, reconciliation, and forgiving after genocide and other collective violence

Healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation in Rwanda: project summary and outcome

Further avenues to prevention

Commentary: human destructiveness and the refugee experience

A vision of holocaust education in holocaust centers and schools

Out of hiding

Review of: Legacy of Silence: encounters with children of the Third Reich

What can we learn from this tragedy?: a reaction days after September 11th, 2001

Creating Morally Inclusive Societies

Transforming the bystander: altruism, caring, and social responsibility

Changing cultures and society

Blind vs. constructive patriotism: moving from embeddedness in the group to critical loyalty and action

Manifestations of blind vs. constructive patriotism: summary of findings

The ideal university in the real world

Conclusion

Creating caring societies

Appendix: what are your values and goals?

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